Genesis 50:2
New International Version
Then Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So the physicians embalmed him,

New Living Translation
Then Joseph told the physicians who served him to embalm his father’s body; so Jacob was embalmed.

English Standard Version
And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

Berean Standard Bible
And Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So they embalmed him,

King James Bible
And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

New King James Version
And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

New American Standard Bible
Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

NASB 1995
Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

NASB 1977
And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

Legacy Standard Bible
And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

Amplified Bible
Then Joseph ordered his servants the physicians to embalm (mummify) his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel (Jacob).

Christian Standard Bible
He commanded his servants who were physicians to embalm his father. So they embalmed Israel.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
He commanded his servants who were physicians to embalm his father. So they embalmed Israel.

American Standard Version
And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And Yoseph commanded his Servants the Physicians to embalm his father, and the Physicians embalmed Israel.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Joseph commanded his servants the embalmers to embalm his father; and the embalmers embalmed Israel.

Contemporary English Version
Joseph gave orders for Jacob's body to be embalmed,

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father.

English Revised Version
And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Then Joseph ordered the doctors in his service to embalm his father. So the doctors embalmed Israel.

Good News Translation
Then Joseph gave orders to embalm his father's body.

International Standard Version
After this, he issued orders to his physician servants to embalm his father. So they embalmed Israel.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. And the physicians embalmed Israel.

Literal Standard Version
and Joseph commands his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father, and the physicians embalm Israel;

Majority Standard Bible
And Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So they embalmed him,

New American Bible
Then Joseph ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father. When the physicians embalmed Israel,

NET Bible
Joseph instructed the physicians in his service to embalm his father, so the physicians embalmed Israel.

New Revised Standard Version
Joseph commanded the physicians in his service to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel;

New Heart English Bible
Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

Webster's Bible Translation
And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

World English Bible
Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.

Young's Literal Translation
and Joseph commandeth his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father, and the physicians embalm Israel;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Mourning and Burial for Jacob
1Then Joseph fell upon his father’s face, wept over him, and kissed him. 2And Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So they embalmed him, 3taking the forty days required to complete the embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.…

Cross References
Matthew 26:12
By pouring this perfume on Me, she has prepared My body for burial.

Mark 16:1
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could go and anoint the body of Jesus.

John 19:39
Nicodemus, who had previously come to Jesus at night, also brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

John 19:40
So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom.

Genesis 27:41
Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, "The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob."

Genesis 50:1
Then Joseph fell upon his father's face, wept over him, and kissed him.

Genesis 50:26
So Joseph died at the age of 110. And they embalmed his body and placed it in a coffin in Egypt.


Treasury of Scripture

And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

the physicians.

embalmed.

Genesis 50:26
So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

2 Chronicles 16:14
And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries' art: and they made a very great burning for him.

Matthew 26:12
For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

Jump to Previous
Body Commanded Commandeth Directed Embalm Embalmed Father's Folding Israel Joseph Linen Necessary Orders Physicians Ready Servants Service Spices
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Body Commanded Commandeth Directed Embalm Embalmed Father's Folding Israel Joseph Linen Necessary Orders Physicians Ready Servants Service Spices
Genesis 50
1. The mourning for Jacob.
4. Joseph gets leave of Pharaoh to go to bury him.
7. The funeral.
15. Joseph comforts his brothers, who crave his pardon.
22. His age.
23. He sees the third generation of his sons.
24. He prophesies unto his brothers of their return.
25. He takes an oath of them concerning his bones.
26. He dies, and is put into a coffin.














L.

BURIAL OF JACOB, AND HAPPY OLD AGE OF JOSEPH.

(2) The physicians embalmed Israel.--The command given first by Jacob to Joseph (Genesis 47:29-30), and then urged earnestly upon all his sons, and with the reminder that the cave of Machpelah had been purchased and belonged to him by right (Genesis 49:29-32), made it specially necessary that the patriarch's body should be prepared for so long a journey. It was also usual at that period to embalm the dead; and during the many centuries while the custom lasted, from B.C. 2000 to A.D. 700, it is calculated that no less than 420,000,000 bodies were thus preserved. For the process, which was very expensive if done in the best manner, see Rawlinson, Egypt, i. 511 ff. The embalmers are not generally called physicians, but probably what is meant is that the embalming of Jacob's body was superintended by the physicians attached to Joseph's household. Egypt was famous for its physicians, who were in advance of those of other countries, and were subdivided into classes, which had each the charge of some special disease. (See Rawlinson as above, i. 305 ff.) Mas-pero thinks that their real knowledge was inconsiderable, and that there were specialists only for the eyes, and one or two similar diseases (Hist. Anc. 82). Ophthalmia continues to be one of the most common diseases of Egypt.

