Genesis 50:1-3

The Burials of Jacob and Joseph

50:1 Then Joseph hugged his father’s face. He wept over him and kissed him. 50:2 Joseph instructed the physicians in his service to embalm his father, so the physicians embalmed Israel. 50:3 They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming. The Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.


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.

tn Heb “his servants the physicians.”

tn Heb “and forty days were fulfilled for him, for thus are fulfilled the days of embalming.”

tn Heb “wept.”

sn Seventy days. This probably refers to a time of national mourning.