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The Egyptians mourn

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A. M. 2315. 3 And forty days were fulfilled | Egyptians d mourned for him; (for so are fulfilled the threescore and ten days. days of those which are embalmed :), and the

d Heb. wept.

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4. And when the days of his mourning were

* Num. xx. 29; Deut. xxxiv. 8.

taught that art by their ancestors. These, showing each kind of burial, ask them after what manner they will have the body prepared. When they have agreed upon the manner, they deliver the body to such as are usually appointed for this office. First, he who has the name of scribe, laying it upon the ground, marks about the flank on the left side how much is to be cut away; then he who is called napaoxɩorns, paraschistes,

Having so done, they salt it up close with nitre seventy days, for longer they may not salt it. After this number of days are over they wash the corpse again, and then roll it up with fine linen, all besmeared with a sort of gum, commonly used by the Egyptians instead of glue. Then is the body restored to its relations, who prepare a wooden coffin for it in the shape and likeness of a man, and then put the embalmed body into it, and thus enclosed, place it in a repository in the house, set-the cutter or dissector, with an Ethiopic stone, cuts ting it upright against the wall. After this manner they, with great expense, preserve their dead; whereas those who to avoid too great a charge desire a mediocrity, thus embalm them: they neither cut the belly nor pluck out the entrails, but fill it with clysters of oil of cedar injected up the anus, and then salt it the afore said number of days. On the last of these they press out the cedar clyster by the same way they had in jected it, which has such virtue and efficacy that it brings out along with it the bowels wasted, and the nitre consumes the flesh, leaving only the skin and bones having thus done, they restore the dead body to the relations, doing nothing more. The third way of embalming is for those of yet meaner circumstances; they with lotions wash the belly, then dry it up with salt for seventy days, and afterwards deliver it to be carried away. Nevertheless, beautiful women and ladies of quality were not delivered to be embalmed till three or four days after they had been dead;" for which Herodotus assigns a sufficient reason, however degrading to human nature: TouTO DE TOLEOVOL OUT τουδε είνεκα, ἵνα μη σφι οἱ ταριχεύται μισγώνται τησι γυναιξι· λαμφθηναι γαρ τινα φασι μισγόμενον νεκρῳ προσφατῳ γυναικός· κατειπαι δὲ τον ὁμοτέχνον. [The original should not be put into a plainer language; the abomination to which it refers being too gross.] "But if any stranger or Egyptian was either killed by a crocodile or drowned in the river, the city where he was cast up was to embalm and bury him honourably, in the sacred monuments, whom no one, no, not a relation or friend, but the priests of the Nile only, might touch; because they buried one who was something more than a dead man."-HEROD. Euterpe, p. 120, ed. Gale.

away as much of the flesh as the law commands, and presently runs away as fast as he can; those who are present, pursuing him, cast stones at him, and curse him, hereby turning all the execrations which they imagine due to his office upon him. For whosoever offers violence, wounds, or does any kind of injury to a body of the same nature with himself, they think him worthy of hatred but those who are Tapixevrai, taricheuta, the embalmers, they esteem worthy of honour and respect; for they are familiar with their priests, and go into the temples as holy men, without any prohibition. As soon as they come to embalm the dissected body, one of them thrusts his hand through the wound into the abdomen, and draws forth all the bowels but the heart and kidneys, which another washes, and cleanses with wine made of palms and aromatic odours. Lastly; having washed the body, they anoint it with oil of cedar and other things for about thirty days, and afterwards with myrrh, cinnamon, and other such like matters, which have not only a power to preserve it a long time, but also give it a sweet smell; after which they deliver it to the kindred in such manner that every member remains whole and entire, and no part of it changed, but the beauty and shape of the face seem just as they were before; and the person may be known, even the eyebrows and eyelids remaining as they were at first. By this means many of the Egyp tians, keeping the dead bodies of their ancestors in magnificent houses, so perfectly see the true visage and countenance of those that died many ages before they themselves were born, that in viewing the proportions of every one of them, and the lineaments of their faces, they take as much delight as if they were still living among them. Moreover, the friends and nearest Diodorus Siculus relates the funeral ceremonies relations of the deceased, for the greater pomp of the of the Egyptians more distinctly and clearly, and solemnity, acquaint the judges and the rest of their with some very remarkable additional circumstances. friends with the time prefixed for the funeral or day "When any one among the Egyptians dies," says he, of sepulture, declaring that such a one (calling the "all his relations and friends, putting dirt upon their dead by his name) is such a day to pass the lake; at heads, go lamenting about the eity, till such time as the which time above forty judges appear, and sit together body shall be buried in the meantime, they abstain in a semicircle, in a place prepared on the hither side from baths and wine, and all kinds of delicate meats; of the lake, where a ship, provided beforehand by such neither do they, during that time, wear any costly ap-as have the care of the business, is haled up to the parel. The manner of their burials is threefold: one shore, and steered by a pilot whom the Egyptians in very costly, a second sort less chargeable, and a third their language called Charon. Hence they say Orvery mean. In the first, they say, there is spent apheus, upon seeing this ceremony while he was in talent of silver; in the second, twenty minæ; but in Egypt, invented the fable of hell, partly imitating the last there is very little expense. Those who have therein the people of Egypt, and partly adding somethe care of ordering the body are such as have been what of his own. The ship being thus brought to the 274 ( 19* )