Verse 2. - And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians - literally, the healers, הָרֹפְאִים from רָפָא, to sew together, to mend, hence to heal, a class of persons which abounded in Ancient Egypt, each physician being only qualified to treat a single disorder (Herod., 2:84). The medical men of Egypt were held in high repute abroad, and their assistance was at various times required by persons from other countries, as, e.g., Cyrus and Darius (Herod., 3:1, 132). Their knowledge of medicines was extensive, and is referred to both in sacred (Jeremiah 66:11) and profane (Homer, 'Odyssey" 4 . 229) writings. The Egyptian doctors belonged to the sacerdotal order, and were expected to know all things relating to the body, and diseases and remedies contained in the six last of the sacred books of Hermes. According to Pliny (7:56), the study of medicine originated in Egypt (vide Wilkinson in Rawlinson's 'Herodotus,' vol 2. pp. 116, 117). The physicians employed by Joseph were those attached to his own household, or the court practitioners - to embalm his father: - literally, to spice or season (the body of) his father, i.e. to prepare it for burial by means of aromatics; ut aromatibus condirent (Vulgate); ἐνταφιάσαι τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ (LXX.), which is putting part of a proceeding for the whole (Tayler Lewis). According to Herodotus (2:86), the embalmers belonged to a distinct hereditary class or guild from the ordinary physicians; but either their formation into such a separate order of practitioners was of later origin (Hengstenberg, Kurtz, Kalisch), or Jacob was embalmed by the physicians instead of the embalmers proper because, not being an Egyptian, he could not be subjected to the ordinary treatment of the embalming art ('Speaker's Commentary') - and the physicians embalmed Israel. The method of preparing mummies in Ancient Egypt has been elaborately described, both by Herodotus (2:86) and Diodorus Sieulus (1:91), and, in the main, the accuracy of their descriptions has been confirmed by the evidence derived from the mummies themselves. According to the most expensive process, which cost one talent of silver, or about £250 sterling, the brain was first extracted through the nostrils by means of a crooked piece of iron, the skull being thoroughly cleansed of any remaining portions by rinsing with drugs; then, through an opening in the left side made with a sharp Ethiopian knife of agate or of flint, the viscera were removed, the abdomen being afterwards purified with palm wine and an infusion of aromatics; next, the disemboweled corpse was filled with every sort of spicery except frankincense, and the opening sewed up; after that the stuffed form was steeped for seventy days in natrum or subcarbonate of soda obtained from the Libyan desert, and sometimes in wax and tanning, bitumen also being employed in later times; and finally, on the expiration of that period, which was scrupulously observed, the body was washed, wrapped about with linen bandages, smeared over with gum, decorated with amulets, sometimes with a network of porcelain bugles, covered with a linen shroud, and, in due course, transferred to a mummy case (vide Wilkinson's 'Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,' vol. 3. p. 471, ed. 1878; Rawlinson's 'Herodotus,' vol. 2. pp. 118-123).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
And Joseph
יוֹסֵ֤ף (yō·w·sêp̄)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3130: Joseph -- 'he increases', a son of Jacob, also the name of several Israelites

directed
וַיְצַ֨ו (way·ṣaw)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6680: To lay charge (upon), give charge (to), command, order

the physicians
הָרֹ֣פְאִ֔ים (hā·rō·p̄ə·’îm)
Article | Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 7495: To mend, to cure

in his service
עֲבָדָיו֙ (‘ă·ḇā·ḏāw)
Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 5650: Slave, servant

to embalm
לַחֲנֹ֖ט (la·ḥă·nōṭ)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 2590: To spice, to embalm, to ripen

his father
אָבִ֑יו (’ā·ḇîw)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 1: Father

Israel.
יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ (yiś·rā·’êl)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3478: Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc

So they
הָרֹפְאִ֖ים (hā·rō·p̄ə·’îm)
Article | Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 7495: To mend, to cure

embalmed him,
וַיַּחַנְט֥וּ (way·ya·ḥan·ṭū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 2590: To spice, to embalm, to ripen


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OT Law: Genesis 50:2 Joseph commanded his servants the physicians (Gen. Ge Gn)
Genesis 50:1
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