fell. 46:4; De 6:7,8; Eph 6:4;
wept. 23:2; 2Ki 13:14; Mr 5:38,39; Joh 11:35-38; Ac 8:2; 1Th 4:13;
the physicians. The Hebrew {ropheim,} from {rapha,} to heal, is literally the healers, those whose business it was to heal, or restore the body from sickness, by administering proper medicines; and when death took place, to heal or preserve it from decomposition by embalming. The word {chanat,} to embalm, is also used in Arabic to express the reddening of leather; somewhat analogous to our tanning; which is probably the grand principal in embalming.
embalmed. ver. 26; 2Ch 16:14; Mt 26:12; Mr 14:8; 16:1; Lu 24:1; Joh 12:7; 19:39,40;
forty days. We learn from the Greek historians, that the time of mourning
was while the body remained with the embalmers, which
Herodotus says was seventy days. During this time the body
lay in nitre, the use of which was to dry up all its
superfluous and noxious moisture: and when, in the space of
30 days, this was sufficiently effected, the remaining forty,
the time mentioned by Diodorus, were employed in anointing it
with gums and spices to preserve it, which was properly the
embalming. This sufficiently explains the phraseology of the
text.
mourned. Heb. wept. three-score. Nu 20:29; De 21:13; 34:8;
the days. ver. 10;
Joseph. Es 4:2;
found grace. 18:3;
made me. 47:29-31;
Lo, I die. ver. 24; 48:21; 49:29,30; De 4:22; 1Sa 14:43;
I have. 2Ch 16:14; Isa 22:16; Mt 27:60;
bury me. 3:19; Job 30:23; Ps 79:3; Ec 6:3; 12:5,7;
let me go. Mt 8:21,22; Lu 9:59,60;
as he made. 48:21;
and with him. 14:16;
only their. Ex 10:8,9,26; Nu 32:24-27;
chariots. 41:43; 46:29; Ex 14:7,17,28; 2Ki 18:24; So 1:9; Ac 8:2;
the threshingfloor. This place was situated, according to Jerome, between the Jordan and the city of Jericho, two miles from the former, and three from the latter, where Bethagla was afterwards built. Procopius of Gaza states the same. As {aataad} signifies thorns, the place might have been remarkable for their production; though all the versions except the Arabic consider it as a proper name. As Moses wrote or revised his history on the east side of Jordan, the term beyond Jordan, in his five books, means westward of Jordan; but in other parts of Scripture it generally means eastward.
seven days. ver. 4; Nu 19:11; De 34:8; 1Sa 31:13; 2Sa 1:17; Job 2:13; Ac 8:2;
the Canaanites. 10:15-19; 13:7; 24:6; 34:30;
Abel-mizraim. i.e., The mourning of the Egyptians. 1Sa 6:18;
beyond Jordan. ver. 10; De 3:25,27; 11:30; 47:29-31; 49:29-32; Ex 20:12; Ac 7:16; Eph 6:1;
the cave. 23:16-18; 25:9; 35:27,29; 49:29-31; 2Ki 21:18; ver. 14;
Joseph. 42:17; Le 26:36; Job 15:21,22; Ps 14:5; 53:5; Pr 28:1; Ro 2:15;
sent. Heb. charged. Pr 29:25;
Forgive. Mt 6:12,14,15; 18:35; Lu 17:3,4; Eph 4:32; Col 3:12,13;
they did. ver. 20; Job 33:27,28; Ps 21:11; Pr 28:13; Jas 5:16;
servants. 31:42; 49:25; Mt 10:42; 25:40; Mr 10:41; Ga 6:10,16; Phm 1:8-20;
fell. 27:29; 37:7-11; 42:6; 44:14; 45:3;
fear not. 45:5; Mt 14:27; Lu 24:37,38;
for am I. It belongs to God to execute vengeance, and Joseph did not intend to usurp his prerogative. Thus he instructed his brethren not to fear him, but to fear God; to humble themselves before God, and to seek his forgiveness. 30:2; De 32:35; 2Ki 5:7; Job 34:19-29; Ro 12:19; Heb 10:30;
ye thought. 37:4,18-20; Ps 56:5;
God meant. 45:5-8; Ps 76:10; 105:16,17; 119:71; Isa 10:7; Ac 2:23; 3:13-15,26; Ro 8:28;
I will nourish. 45:10,11; 47:12; Mt 5:44; 6:14; Ro 12:20,21; 1Th 5:15; 1Pe 3:9;
kindly unto them. Heb. to their hearts. 34:3; Isa 40:2;
an hundred. Joseph's life was the shortest of all the patriarchs; for which Bp. Patrick gives this reason, he was the son of his father's old age. ver. 22;
the children. 48:19; 49:12; Nu 32:33,39; Jos 17:1; Job 42:16; Ps 128:6;
brought up. Heb. born. Joseph's. 30:3;
I die. ver. 5; 3:19; Job 30:23; Ec 12:5,7; Ro 5:12; Heb 9:27;
you out. 15:14-16; 26:3; 35:12; 46:4; 48:21; Ex 3:16,17;
sware. 12:7; 13:15,17; 15:7,18; 17:8; 26:3; 28:13; 35:12; 46:4; Ex 33:1; Nu 32:11; De 1:8; 6:10;
and ye. Ex 13:19; Jos 24:32; Ac 7:16; Heb 11:22;
being an hundred and ten years old. {Ben meah we�iser shanim;} "the son of an hundred and ten years;" the period he lived being personified. ver. 22; 47:9,28; Jos 24:29;
they embalmed. ver. 2,3;
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
Thus terminates the Book of Genesis, the most ancient record in
the world; including the History of two grand and stupendous
subjects, Creation and Providence; of each of which it presents
a summary, but astonishingly minute and detailed accounts.
From this Book, almost all the ancient philosophers,
astronomers, chronologists, and historians have taken their
respective data; and all the modern improvements and accurate
discoveries in different arts and sciences, have only served to
confirm the facts detailed by Moses, and to shew, that all the
ancient writers on these subjects have approached, or receded
from, truth and the phenomena of Nature, in exactly the same
proportion as they have followed or receded from, the Mosaic
history. The great fact of the deluge is fully confirmed by
the fossilised remains in every quarter of the globe. Add to
this, that general traditions of the deluge have veen traced
among the Egyptians, Chinese, Japanese, Hindoos, Burmans,
ancient Goths and Druids, Mexicans, Peruvians, Brazilians,
North American Indians, Greenlanders, Otaheiteans, Sandwich
Islanders, and almost every nation under heaven; while the
allegorical turgidity of these distorted traditions
sufficiently distinguishes them from the unadorned simplicity
of the Mosaic narrative. In fine, without this history the
world would be in comparative darkness, not knowing whence it
came, nor whither it goeth. In the first page, a child may
learn more in an hour, than all the philosophers in the world
learned without it in a thousand years.
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