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Genesis 50:1
繁體中文
영문 원문
After the natural outburst of sorrow for his deceased parent, Joseph gave orders to embalm the body, according to the custom of Egypt. "His servants, the physicians." As the grand vizier of Egypt, he has physicians in his retinue. The classes and functions of the physicians in Egypt may be learned from Herodotus (ii.-81-86). There were special physicians for each disease; and the embalmers formed a class by themselves. "Forty days" were employed in the process of embalming; "seventy days," including the forty, were devoted to mourning for the dead. Herodotus mentions this number as the period of embalming. Diodorus (i. 91) assigns upwards of thirty days to the process. It is probable that the actual process was continued for forty days, and that the body lay in natron for the remaining thirty days of mourning. See Hengstenberg's B. B. Mos. u. Aeg., and Rawlinson's Herodotus.
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Genesis 50:4
繁體中文
約瑟不親自出面——因他是居喪之人——而是藉法老的臣僕，照着他的誓言，請求准他葬他父親在迦南地。這請求獲得自由而完全的允准。
영문 원문
Joseph, by means of Pharaoh's courtiers, not in person, because he was a mourner, applies for leave to bury his father in the land of Kenaan, according to his oath. This leave is freely and fully allowed.
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Genesis 50:7
繁體中文
送葬的行列在此得著描述。「法老的臣僕」。為約瑟的緣故，最高的尊榮加於雅各。「法老家中的長老，並埃及國的長老」。宮廷與國家的官員在此分別列出。「約瑟的全家」。不僅是眾首領，還包括一切能去的兒子與僕人。車輛與馬兵伴隨同行，作路上的護衛。「亞達的禾場」，或譯荊棘（buck-thorn）的禾場。據說這地在約旦河外。他們大概是因直路上有某種阻難，似乎繞行鹽海的東側而去。「哀哭了七天」。這是向離世族長所作的最後傷痛訣別。亞伯‧麥西——這名字像東方的許多名字一樣，具有雙重含義。亞伯一詞起初無疑意指「哀哭」，儘管許多不明其來源的人，會在「草地」的意義上使用這名字。「他的兒子們把他搬去」。行列的大隊似乎停在約旦河那邊，等候那些把遺體送往最後安息之所的近親返回；然後全體一同回到埃及去。
영문 원문
The funeral procession is now described. "All the servants of Pharaoh." The highest honor is conferred on Jacob for Joseph's sake. "The elders of Pharaoh, and all the elders of the land of Mizraim." The court and state officials are here separately specified. "All the house." Not only the heads, but all the sons and servants that are able to go. Chariots and horsemen accompany them as a guard on the way. "The threshing-floor of Atari, or of the buck-thorn." This is said to be beyond Jordan. Deterred, probably, by some difficulty in the direct route, they seem to have gone round by the east side of the Salt Sea. "A mourning of seven days." This is a last sad farewell to the departed patriarch. Abel-Mizraim. This name, like many in the East, has a double meaning. The word Abel no doubt at first meant mourning, though the name would be used by many, ignorant of its origin, in the sense of a meadow. "His sons carried him." The main body of the procession seems to have halted beyond the Jordan, and awaited the return of the immediate relatives, who conveyed the body to its last resting-place. The whole company then returned together to Egypt.
15
Genesis 50:15
繁體中文
約瑟的哥哥們懇求他饒恕。「他們打發人去見約瑟」——即差遣他們中間的一人去向他傳話，因為他們共同的父親如今已經留下了這樣的囑咐。「約瑟就哭了」，這是因他哥哥們的痛苦與疑惑而流的淚。他無疑是把他們召到面前，他們便伏在他面前懇求他的饒恕。約瑟消除了他們的懼怕。「我豈能代替神呢？」——難道我可以將律法握在自己手中，自行報復嗎？神已經審判了他們，更是把他們的罪行轉為祝福。他向他們保證自己對他們存著為兄的慈愛。
영문 원문
His brethren supplicate Joseph for forgiveness. "They sent unto Joseph," commissioned one of their number to speak to him. now that our common father has given us this command. "And Joseph wept" at the distress and doubt of his brothers. He no doubt summons them before him, when they fall down before him entreating his forgiveness. Joseph removes their fears. "Am I in God's stead?" that I should take the law into my own hands, and take revenge. God has already judged them, and moreover turned their sinful deed into a blessing. He assures them of his brotherly kindness toward them.
