Discovery BoxGenesis 50:1-3 
ContextThe Burials of Jacob and Joseph
50:1 Then Joseph hugged his father’s face. 1 He wept over him and kissed him. 50:2 Joseph instructed the physicians in his service 2 to embalm his father, so the physicians embalmed Israel. 50:3 They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming. 3 The Egyptians mourned 4 for him seventy days. 5
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 tn Heb “his servants the physicians.”
3 tn Heb “and forty days were fulfilled for him, for thus are fulfilled the days of embalming.”
4 tn Heb “wept.”
5 sn Seventy days. This probably refers to a time of national mourning.