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to bury his father.

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7 And Joseph went up to bury his A. M.-2315. father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

8 And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.

5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die in my grave which I have digged for me, in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now, therefore, let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will 9 And there went up with him both chariots come again. and horsemen and it was a very great company.

6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.

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(Esth. iv. 2.- - Chap. xlvii. 29.

10 And they came to the threshing-floor of

h2 Chron: xvi. 14; Isa. xxii. 16; Matt. xxvii. 60. balming; afterwards it lay in natron thirty days more, making in the whole seventy days, according to the preceding accounts, during which the mourning was continued.

Verse 4. Speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh] But why did not Joseph apply himself? Because he was now in his mourning habits, and in such none must appear in the presence of the eastern monarchs. See Esth. iv. 2.

Verse 7. The elders of his house] Persons who, by reason of their age, had acquired much experience; and who on this account were deemed the best quali fied to conduct the affairs of the king's household. Similar to these were the Caldonmen, Eldermen, or Aldermen, among our Saxon ancestors, who were senators and peers of the realm.

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lake side, before the coffin is put on board every one is at liberty by the law to accuse the dead of what he thinks him guilty. If any one proves he was a bad man, the judges give sentence that the body shall be deprived of sepulture; but in case the informer be convicted of false accusation, then he is severely punished. If no accuser appear, or the information prove false, then, all the kindred of the deceased leave off mourning, and begin to set forth his praises, yet say nothing of his birth, (as the custom is among the Greeks,) because the Egyptians all think themselves equally noble; but they recount how the deceased was educated from his youth and brought up to man's estate, exalting his piety towards the gods, and justice towards men, his chastity, and other virtues wherein he excelled; and lastly pray and call upon the infernal deities (TOVS KATW OBOVs, the gods below) to receive him into the societies of the just. The common people take this from the others, and consequently all is said in his praise by a loud shout, setting forth likewise his virtues in the highest strains of commendation, as one that is to live for ever with the infernal gods. Then those that have tombs of their own inter the corpse in places appointed for that purpose; and they that have none rear up the body in its coffin against some strong wall of their house. But such as are denied sepulture on account of some crime or debt, are laid up at home without coffins; yet when it shall afterwards happen that any of their posterity grows rich, he commonly pays off the deceased person's debts, and gets his crimes absolved, and so buries him honourably; for the Egyptians are wont to boast of their parents and ancestors that were honourably buried. It is a custom likewise among them to pawn the dead bodies of their parents to their creditors; but then those that do not redeem them fall under the greatest disgrace imagin-to Joseph." Be it so; why was Joseph thus respectable, and are denied burial themselves at their deaths." -Diod. Sic. Biblioth., lib. i., cap. 91-93., edit. Bipont. See also the Necrokedia, or Art of Embalming, by Greenhill, 4to., p. 241, who endeavoured in vain to recommend and restore the art. But he could not give his countrymen Egyptian manners; for a dead carcass is to the British an object of horror, and scarcely any, except a surgeon or an undertaker, cares to touch it.

Verse 3. Forty days] The body it appears required this number of days to complete the process of em

The funeral procession of Jacob must have been truly grand. Joseph, his brethren and their descendants, the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders-all the principal men, of the land of Egypt, with chariots and horsemen, must have ap peared a very great company indeed. We have seen LORDS, for their greater honour, buried at the public expense; and all the male branches of the royal family, as well as the most eminent men of the nation, join in the funeral procession, as in the case of the late Lord Nelson; but what was all this in comparison of the funeral solemnity now before us? Here was no conqueror, no mighty man of valour, no person of proud descent; here was only a plain man, who had dwelt almost all his life long in tents, without any other subjects than his cattle, and whose kingdom was not of this world. Behold this man honoured by a national mourning, and by a national funeral! It may be said indeed that "all this was done out of respect

ed? Was it because he had conquered nations, had made his sword drunk with blood, had triumphed over the enemies of Egypt? NO! But because he had saved men alive; because he was the king's faithful servant, the rich man's counsellor, and the poor man's friend. He was a national blessing; and the nation mourns in his affliction, and unites to do him honour.

