Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 2. Physicians, whose business it was to embalm dead bodies, with a composition of myrrh, and so forth in order to keep them from putrefaction, ( Menochius.) as the Egyptian mummies are treated. Bible.—The entrails are taken out, and so forth by the embalmer during 30 days, and the body is left in salt and various drugs, for other 40, in all 70 days, as Herodotus informs us, (B. xi. 86,) and as Moses here insinuates, verse 3. This was an honour peculiar to the kings. Before any person was buried, his praises were rehearsed; and it was lawful on this occasion to declare, what evil even the kings themselves had done; which sometimes caused them to be deprived of funeral honours. We have several funeral canticles preserved in Scripture, 2 Kennicott. 1:18. 3:33. 2 Chronicles 35:25. Calmet.—The Lamentations of Jeremias were perhaps of this nature, on the death of Kennicott. Josias. The usual time for mourning among the Jews, was 30 days for people of eminence, (Numbers 20. Deuteronomy 34:8. Procopius) and seven for the rest. Sirach 22:13. Bible.