Genesis 50

Joseph bewails his father and embalms him verse 1 &c. after that the Egyptians have bewailed him Joseph carries him with Pharaoh’s leaves and stately accompany into Canaan 4. Where after the mourning solemnity he is buried in Abraham grave 10. Joseph being returned into Egypt is humbly sought unto by his brethren for forgiveness 14 his age and off-spring to the to the third and forth generation 22 he encourageth and takes an oath of his brethren touching the carrying away his bones and thereupon he dies and is embalmed 24.

1. Then Joseph fell upon his fathers face and he wept over him and kissed him [and no doubt likewise shut his eyes according as God hath promised unto Jacob chapter 46.4.]

2. And Joseph commanded his servants the Physicians that they should embalm his father [that is the dead corpse of his father this embalming was a very ancient custom of those eastern nations whereby they bestowed and filled the exenterated corpse with fragrant herbs and odoriferous spiceries and anointed it all over within and without with anointments made of the same which custom the gentile kept up out of superstition but the Israelites retained it with a sanctified remembrance as a testimony of the future immorality and the incorruptibility of our bodies see 2 Chronicles 16:14 and 21.19 Mark 16:1 John 19:14] and the Physician embalms Israel.

3. and forty days were fulfilled on him [viz. on Jacobs embalming to the end that by this continued application the virtue and efficacy of those precious herbs and drugs and ointments might so much be better diffuse themselves penetrate and incorporate through all the part of subject in hand] for thus the days of those that are embalmed are fulfilled and the Egyptian bewailed him Aaron and Moseh which dured but thirty days Numbers 20:29 Deuteronomy 34.8though some conceive that in these seventy days the foresaid forty for embalming are to be comprehended in which sense the bewailing itself should have lasted but thirty days.

4. Now when the days of the bewailing were past Joseph spake to the house of Pharaoh.[understand the prince and counselors and friends of Pharaoh who were daily about his person for Joseph being in mourning himself he might not come in kings presence according to the custom of Egypt and other countries compare Esther 4:2] saying if now I have found grace in your eyes [see above chapter 18 on verse 2] speak I pray before the ears of Pharaoh saying .

5. My father had made me swear saying behold I die[see above chapter 48 verse 21 and here below verse 24] in my grave which I have digged me in the land of Canaan [so did others likewise while they were alive yet cause their graves to be made ready against their dying time see 2 Chronicles 16:14 Isaiah 22:16 Matthew 27:60] there thou shalt bury me now then let me go up I pray that I may bury my father then shall I come again.

6. And pharaoh said go up and bury thy father according as he had made thee swear.

7. And Joseph went up for to bury his father and there went with him all [that is a great many or the most part or all such as were not presently employed and could be spread from home compare Matthew 3:5] Pharaoh’s servants [that is courtier gentlemen attendants see above chapter20 on verse 8] the most ancient [that is the counselors and senators and statesmen]of his house [that is court family see above chapter 34 on verse 19] and all the most ancient of the land of Egypt [that is the principal men the governors chief officers and over vulnerable person of the land.]

8. Besides the whole house of Joseph [that is all his family retinue servants and attendants compare the annotate on the verse foregoing and above chapter 7 on verse 1]and his brethren and the house of his father only their little children and their sheep and their oxen [that is their cattle both great and small and see above chapter 12 on verse 16] they left in the land of Gosen.

9. And with him they went up as Charets as horsemen and it was a very heavy host [that is a great and numerous company thus we read of a heavy people numbers 20.20 an d1Kings 3.9 which 2 Chronicles 1:10 is explained a great people see likewise 1 Kings 10:2 and 2Kings 6.14.]

10. Now when they came to the plain of the thorn bush [understand here a plain champion field or country lying bare and open overgrown or perhaps hedged in with thorns or about which there grew a great quantity of thorn bushes. The same word that is here rendered the thorn bush we find likewise Judges 9:14 and Psalms 58:10. Others retain the Hebrew word Atad as the proper name of this place] that is which is on yonder side [viz. in regard of the place where Moses was when he wrote this] of the Jordan [see above chapter 13 on verse 10] where they kept a great and very heavy lamentation. [Hebrew: then they lamented a lamentation there very great and heavy] and he made his father a mourning there of seven days [that is, Joseph appointed seven days of sitting and accommodating all things requisite for the solemnity of the mourning and funeral of his father. See Ecclesiastes 22.13.]