Verse 10. The threshing-floor of Atad] As TON atad signifies a bramble or thorn, it has been understood. by the Arabic, not as a man's name, but as the name of a place; but all the other versions and the

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12 And his sons did unto him according as their father was dead, they said, Joseph will he commanded them: peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite 13 Form his sons carried him into the land us all the evil which we did unto him.

i2 Sam. i. 17; Acts viii. 2.- I Sam. xxxi. 13; Job ii. 13. That is, the mourning of the Egyptians.

Targums consider it as the name of a man. Threshing-floors were always in a field, in the open air; and Alad was probably what we would call a great farmer or chief of some clan or tribe in that place. Jerome supposed the place to have been about two leagues from Jericho; but we have no certain information on this point. The funeral procession stopped here, probably as affording pasturage to their cattle while they observed the seven days' mourning which terminated the funeral solemnities, after which nothing remained but the interment of the corpse. The mourning of the ancient Hebrews was usually of seven days' continuance, Num. xix. 19; 1 Sam. xxxi. 13; though on certain occasions it was extended to thirty days, Num. xx. 29; Deut. xxi. 1-3; xxxiv. 8, but never longer. The seventy days' mourning mentioned above was that of the Egyptians, and was rendered necessary by the long process of embalming, which obliged them to keep the body out of the grave for seventy days' as we learn both from Herodotus and Diodorus. Seven days by the order of God a man was to mourn for his dead, because during that time he was considered as unclean; but when those were finished he was to purify himself, and consider the morning as ended; Num. xix. 11, 19. Thus God gave seven days, in some cases thirty, to mourn in man, ever in his own estimation wiser than the word of God, has added eleven whole months to the term, which nature itself pronounces to be absurd, because it is incapable of supporting grief for such a time; and thus mourning is now, except in the first seven or thirty days, a mere solemn ill-conducted FARCE, a grave mimicry, a vain show, that convicts itself of its own hypocrisy. Who will rise up on the side of God and common sense, and restore becoming sorrow on the death of a relative to decency of garb and moderation in its continuance? Suppose the near relatives of the deceased were to be allowed seven days of seclusion from society, for the purpose of meditating on death and eternity, and after this to appear in a mourning habit for thirty days; every important end would be accomplished, and hypocrisy, the too common attendant of man, be banished, especially from that part of his life in which deep sincerity is not less becoming than in the most solemn act of his religious intercourse with God.

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In a kind of politico-religious institution formed by his late majesty Ferdinand IV., king of Naples and the Sicilies, I find the following rational institute relative to this point: "There shall be no mourning among you but only on the death of a father, mother, husband, or wife. To render to these the last duties of affection, children, wives, and husbands only shall be permitted to wear a sign or emblem of grief: a man máy wear a crape tied round his right arm; a woman, a black handkerchief around her neck; and this in both cases for only two months at the most." Is there a purpose which religion, reason, or decency can demand that would not be answered by such external mourning as this?

Only such relatives as the above, brothers and sisters being included, can mourn; all others make only a part of the dumb hypocritical show. .

Verse 12. And his sons did unto him] This and the thirteenth verse have been supposed by Mr. Locke and others to belong to the conclusion of the preceding chapter, in which connection they certainly read more consistently than they do here.

Verse 15. Saw that their father was dead] This at once argues both a sense of guilt in their own consciences, and a want of confidence in their brother. They might have supposed that hitherto he had forborne to punish them merely on their father's account; but now that he was dead, and Joseph having them completely in his power, they imagined that he would take vengeance on them for their former conduct towards him.

Thus conscience records criminality; and, by giving birth to continual fears and doubtfulness, destroys all peace of mind, security, and confidence. On this subject an elegant poet has spoken with his usual point and discernment —

Exemplo quodcumque maló committitur, ipsi Displicet auctori. Prima est hæc ultio, quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur, improba quamvis Gratia fallaci Prætoris vicerit urna.

