Jacob charges his sons to bury him in the family sepulchre at Machpelah, and expires (28b–33). Joseph causes the body to be embalmed; and, accompanied by his brethren and an imposing cortège, conveys it to its last resting-place in Canaan (501–14). He pacifies and reassures his brethren, who fear his vengeance now that their father is gone (15–21). He dies in a good old age, after exacting an oath that his bones shall be carried up from Egypt when the time of deliverance comes (22–26).
Sources.—4928bβ–33 belongs to Priestly-Code, with the possible exceptions of ³² (a gloss), and the clause 33aβ; note the reference to chapter 23 and the identical phraseology of the two passages; also the expressions גוע, אחזה, נאסף אל־עמיו (bis).—In chapter 50, verses 12. 13 are from Priestly-Code (Machpelah, etc.: note also that the suffix in בניו refers back to 49³³). Verses 1–11. 14 are mainly Yahwist (ישראל, ²; מצא חן בע׳, ⁴; גּשֶׁן, ⁸; הכנעני, ¹¹: note the reference [5 f.] to Joseph’s oath [4729–31]); and 15–26 Elohist (אלהים, 19. 20. 24. 25; כלכל, ²¹ [45¹¹ 47¹²]; התחת אלהים אני ¹⁹ [30²]): the resemblance to 455. 7; and the backward reference in Exodus 13¹⁹, Joshua 24³²). The analysis might stop here (Dillmann, Wellhausen, Driver, al.); but a variant in ¹⁰ (10b ∥ 10aβ), and the double name of the place of burial suggest that there may be two accounts of the funeral (see Kautzsch-Socin An. 242). Holzinger, Gunkel, Procksch, however, seem to me to go too far in the attempt to establish a material difference of representation (e.g., that in Elohist’s account Joseph’s brethren did not go up with him to the burial). Traces of Yahwist in 15–26 are equally insignificant (see the notes).
28b–33. Jacob’s charge to his sons.—28bβ. The sequel to 1a in Priestly-Code. Note the close formal parallel to 28¹ (Priestly-Code): And ... called ... and blessed ... and charged ... and said ...—each with a special blessing] v.i.—29, 30. See on chapter 23.—31. Abraham and Sarah his wife] 25⁹ 23¹⁹. The burying-place of Isaac (35²⁹) is not elsewhere specified; and the burials of Rebekah and Leah are not recorded at all.—On the possibility that the notice of Rachel’s burial (48⁷) stood here originally, see page 504 f.—32. Probably a gloss (v.i.).—33. drew up his feet into the bed] The clause may have been inserted from Yahwist; compare 482b.—As in the case of all the patriarchs except Joseph, the actual account of the death is left to Priestly-Code.
29. ויצו אותם] LXX omits.—אל־עַמִּי] Read אל־עַמַּי (compare ³³): see on 25⁸.—30. For בשדה המ׳, LXX has simply במכפלה, and for the following השדה, המערה.—31. קברתי] LXX קָֽבְרוּ.—At the end of the verse Budde would add ואת־רחל as Priestly-Code’s original statement (Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, iii. 82).—32. The verse has no syntactic connexion with the preceding, the construction is cumbrous in the extreme, and the notice superfluous after 30b. It should probably be deleted as a marginal variant to 30b (so Delitzsch, Gunkel).—מקנה] LXX במ׳.
L. 1–14. The burial of Jacob.—1. The forms in which Joseph’s grief expressed itself were doubtless conventional, though they are not elsewhere alluded to in Old Testament.—2. The Egyptian practice of embalming originated in ideas with which the Hebrew mind had no sympathy,—the belief that the ka or ghostly double of the man might at any time return to take possession of the body, which consequently had at all costs to be preserved (Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, 307). In the cases of Jacob and Joseph (verse ²⁶), it is merely an expedient for preserving the body till the burial could take place. On the various methods employed, see Herodotus, ii. 86–88; Diodorus, i. 91; and Budge, The Mummy, 160 ff., 177 ff.—the physicians] In Egypt the embalmers formed a special profession.—3. forty days ... seventy days] The process of embalming occupied, according to Diodorus, over 30 days, according to Herodotus, 70 days; exact data from the monuments are not yet available (Erman, 315, 319 f.; Budge, 179). The mourning for Aaron and Moses lasted 30 days (Numbers 20²⁹, Deuteronomy 34⁸); the Egyptians (who are here expressly mentioned) are said to have mourned for a king 72 days (Diodorus, i. 72).—4–6. Joseph seeks Pharaoh’s permission to absent himself from Egypt. Why he needed the court to intercede for him in such a matter does not appear.—5a. Compare 4729 ff..—have digged] The rendering ‘have purchased’ is possible, but much less probable (compare 2 Chronicles 16¹⁴). The confused notice Acts 7¹⁶ might suggest a tradition that Jacob’s grave was in the plot of ground he bought near Shechem (33¹⁹ Elohist), which is the view maintained by Bruston (Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, vii. 202 ff.). On any view the contradiction to 47³⁰ remains.—7–9. The funeral procession is described with empressement as a mark of the almost royal honours bestowed on the patriarch. Such processions are frequently depicted on Egyptian tombs: Erman, 320 f.; Ball, Light from the East, 119 f.—horsemen, however, never appear in them: “We have no representations of Egyptians on horseback; and were it not for a few literary allusions, we should not know that the subjects of the Pharaoh knew how to ride” (Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, 492 f.).—10, 11. The mourning at the grave.—Gōren hā-Āṭād] ‘the threshing-floor of the bramble’; the locality is unknown (v.i.).—11. Ābēl Miẓraim] one of several place-names compounded with אָבֵל = ‘meadow’ (Numbers 33⁴⁹, Judges 11³³, 2 Samuel 20¹⁵, 2 Chronicles 16⁴); here interpreted as אֵבל מִצְרַיִם ‘mourning of Egypt.’ The real name ‘meadow of Egypt’ may have commemorated some incident of the Egyptian occupation of Palestine; but the situation is unknown.—The record of the actual burying in Yahwist and Elohist has not been preserved.