11. When the inhabitants [Hebrew: the inhabitants, and so by and by, the Canaanites] of the country, the Canaanites, saw this mourning in the plain of the thorn bush then said they: This is a heavy mourning of the Egyptians; therefore the name thereof [viz. of the fore-said place] was called Abel Mitzraim [that is, the mourning of the Egyptians; or the mourning Egyptian, or mourning Egypt] which is by the ford of Jordan. [See above verse 10.]

12. And his sons did unto him [viz. Jacob] according as he had commanded them [See above chapter 49.29.]

13. For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of tehfield of Machpela [see above chapter 49.30] which Abraham had bought together with the field for an hereditary burying place of Ephron the Hethite over against Mamre[see above chapter 43 on verse 30.]

14. After that Joseph retuned into Egypt he and his brother and all that were gone up with him for to bury his father after that he had buried his father.

15. When Josephs brethren saw that their father was dead they said peradventure Joseph will hate us and he shall assuredly requisite [Heb. Requiting requite or return] us all the evil we did him [Heb. Requited or returned him to wit for all those that are humble and submissive request and friendly entreaties where by when he was in our hands he besought us to spare him we rejecting them all see above chapter 42.21 and so below verse 17.]

16. Therefore they sent to Joseph [Heb. They charged to him that is they dispatched some persons to him whom they charged to acquaint Joseph with their apprehension and desires] saying thy father hath given in charge before his death saying [they desire a full pardon of Josephs hands using four main arguments to enforce the grant thereof first that their father say they desired it before his death secondly because they were brethren thirdly they were sorry for and contested their sins fourthly because they were all of one religion.]

17. Thus shall ye say to Joseph forgive now I pray the trespass of thy brethren and their sins for they have done evil against thee but now I pray forgive the trespass of the servants of God for thy father [serving the same God with the whom hath commanded us to forgive one another’s trespass as we desire him to forgive ours see of the attribute here given to God above chapter 26 on verse 22,24 and chapter 31 on verse 42] and Joseph wept as they spake to him [doubtless because they spake in a very feeling term of a matter which he could not hear but be sensible of it the rather that he perceived thereby their apprehension and revenge and punishment and their instructing of his goodness.]

18. After that his brethren also came [viz. after they heard the report of their messengers whom they had sent to Joseph above verse 16] and fell down before him and said behold we are servants to thee.

19. And Joseph said unto them fear not for I am in the place of God? [that is am I God that I should have power to do you any hurt or ill since God is pleased to do you good and preserve you by me?]

20. Ye indeed ye thought evil against me yet God thought that for Good to do as it is at this day [that is as is now apparent and manifest before all world] to save a great people alive .

21. Now fear not I shall maintain ye your little children thus he comforted them and spake according to their heart [see above chapter 34 on verse 3.]

22. Joseph then dwelt in Egypt he and his fathers house and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.

23. And Joseph saw the children of Ephraim of the third generation [Heb. Children of the third that is of the third generation that is children of children’s children see of the like blessing Job 42:15 and Psalms 128:6 here begins the fulfilling of Jacobs prophesies above chapter48.19] also the sons of Machir Manasseh’s where born on Josephs knees [that is Joseph took pleasure in their infancy to let them sit upon his lap and dandle them after the manner of sporting with children compare above chapter 30.3.]

24. And Joseph said to his brethren I am dying [see above verse 5] but God shall assuredly visit you [Heb. Visiting visit you that is for certain viz. in mercy to do you good and to make good his promise unto you see above chapter 21 on verse1 and here the next verse] and he shall make you to go up out of his land into the land which he hath sworn to Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

25. and Joseph made the sons of Israel swear saying God shall visit you assuredly then shall ye carry up my bones from hence [this he chargeth upon them not out of any superstition but out of assurance of his faith whereby he was sure that his posterity should possess the land of Canaan and that the same was to them all a type and pledge of the heavenly Canaan desiring for these reason that his bones might at last be transported thither see Hebrews 11:22.]

26. And Joseph died being an hundred and ten years old [Heb. A son of hundred and ten years] and they embalmed him [see above on verse 2] and they laid him into a chest [wherein his dead body was kept until due time it might be carried into the land of Canaan which happened within an hundred and fifty and five years after when the children of Israel went forth out of Egypt] in Egypt.