Discovery BoxGenesis 50:1-6 
Context50:1 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
50:4 When the days of mourning 6 had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s royal court, 7 “If I have found favor in your sight, please say to Pharaoh, 8 50:5 ‘My father made me swear an oath. He said, 9 “I am about to die. Bury me 10 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.’” 50:6 So Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father, just as he made you swear to do.” 11
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.
6 tn Heb “weeping.”
7 tn Heb “the house of Pharaoh.”
8 tn Heb “in the ears of Pharaoh.”
9 tn Heb “saying.”
10 tn The imperfect verbal form here has the force of a command.
11 tn Heb “he made you swear on oath.”
