Genesis 50:1-14 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 50:1-6

Joseph is here paying his last respects to his deceased father. 1. With tears and kisses, and all the tender expressions of a filial affection, he takes leave of the deserted body, Gen. 50:1. Though Jacob was old and decrepit, and must needs die in the course of nature?though he was poor comparatively, and a constant charge to his son Joseph, yet such an affection he had for a loving father, and so sensible was he of the loss of a prudent, pious, praying father, that he could not part with him... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 50:7-14

We have here an account of Jacob's funeral. Of the funerals of the kings of Judah, usually, no more is said than this, They were buried with their fathers in the city of David: but the funeral of the patriarch Jacob is more largely and fully described, to show how much better God was to him than he expected (he had spoken more than once of dying for grief, and going to the grave bereaved of his children, but, behold, he dies in honour, and is followed to the grave by all his children), and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:1

And Joseph fell upon his father's face ,.... Laid his own face to the cold face and pale cheeks of his dead father, out of his tender affection for him, and grief at parting with him; this shows that Joseph had been present from the time his father sent for him, and all the while he had been blessing the tribes, and giving orders about his funeral: and wept upon him ; which to do for and over the dead is neither unlawful nor unbecoming, provided it is not carried to excess, as the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:2

And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father ,.... Which he did, not merely because it was the custom of the Egyptians, but because it was necessary, his father's corpse being to be carried into Canaan to be interred there, which would require time; and therefore it was proper to make use of some means for the preservation of it, and these men were expert in this business, which was a branch of the medicinal art, as Pliny F24 Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 37. ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:3

Forty days were fulfilled for him ,.... Were spent in embalming him: for so are fulfilled the days of those that are embalmed ; so long the body lay in the pickle, in ointment of cedar, myrrh and cinnamon, and other things, that it might soak and penetrate thoroughly into it: and so Diodorus Siculus F4 lBibliothec. l. 1. p. 82. says, that having laid more than thirty days in such a state, it was delivered to the kindred of the deceased: and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:4

And when the days of his mourning were past ,.... The forty days before mentioned, in which both the Egyptians and Jacob's family mourned for him. An Arabic writer F7 Elmacinus, p. 43. apud Hottinger. Smegma, c. 8. p. 380. says, the Egyptians mourned for Jacob forty days, which was the time of embalming; but the text is express for sventy days: Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh ; to the court of Pharaoh, the principal men there; so the Targum of Jonathan and the Septuagint... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:5

My father made me swear, saying, lo, I die ,.... Having reason to believe he should not live long, he sent for Joseph, and took an oath of him to do as follows; this Joseph would have observed to Pharaoh, to show the necessity of his application to him, and the reasonableness of his request. The words of dying men are always to be regarded; their dying charge is always attended to by those who have a regard to duty and honour; but much more when an oath is annexed to them, which among all... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:6

And Pharaoh said ,.... To Joseph, by the courtiers that waited upon him at Joseph's request, who having delivered it to him had this answer: go up, and bury thy father, as he made thee swear ; the oath seems to be the principal thing that influenced Pharaoh to grant the request, it being a sacred thing, and not to be violated; otherwise, perhaps, he would not have chosen that Joseph should have been so long absent from him, and might have thought a grave in Egypt, and an honourable... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:7

And Joseph went up to bury his father ,.... According to his request; having obtained leave of Pharaoh, and being desirous of paying his last respects, and doing his last office to so dear a parent, with all the honour and decency this service could be done with: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh ; a great number of them, some must be left to wait upon him; who these were the next words explain: the elders of his house : his senators and counsellors, his courtiers and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:8

And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house ,.... Joseph and his two sons, and his servants, and his eleven brethren and their sons that were grown up, and as many of his father's domestics as could be spared attended the funeral: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen ; there must be some servants left, though they are not mentioned, to take care of the little ones, and of the flocks and herds; and these being... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 50:1-6

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 50:7-14

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:1

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:2

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:3

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:4

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:5

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:6

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:7

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 50:8

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