It is difficult to say whether Gōren hā-Āṭād and Ābēl Miẓraim are two different places, or two names for one place. Jerome (Onomastica Sacra, 8515 ff.) identifies the former with Bethagla (= ‛Ain Ḥaǧla, or Ḳaṣr Ḥaǧla, South of Jericho [Buhl, Geographie des alten Palaestina, 180]), but on what authority we do not know. The conjecture that it was in the neighbourhood of Rachel’s grave depends entirely on a dubious interpretation of 48⁷. Since there appears to be a doublet in verse ¹⁰ (10aβ ∥ 10b), it is natural to suppose that one name belongs to Yahwist and the other to Elohist, and therefore there is no great presumption that the localities are identical (בג׳ הא׳ in ¹¹ may be a gloss). According to the present text, both were East of the Jordan (10a. 11b); but such a statement if found in one document would readily be transferred by a redactor to the other; and all we can be reasonably confident of is that one or other was across the Jordan, for it is almost inconceivable that א׳ בע׳ הירדן should be an interpolation in both cases. Since it is to be assumed that in Yahwist and Elohist the place of mourning was also the place of burial, and since the theory of a détour round the Dead Sea and the East of Jordan to arrive at any spot in West Palestine is too extravagant to have arisen from a fanciful etymology, it would seem to follow that, according to at least one tradition, Jacob’s grave was shown at some now unknown place East of the Jordan (Meyer, Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstämme, 280 f.). Meyer’s inference that Jacob was originally a transjordanic hero, is, however, a doubtful one; for the East is dotted with graves of historic personages in impossible places, and we have no assurance that tradition was more reliable in ancient times.
2. חנט] verse ²⁶, Canticles 2¹³†. Apparently a Semitic √, meaning in Arabic ‘become mature,’ applied in Hebrew Aramaic and Arabic to the process of embalming.—3. חנֻטים] ἅπαξ λεγόμενον; abstract plural. = ‘embalming.’—4. בכיתו] The feminine only here, for בְּכִי. The suffix probably genitive object (weeping for Jacob).—דברו־נא] Add with LXX עָלֵי.—5. השביעני] The Samaritan Recension of the Pentateuch, LXXA, al. + לפני מותי.—הנה אנכי מת] LXX omits. The phrase occurs in Elohist 48²¹, and (without הנה) 50²⁴.—כריתי] LXX, Vulgate, TargumJonathan ‘have digged’; Peshiṭtå ‘have purchased,’ TargumOnkelos אַתְקְנֵת = ‘have prepared.’ The first sense preponderates in usage (the second, Deuteronomy 2⁶, Hosea 3², Job 6²⁷ 40³⁰†), and is here to be preferred.—את־אבי] The Samaritan Recension of the Pentateuch + כאשר השביעני.—10. אטד] The word for ‘bramble’ in Jotham’s parable from Gerizim, Judges 914 f. (only Psalms 58¹⁰ again). Can there be an allusion to the threshing-floor of this passage at Shechem?—11. בג׳ האטד] Possibly a gloss from verse ¹⁰. If so, שמהּ (The Samaritan Recension of the Pentateuch שמו), referring to גרן (whose gender is uncertain), must have been substituted for שם המקום (so Vulgate, TargumJonathan, Gunkel).
12, 13. The account of the actual burial (from Priestly-Code).—It is significant that here the Egyptians take no part in the obsequies: the final redactor may have assumed that they were left behind at the mourning place East of the Jordan.—See further on 4929 ff..—14 (Yahwist). The return to Egypt.
12. בניו לו] The suffixes find no suitable antecedents nearer than 49³³, the last excerpt from Priestly-Code.—כאשר צום] LXXB, al. καὶ ἔθαψαν αὐτὸν ἐκεῖ.—13. שדה] LXX τὸ σπήλαιον, and so again for את־השדה.—14. אחרי—אביו] LXX omits.
