성경 주석서

There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.

There they buried Abraham and Sarah, … — It is observed by an interpreter, that these here mentioned, and Jacob himself the sixth, buried in one grove, the first letters of all their names are contained in that one name, Israel. Whether these here buried were those that rose with our Saviour Christ, were seen in the holy city, and accompanied him to heaven at his ascension, I have not to say, though some have held it.

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The purchase of the field and of the cave that [is] therein [was] from the children of Heth.

The purchase of the field, … — See Trapp on " Genesis 49:30 "

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And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.

And Joseph fell upon his father’s face. — As willing to have wept him alive again, if possible; yet more moderate than his father had been in the supposed death of him by an evil beast devouring him. But of mourning for the dead. See Trapp on " Genesis 23:9 "

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

And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians. — Physicians, Yεραπευω , famulor, curo, remedium morbo adhibeo. it seems, were formerly of no great esteem; perhaps it was because, through ignorance, they many times officiously killed their patients. We know who it was that cried out upon his death bed, Many physicians have killed the emperor. πολλοι ιατροι κατεκτειναν τον βασιλεα . - Adrian Imp. And it is grown to a proverb, No physician can be his craftsmaster, till he have been the death of thirty men. Tritum est, nullum medicum esse peritum, nisi triginta homines Orco demiserit. "Farewell, Physic," was Chaucer’s motto. The Egyptians, to prevent this mischief, appointed fox every ordinary disease, a several physician; enjoining them to study the cure of that only. And till then, the fashion was to lay the sick man at his door, where every passenger was bound to inquire the nature of his disease; that if either himself or any within his knowledge had recovered of the like, he might tell by what means, or stay to make trial of that skill he had upon the patient. Olim exponebatur aeger obvio cuilibet sanandus. - Plutarch. Herodot., lib. i. Physic is, without question, the ordinance of God. Exodus 21:19 He styles himself, "Jehovah Rophe," Exodus 15:26 the Lord the physician. And a physician is more worth than many others, saith the heathen poet. Iατηρ δ ανηρ πολλων ανταξιος αλλων . - Hom. Use them we must, when there is need, Mark 2:17 1 Timothy 4:4 but not idolise them, as 2 Chronicles 16:12 .

And the physicians embalmed Israel. — According to the custom of that country; concerning which, he that will see more, may read in Herodotus and Pliny. Herodot., Euierpe. Plin., lib. xi. cap. 27. This custom continued also in after ages, as well among Jews as Gentiles. But the devil turned it, in time, into most vain superstition, both among the Greeks, whom Lucian frequently jeers for it, and among the Latins; witness that of Ennius, Tavquinii corpus bona faemina lavit, et unxit. Joseph embalmed his father’s corpse, partly to honour 2 Chronicles 16:14 ; 2 Chronicles 21:19 him with this solemnity; and partly to preserve him for so long a journey; but principally to testify his faith of the resurrection, and that incorruption he hoped for at the last day. Some think the apostle hath relation to this, in that 1 Corinthians 15:29 , and they read it thus; "Why do they then wash - βαπτιζονται , voce media - over the dead?" Compare Acts 9:37 .

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And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.

And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days. — Longer than Joseph mourned; they did it through "ignorance," and as men "without hope"; for both which, see 1 Thessalonians 4:13 . Joseph could look through his own loss, and see his father’s gain beyond it. Besides, he could say, as Jerome Jerome, ad Julian. in like case, Tulisti, Domine, patrem, quem ipse dederas: Non coutristor quid recepisti; ago gratias, quod dedisti. And if epicures could comfort themselves in their greatest dejections, ex praeteritarum voluptatum recordatione; Cic., De Finib., lib. ii. how much more could Joseph now; not only by calling to mind this last seventeen years’ enjoyment of his dear father, beyond all hope and expectation; but chiefly, that happy change his father had made, from darkness to light, from death to life, from sorrow to solace; from a factious world, to a heavenly habitation, where he drinks of that torrent of pleasure, without let or loathing.

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And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

Speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh. — He spake not to the king himself, but set others to work. Not because he was fallen out of favour, for he had the happiness to be favourite to five kings, Pareus. Onus, Amasis, Chebron, Amenophes, and Mephiris, in the eleventh year of whose reign he died, - but because he was now a mourner; and such were not wont to come before kings, Esther 4:2 though none but such as mourn are suffered to come before God. Matthew 5:4

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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 come again.

In my grave which I have digged for me. — A usual thing of old. 2 Chronicles 16:14 Matthew 27:60 See Trapp on " Genesis 23:9 " Quintillus Plautianus, an ancient senator of Rome, in the days of Severus the Emperor, being wrongfully accused and condemned to die, desired before his death to see those things that he had long since laid by for his burial; Postulavit, ut ea quae ad sepulturam suam comparaverat, … which when he saw to be little worth with long lying, Quid hoc rei est? inquit; itane cunctati sumus? What a thing is this? said he. Have we made no more haste to die than so? τι τουτο εβραδυνωμεν . - Dio.

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

As he made thee swear. — Oaths must be religiously kept, even those that are private, betwixt friend and friend. For, although whatsoever is more than yea and nay, in our ordinary communication, is evil, Matthew 5:37 yet a private oath, as betwixt Boaz and Ruth, so it be sparingly and warily used, is not unlawful. For in serious and weighty affairs, if it be lawful in private to admit God as a judge, why may he not as well be called to witness and to avenge? But this only in case of necessity, when yea and nay will not be taken.

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