And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber. She was sick, and died - Even her holiness and usefulness could not prevent her from sickness and death. Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return, is a decree that must be fulfilled, even on the saints; for the body is dead, sentenced to death, because of sin, though the spirit be life because of righteousness.
Whom when they had washed - Having the fullest proof that she was dead, they prepared for her interment. In most nations of the world it was customary to wash their dead before they buried them, and before they laid them out to lie in state, as Homer tells us was the case with the body of Patroclus: -
Ὡς εἱπων, ἑταροισιν εκεκλετο διος Αχιλλευς,
Αμφι πυρι Ϛησαι τριποδα μεγαν, οφρα ταχιϚα
Πατροκλον λουσειαν -
Και τοτε δη λουσαν τε, και ηλειψαν λιπ' ελαιῳ
- Iliad xviii. 343.
"So saying, he bade his train surround with fire
A tripod huge, that they might quickly cleanse
Patroclus from all stains of clotted gore.
They on the blazing hearth a tripod placed,
Infused the water, thrust dry wood beneath,
And soon the flames, encompassing around
Its ample belly, warm'd the flood within.
Soon as the water in the singing brass
Simmer'd, they bathed him, and with limpid oil Anointed.
They stretch'd him on his bed, then cover'd him
From head to feet with linen texture light,
And with a wide unsullied mantle last."
Cowper.
The waking or watching of the dead was also practised among the ancient Greeks, as we learn from a preceding paragraph, where Achilles, addressing his dead friend Patroclus, tells him: -
Τοφρα δε μοι παρα νηυσι κορωνισι κεισεαι αὑτως·
Αμφι δε σε Τρωαι και Δαρδανιδες βαθυκολποι
Κλαυσονται, νυκτας τε και ηματα δακρυχεουσαι
Il. xviii. 338.
- "Mean time, among
My lofty galleys thou shalt lie, with tears
Mourn'd day and night, by Trojan captives fair
And Dardan, compassing thy bier around."
Cowper.
A similar description is given by Virgil of the funeral obsequies of Misenus, Aeneid vi. ver. 212.
Nec minus interea Misenum in littore Teucri
Flebant, et cineri ingrato suprema ferebant.
Pars calidos latices et aena undantia flammis
Expediunt, corpusque lavant frigentis et ungunt
Fit gemitus: tum membra toro defleta reponunt,
Purpureasque super vestes, velamina nota,
Conjiciunt, etc.
"Meanwhile, the Trojan troops, with weeping eyes,
To dead Misenus pay his obsequies.
First from the ground a lofty pile they rear
Of pitch-trees, oaks, and pines, and unctuous fir:
The fabric's front with cypress twigs they strew;
And stick the sides with boughs of baleful yew;
The topmost part his glitt'ring arms adorn:
Warm waters then, in brazen cauldrons borne,
Are pour'd to wash his body, joint by joint;
And fragrant oils the stiffen'd limbs anoint.
With groans and cries Misenus they deplore.
Then on a bier with purple cover'd o'er
The breathless body, thus bewail'd, they lay."
Dryden.
These rites, in many respects, resemble those still used among the native Irish. See the account of the funeral ceremonies of the Egyptians, in the notes on Genesis 50:2 (note). The primitive Christians washed the bodies of their dead not only out of decency and affectionate respect to them, but as a token of their firm belief in the resurrection of the dead.