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

And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father.

The dead corpse of his father with spices, and ointments, and other things necessary for the preservation of the body from putrefaction as long as might be. This Joseph did, partly, because he would comply as far as he could with the Egyptians, whose custom this was, from whom also the Jews took it, ,40; partly, to do honour and show his affections to his worthy father; and partly, because this was necessary for the keeping of the body so long as the times of mourning and the journey to Canaan required.

Genesis 50:2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.Ver. 2. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians.] Physicians, it seems, were formerly of no great esteem; perhaps it was because, through ignorance, they many times officiously killed their patients. We know who it was that cried out upon his death bed, Many physicians have killed the emperor. And it is grown to a proverb, No physician can be his craftsmaster, till he have been the death of thirty men. The Egyptians, to prevent this mischief, appointed fox every ordinary disease, a several physician; enjoining them to study the cure of that only. And till then, the fashion was to lay the sick man at his door, where every passenger was bound to inquire the nature of his disease; that if either himself or any within his knowledge had recovered of the like, he might tell by what means, or stay to make trial of that skill he had upon the patient. Physic is, without question, the ordinance of God. He styles himself, "Jehovah Rophe," the Lord the physician. And a physician is more worth than many others, saith the heathen poet. Use them we must, when there is need, but not idolise them, as 2 Chronicles 16:12. And the physicians embalmed Israel.] According to the custom of that country; concerning which, he that will see more, may read in Herodotus and Pliny. This custom continued also in after ages, as well among Jews as Gentiles. But the devil turned it, in time, into most vain superstition, both among the Greeks, whom Lucian frequently jeers for it, and among the Latins; witness that of Ennius, Tavquinii corpus bona faemina lavit, et unxit. Joseph embalmed his father’ s corpse, partly to honour him with this solemnity; and partly to preserve him for so long a journey; but principally to testify his faith of the resurrection, and that incorruption he hoped for at the last day. Some think the apostle hath relation to this, in that 1 Corinthians 15:29, and they read it thus; "Why do they then wash - βαπτιζονται, voce media - over the dead?" Compare Acts 9:37. Yεραπευω, famulor, curo, remedium morbo adhibeo. πολλοιιατροικατεκτειναντονβασιλεα. - Adrian Imp. Tritum est, nullum medicum esse peritum, nisi triginta homines Orco demiserit. "Farewell, Physic," was Chaucer’ s motto. Olim exponebatur aeger obvio cuilibet sanandus. - Plutarch. Herodot., lib. i. Iατηρδανηρπολλωνανταξιοςαλλων. - Hom. Herodot., Euierpe. Plin., lib. xi. cap. 27.

L. BURIAL OF JACOB, AND HAPPY OLD AGE OF JOSEPH.(2) The physicians embalmed Israel.—The command given first by Jacob to Joseph (Genesis 47:29-30), and then urged earnestly upon all his sons, and with the reminder that the cave of Machpelah had been purchased and belonged to him by right (Genesis 49:29-32), made it specially necessary that the patriarch’s body should be prepared for so long a journey. It was also usual at that period to embalm the dead; and during the many centuries while the custom lasted, from B.C. 2000 to A.D. 700, it is calculated that no less than 420,000,000 bodies were thus preserved. For the process, which was very expensive if done in the best manner, see Rawlinson, Egypt, i. 511 ff. The embalmers are not generally called physicians, but probably what is meant is that the embalming of Jacob’s body was superintended by the physicians attached to Joseph’s household. Egypt was famous for its physicians, who were in advance of those of other countries, and were subdivided into classes, which had each the charge of some special disease. (See Rawlinson as above, i. 305 ff.) Mas-pero thinks that their real knowledge was inconsiderable, and that there were specialists only for the eyes, and one or two similar diseases (Hist. Anc. 82). Ophthalmia continues to be one of the most common diseases of Egypt.

Verse 2. The physicians] רפאים ropheim, the healers, those whose business it was to heal or restore the body from sickness by the administration of proper medicines; and when death took place, to heal or preserve it from dissolution by embalming, and thus give it a sort of immortality or everlasting duration. The original word חנט chanat, which we translate to embalm, has undoubtedly the same meaning with the Arabic [Arabic] hanata, which also signifies to embalm, or to preserve from putrefaction by the application of spices, c., and hence [Arabic] hantat, an embalmer. The word is used to express the reddening of leather and probably the ideal meaning may be something analogous to our tanning, which consists in removing the moisture, and closing up the pores so as to render them impervious to wet. This probably is the grand principle in embalming; and whatever effects this, will preserve flesh as perfectly as skin. Who can doubt that a human muscle, undergoing the same process of tanning as the hide of an ox, would not become equally incorruptible? I have seen a part of the muscle of a human thigh, that, having come into contact with some tanning matter, either in the coffin or in the grave, was in a state of perfect soundness, when the rest of the body had been long reduced to earth; and it exhibited the appearance of a thick piece of well tanned leather. In the art of embalming, the Egyptians excelled all nations in the world; with them it was a common practice. Instances of the perfection to which they carried this art may be seen in the numerous mummies, as they are called, which are found in different European cabinets, and which have been all brought from Egypt. This people not only embalmed men and women, and thus kept the bodies of their beloved relatives from the empire of corruption, but they embalmed useful animals also. I have seen the body of the Ibris thus preserved; and though the work had been done for some thousands of years, the very feathers were in complete preservation, and the colour of the plumage discernible. The account of this curious process, the articles used, and the manner of applying them, I subjoin from Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, as also the manner of their mournings and funeral solemnities, which are highly illustrative of the subjects in this chapter. "When any man of quality dies," says Herodotus, "all the women of that family besmear their heads and faces with dirt; then, leaving the body at home, they go lamenting up and down the city with all their relations; their apparel being girt about them, and their breasts left naked. On the other hand the men, having likewise their clothes girt about them, beat themselves. These things being done, they carry the dead body to be embalmed; for which there are certain persons appointed who profess this art.

2. the physicians] LXX οἱἐνταφιασταί; Lat. medici. By this expression we should probably understand “the guild of embalmers” (ταριχευταί, Herod. ii. 86), a large and influential class in Egypt, who, with an expert knowledge of the body and of drugs, practised embalming almost as a fine art. to embalm] Embalming was carried out to great perfection in Egypt. It was supposed that the soul, or ka, would return to inhabit the body. The mummy was the body ready for occupation. See Budge, The Mummy (1893).

2. Commanded… to embalm — “The Egyptians were famous for their skill in medicine. Homer says that every physician in Egypt ‘knew more than all other men.’ Odyss., 4, 229.