Genesis 50:3 NIV

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Genesis 50:3

for so, &c. Israelites never embalmed. Hence the need of this parenthetical explanation. read more

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Genesis 50:1-3

"And Joseph fell upon his father's face, and wept upon him, and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of embalming: and the Egyptians wept for him three score and ten days."Although none of the other brothers are mentioned as displaying such emotion over Jacob's death, we should not believe that only Joseph did this. The probable reason for these... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Genesis 50:3

Genesis 50:3. And forty days were fulfilled for him— The reader will find, in the first volume of Univ. Hist. 8vo. p. 489, a minute account of the manner of embalming, which was done without disfiguring the body; so that the very hairs remained on the brows and eyelids, and the resemblance of the countenance was preserved. At the expiration of the days allowed for embalming, they washed the whole body, and bound fillets of fine linen round every part, covering it with gum, which the AEgyptians... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Genesis 50:3

3. the Egyptians mourned, &c. It was made a period of public mourning, as on the death of a royal personage. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Genesis 50:2-26

E. What Became of Jacob 37:2-50:26Here begins the tenth and last toledot in Genesis. Jacob remains a major character throughout Genesis. Moses recorded his death in chapter 49. Nevertheless Joseph replaces him as the focus of the writer’s attention at this point. [Note: For some enriching insights into the similarities between the stories of Jacob and Joseph, see Peter Miscall, "The Jacob and Joseph Stories As Analogies," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 6 (February 1978):28-40.]... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 50:1-26

The Burial of Jacob, and Death of Joseph2. For the importance attached by the Egyptians to the preservation of the corpse see on Genesis 40:19. The process, which was so thorough that mummies of Joseph’s time may be seen in our museums in a state of good preservation, was briefly as follows. The brain and intestines were removed, and the stomach cleansed and filled with spices (embalmed). The body was then steeped in a mixture of salt and soda (called natron), for forty or more days, to... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 50:3

(3) Forty days.—Herodotus (ii. 86) describes the process of embalming as occupying seventy days, but he was speaking of what he saw at Thebes, whereas Memphis was the Egyptian capital in Joseph’s time; and the mummies of Thebes are, we are told, far more perfectly preserved than those of Memphis. Diodorus agrees very nearly with the periods mentioned here, saying (i. 91) that the embalming took somewhat more than thirty days, and the mourning for a king seventy-two. The usual period of mourning... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Genesis 50:1-26

Joseph's Faith Genesis 50:25 Taking this incident, with the New Testament commentary upon it, it leads us to a truth which we often lose sight of, but which is indispensable if we would understand the relations of the earlier and the later days. I. Faith is always the same though knowledge varies. There is a vast difference between a man's creed and a man's faith. The one may vary, does vary within very wide limits; the other remains the same. It is difficult to decide how much Joseph's gospel... read more

Arno Clemens Gaebelein

Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible - Genesis 50:1-26

CHAPTER 50 The Burial of Jacob and Joseph’s Return and Death 1. The grief of Joseph (Genesis 50:1-3 ) 2. The burial (Genesis 50:4-13 ) 3. The return to Egypt (Genesis 50:14-23 ) 4. The death of Joseph (Genesis 50:24-26 ) This great book which begins with the perfect and good creation of God ends with a burial and the last words are “a coffin in Egypt.” What havoc sin has wrought. Jacob died 147 years old and after his body was embalmed was carried to Canaan. Read in connection with... read more

John Calvin

Geneva Study Bible - Genesis 50:3

50:3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him {b} threescore and ten days.(b) They were more excessive in lamenting than the faithful. read more