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Juv. Sat. xiii. 1, &c.

Happily metaphrased by Mr. Dryden ;—

He that commits a fault shall quickly find
The pressing guilt lie heavy on his mind.

Joseph's brethren ask forgiveness.

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16 And they sent a messenger] nourish you, and your little ones. A. M. 2315. unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did And he comforted them, and spake command before he died, saying,

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19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: bring you out of this land, unto the land for am I in the place of God? which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

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But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

25. And f Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from

21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will hence..

PHeb. charged.- - Prov. xxviii. 13.- Chap. xlix. 25.
Chap. xxxvii. 7, 10. Chap. xlv. 5.- -u Deut. xxxii. 35;
Job xxxiv. 29; Rom. xii. 19; Heb. x. 30; 2 Kings v. 7.- - Psa.
lvi. 5; Isaiah x. 7.- Chapter xlv. 5, 7; Acts iii. 13, 14, 15.
Chap. xlvii. 12; Matt. v. 44.

Though bribes or favour shall assert his cause,
Pronounce him guiltless, and elude the laws,
None quits himself; his own impartial thought
Will damn, and conscience will record the fault..
This, first, the wicked feels.

We have seen this in the preceding history often
exemplified in the case of Joseph's brethren. -

Verse 16. Thy father did command] Whether he did or not we cannot tell. Some think they had feigned this story, but that is not so likely. Jacob might have had suspicions too, and might have thought that the best way to prevent evil was to humble themselves before their brother, and get a fresh assurance of his forgiveness.

Verse 17. The servants of the God of thy father.] These words were wonderfully well chosen, and spoken in the most forcible manner to Joseph's piety and filial affection. No wonder then that he wept when they spake to him.

Verse 19. Am I in the place of God?] These words may be understood either as a question, or an affirmative proposition. How should I take any farther notice of your transgression? I have passed it by, the matter lies now between God and you. Or, In the order of Divine providence I am now in God's place; he has furnished me with means, and made me a distributor of his bounty; I will therefore not only nourish you, but also your little ones, ver. 21: and therefore he spake comfortably unto them, as in chap. xlv. 8, telling them that he attributed the whole business to the particular providence of God rather than to any ill will or malice in them, and that, in permitting him to be brought into Egypt, God had graciously saved their lives, the life of their father, the lives of the people of Canaan, and of the Egyptians:

16.

d Ch.

y Heb. to their hearts; chap. xxxiv. 3.- Job xlii. Num. xxxii, 39,- b Chap. xxx. 3. Heb. borne.xv. 14; xlvi. 4; xlviii. 21; Exod. iii. 16, 17; Heb. xi. 22. Chap. xv. 14; xxvi. 3; xxxv. 12; xlvi. 4.- Exod. xiii. 19; Josh. xxiv. 32; Acts vii. 16.

as therefore God had honoured him by making him vicegerent in the dispensations of his especial bounty towards so many people, it was impossible he should be displeased with the means by which this was brought about.

Verse 22. Joseph dwelt in Egypt] Continued in Egypt after his return from Canaan till his death; he, and his father's house-all the descendants of Israel, till the exodus or departure under the direction of Moses and Aaron, which was one hundred and fortyfour years after.

Verse 23. Were brought up upon Joseph's knees.] They were educated by him, or under his direction; his sons and their children continuing to acknowledge him as patriarch, or head of the family, as long as he lived.

Verse 24. Joseph said—I die] That is, I am dying; and God will surely visit you-he will yet again give you, in the time when it shall be essentially necessary, the most signal proof of his unbounded love towards the seed of Jacob.

And bring you out of this land] Though ye have here every thing that can render life comfortable, yet this is not the typical land, the land given by covenant, the land which represents the rest that remains for the people of God,

Verse 25. Ye shall carry up my bones] That I may finally rest with my ancestors in the land which God gave to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and which is a pledge as it is a type of the kingdom of heaven. Thus says the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. xi. 22: "By FAITH Joseph, when he died, (reλevrov, when dying,) made mention of the departure (eodov, of the EXODUS) of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones." From this it is evident that Joseph considered all these

Joseph dies, is embalmed,

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26 So Joseph died, being a hun- embalmed him, and he was put A. M. 2369, dred and ten years old and they in a coffin in Egypt.