15–21. Joseph removes his brethren’s fears.—The verses contain a variation of the theme of 455 ff. (Gunkel), as if to emphasize the lesson of the whole story, that out of a base intent God brought good to His people.—15. saw] i.e. ‘realised,’—took in the full significance of the fact (compare 30¹). If it were meant that they ‘learned’ for the first time that their father was dead, the inference would surely be not merely that the brethren had not been present at the funeral (Gunkel), but that Elohist had not recorded it at all.—16, 17. They send a message to Joseph, recalling a dying request of their father (not elsewhere mentioned).—the servants of the God of thy father] Religion is a stronger plea than even kinship (Gunkel).—18. Compare 44¹⁶. The verse may have been inserted from Yahwist (v.i.).—19. am I in God’s stead?] (30²): to judge and punish at my pleasure.—20. Compare 455. 7. 8.—21. The continuance of the famine seems presupposed, in opposition to the chronology of Priestly-Code (47²⁸).
15. לוּ וגו׳] Conditional sentence with suppressed apodosis, Gesenius-Kautzsch § 159 y.—16. ויצוו] LXX καὶ παρεγένοντο, and Peshiṭtå (‡ Syriac word), seem to have read וַיִּגְּשׁוּ, which if correct would make the excision of verse ¹⁸ from Elohist almost imperative (see on the verse). But the sense of צִוָּה, ‘to commission,’ is justified by Exodus 6¹³, Jeremiah 27⁴, Esther 3¹² etc.; and נגש would not properly be followed by לאמר.—17. אָנָּא] a strong particle of entreaty; in Pentateuch only Exodus 32³¹.—18. גם—לפניו] LXX omits.—For וילכו, Ball (after Vatke) reads ויבכו, which would give point to the following גם. But the change is not necessary: וילכו would mean ‘they went away’ only if they had previously been present. That certainly seems implied in 17b (apart from the reading of LXX, Peshiṭtå in ¹⁶); and hence there is much to be said for assigning verse ¹⁸ to Yahwist (Dillmann, Holzinger, Procksch).—19b. LXX reads τοῦ γὰρ θεοῦ ἐγὼ εἰμί.—20. אלהים] The Samaritan Recension of the Pentateuch והא׳: LXX, Peshiṭtå, Vulgate also have the copula.—21. ועתה] LXX εἶπεν δὲ αὐτοῖς.
22–26. Joseph’s old age and death.—22. a hundred and ten years] Compare Joshua 24²⁹. It is hardly a mere coincidence, but rather an instance of the Egyptian affinities of the narrative, that 110 years is at least three times spoken of as an ideal lifetime in Egyptian writings (Stern, Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, 1873, 75 f.).—23. Joseph lived to see his great-grandchildren by both his sons,—another token of a life crowned with blessing (Psalms 128⁶, Proverbs 13²² 17⁶ etc.). The expressions used of Ephraim’s descendants are somewhat difficult (v.i.).—Mākîr] the most powerful clan of Manasseh, in the Song of Deborah (Judges 5¹⁴) numbered among the tribes of Israel, and possibly therefore an older unit than Manasseh itself (see Meyer, Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstämme, 507, 516 f.).—The expression born on Joseph’s knees implies the adoption of Machir’s sons by Joseph (see on 30³), though the action does not seem to have any tribal significance.—24, 25. Joseph predicts the Exodus (as did Jacob, 48²¹), and directs his bones to be carried to Canaan. For the fulfilment of the wish, see Exodus 13¹⁹, Joshua 24³².—his brethren are here the Israelites as a whole (verse ²⁵).—26. The death of Joseph.—in a coffin] or mummy-case, the wooden inner shell, shaped like the mummy, which was placed in the stone sarcophagus (see Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, 315 f.; Ball, Light from the East, 121). A mythological allusion to the ‘coffin’ of Osiris (Völter, 55) is not to be thought of.
“This ‘coffin in Egypt,’” remarks Delitzsch, “is the coffin of all Israel’s spiritual satisfaction in Egypt.” Gunkel shows sounder judgement and truer insight when he bids us admire the restful close of the narrative, and the forward glance to the eventful story of the Exodus.
22. ובית] LXX καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ πᾶσα ἡ πανοικία.—23. בני שלשים] The Samaritan Recension of the Pentateuch בנים ש׳: so LXX, Peshiṭtå TargumOnkelos-Jonathan. שִׁלֵּשִׁים means ‘great-grandchildren’ (Exodus 34⁷); hence בני ש׳ ought to mean ‘great-great-grandchildren’ (not, of course, of Ephraim, but of Joseph in Ephraim’s line). But there being no reason why the descent should be carried further in the line of Ephraim than in that of Manasseh, we must understand ‘great-grandchildren,’ whether we read with The Samaritan Recension of the Pentateuch, or take בני ש׳ as appositional genitive (see Dillmann).—על־ברכי] The Samaritan Recension of the Pentateuch בימי, ‘in the days of,’—‘a bad correction’ (Ball), supported by no other Version.—24. נשבע] LXX + ὁ θεὸς τοῖς πατράσιν ἡμῶν.—25 end. Add with Hebrew MSS, The Samaritan Recension of the Pentateuch, LXX, Peshiṭtå, Vulgate אִתְּכֶם, ‘with you.’—26. ויישם] The Samaritan Recension of the Pentateuch ויושם. See on 24³³.