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The Burials of Jacob and Joseph

50 Then Joseph hugged his father’s face.[a] He wept over him and kissed him. Joseph instructed the physicians in his service[b] to embalm his father, so the physicians embalmed Israel. They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming.[c] The Egyptians mourned for[d] him seventy days.[e]

When the days of mourning[f] had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s royal court,[g] “If I have found favor in your sight, please say to Pharaoh,[h] ‘My father made me swear an oath. He said,[i] “I am about to die. Bury me[j] in my tomb that I dug for myself there in the land of Canaan.” Now let me go and bury my father; then I will return.’” So Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father, just as he made you swear to do.”[k]

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 50:1 tn Heb “fell on.” The expression describes Joseph’s unrestrained sorrow over Jacob’s death; he probably threw himself across the body and embraced his father.
  2. Genesis 50:2 tn Heb “his servants the physicians.”
  3. Genesis 50:3 tn Heb “and forty days were fulfilled for him, for thus are fulfilled the days of embalming.”
  4. Genesis 50:3 tn Heb “wept for.”
  5. Genesis 50:3 sn Seventy days. This probably refers to a time of national mourning.
  6. Genesis 50:4 tn Heb “weeping.”
  7. Genesis 50:4 tn Heb “the house of Pharaoh.”
  8. Genesis 50:4 tn Heb “in the ears of Pharaoh.”
  9. Genesis 50:5 tn Heb “saying.”
  10. Genesis 50:5 tn The imperfect verbal form here has the force of a command.
  11. Genesis 50:6 tn Heb “he made you swear on oath.”