Genesis, chap. 1. 2.

things as typical, and by this very commandment expressed his faith in the immortality of the soul, and the general resurrection of the dead. This oath, by which Joseph then bound his brethren, their posterity considered as binding on themselves; and Moses took care, when he departed from Egypt, to carry up Joseph's body with him, Exod. xiii. 19; which was afterwards buried in Shechem, Josh. xxiv. 32, the very portion which Jacob had purchased from the Amorites, and which he gave to his son Joseph, Gen. xlviii. 22; Acts vii. 16. See the reason for this command as given by Chrysostom, vol. ii., p. 695, sec, D. E.

Verse 26. Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old] D'w wyi xD ja ben meah vaeser shanim; literally, the son of a hundred and ten years. Here the period of time he lived is personified, all the years of which it was composed being represented as a nurse or father, feeding, nourishing, and supporting him to the end. This figure, which is termed by rhetoricians prosopopæia, is very frequent in Scripture; and by this virtues, vices, forms, attributes, and qualities, with every part of inanimate nature, are represented as endued with reason and speech, and performing all the actions of intelligent beings.

They embalmed him] See on ver. 2. The same precautions were taken to preserve his body as to preserve that of his father Jacob; and this was particularly necessary in his case, because his body was to be carried to Canaan a hundred and forty-four years after; which was the duration of the Israelites' bondage after the death of Joseph...

And he was put in a coffin in Egypt.] On this subject I shall subjoin some useful remarks from Harmer's Observations, which several have borrowed without acknowledgment. I quote my own edition of this Work, vol. iii., p. 69, &e. Lond. 1808.

"There were some methods of honouring the dead which demand our attention; the being put into a coffin has been in particular considered as a mark of distinction.

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"With us the poorest people have their coffins; if the relations cannot afford them, the parish is at the expense. In the east, on the contrary, they are not always used, even in our times. The ancient Jews probably buried their dead in the same manner; neither was the body of our Lord put in a coffin, nor that of Elisha, whose bones were touched by the corpse that was let down a little after into his sepulchre, 2 Kings xiii. 21. That coffins were anciently used in Egypt, all agree; and antique coffins of stone and of sycamore wood are still to be seen in that country, not to mention those said to be made of a sort of pasteboard, formed by folding and gluing cloth together a great number of times, curiously plastered, and then painted with hieroglyphics.

"As it was an ancient Egyptian custom, and was not used in the neighbouring countries, on these accounts the sacred historian was doubtless led to observe

of Joseph that he was, not only embalmed, but was also put in a coffin, both being practices`almost peculiar to the Egyptians.

"Mr. Maillet conjectures that all were not inclosed in coffins which were laid in the Egyptian repositories of the dead, but that it was an honour appropriated to persons of distinction; for after having given an account of several niches which are found in those chambers of death, he adds: But it must not be imagined that the bodies deposited in these gloomy apartments were all inclosed in chests, and placed in niches. The greater part were simply embalmed and swathed, after which they laid them one by the side of the other, without any ceremony. Some were even put into these tombs without any embalming at all, or with such a slight one that there remains nothing of them in the linen in which they were wrapped but the bones, and these half rotten. It is probable that each considerable family had one of these burial-places to themselves; that the niches were designed for the bodies of the heads of the family; and that those of their domestics and slaves had no other care taken of them than merely laying them in the ground after being slighty embalmed, and sometimes even without that; which was probably all that was done to heads of families of less distinction.'-Lett. 7, p. 281. The same author gives an account of a mode of burial anciently practised in that country, which has been but recently discovered: it consisted. in placing the bodies, after they were swathed up, on a layer of charcoal, and covering them with a mat, under a bed of sand seven or eight feet deep.

"Hence it seems, evident that coffins were not universally used in Egypt, and were only used for persons of eminence and distinction. It is also reasonable to believe that in times so remote as those of Joseph they might have been much less common than afterwards, and that consequently Joseph's being put in a coffin in Egypt might be mentioned with a design to express the great honours the Egyptians did him in death, as well as in life; being treated after the most sumptuous manner, embalmed, and put into a coffin."

It is no objection to this account that the widow of Nain's son is represented as carried forth to be buried in a copos or bier; for the present inhabitants of the Levant, who are well known to lay their dead in the earth uninclosed, carry them frequently out to burial in a kind of coffin, which is not deposited in the grave, the body being taken out of it, and placed in the grave in a reclining posture. It is probable that the coffins used at Nain were of the same kind, being intended for no other purpose but to carry the body to the place of interment, the body itself being buried without them.

It is very probable that the chief difference was not in being with or without a coffin, but in the expensiveness of the coffin itself; some of the Egyptian coffins being made of granite, and covered all over

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