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Genesis 50:22
繁體中文
約瑟的傳記如今完結了。「第三代的子孫」——指以法蓮世系中孫子的孫子。這裡明確證明，在約瑟在世之年，父親與其長子出生相隔約二十年並非罕見。「約瑟叫以色列的子孫起誓」。他如此表達了對以色列眾子必歸回應許之地堅定不移的信心。「神必定看顧你們」。他死後被薰了香料、放在棺材裡，由其後代這樣保存著，這在埃及並非罕見。及至以色列眾子從埃及歸回，他們履行了向約瑟所起的誓（Exodus 13:19），把他的骸骨葬在示劍（Joshua 24:32）。
蒙默示的作者在此向蒙揀選的家族道別，為以色列眾子的聖經畫上句點。這實在是一部奇妙的書。它揭開了懸在人類現今光景之上的奧祕之幕。它記載了人的起源與墮落，從而解釋了道德之惡與道德意識何以並存，以及人靈魂中對神和審判的承襲記憶。它記載了變亂口音的緣由與方式，從而解釋了人類的一體性與人類言語在方式或形態上之具體差異何以相伴而存。它記載了亞伯拉罕的蒙召，從而說明了對神及其憐憫的認識何以在人類的一個分支中得以保存，而在其餘一切支系中敗壞或失傳。六日創造解釋了自然界現今的狀態，這幾乎無須多言。如此，它為亞當的族類解決了物理學、倫理學、語言學與神學的根本問題。它標明人與神之間原初的關係，並標出隨亞當、挪亞、亞伯拉罕而來的人類發展的三個偉大階段。它指出為這些階段開路的三種罪的形式——亞當的墮落、神的兒子們與人的女子們通婚、以及巴別塔的建造。它逐步揭示恩典向回轉悔改者所存的目的與方法，即藉著一位拯救者；這位拯救者先後被宣告為女人、閃、亞伯拉罕、以撒、雅各、猶大的後裔。這就是第二亞當：當行為之約因第一亞當的失敗而瀕臨傾覆之際，他承擔起維護這約的職任，代表一切蒙受神恩典的人成全約中的一切條件。
因此，主先後與亞當、挪亞、亞伯拉罕堅立他的約：與墮落後的亞當是默然的，與挪亞是明言的，並且與這兩位普遍地立約，作為由他們而出的族類的代表；與亞伯拉罕則是特別地、作為憑藉地立約，使他成為救恩之福最終得以延伸到地上萬族的管道。這憐憫計劃的這許多內容，是照著人類在理智、道德與行事能力之教育上的進展，而不時向他們顯明的。這唯一可信的太古史綱要，配得有理智、負責任的人恆久研讀。
영문 원문
The biography of Joseph is now completed. "The children of the third generation" - the grandsons of grandsons in the line of Ephraim. We have here an explicit proof that an interval of about twenty years between the births of the father and that of his first-born was not unusual during the lifetime of Joseph. "And Joseph took an oath." He thus expressed his unwavering confidence in the return of the sons of Israel to the land of promise. "God will surely visit." He was embalmed and put in a coffin, and so kept by his descendants, as was not unusual in Egypt. And on the return of the sons of Israel from Egypt they kept their oath to Joseph Exodus 13:19, and buried his bones in Shekem Joshua 24:32.
The sacred writer here takes leave of the chosen family, and closes the bible of the sons of Israel. It is truly a wonderful book. It lifts the veil of mystery that hangs over the present condition of the human race. It records the origin and fall of man, and thus explains the co-existence of moral evil and a moral sense, and the hereditary memory of God and judgment in the soul of man. It records the cause and mode of the confusion of tongues, and thus explains the concomitance of the unity of the race and the specific diversity of mode or form in human speech. It records the call of Abraham, and thus accounts for the preservation of the knowledge of God and his mercy in one section of the human race, and the corruption or loss of it in all the rest. We need scarcely remark that the six days' creation accounts for the present state of nature. It thus solves the fundamental questions of physics, ethics, philology, and theology for the race of Adam. It notes the primitive relation of man to God, and marks the three great stages of human development that came in with Adam, Noah, and Abraham. It points out the three forms of sin that usher in these stages - the fall of Adam, the intermarriage of the sons of God with the daughters of men, and the building of the tower of Babel. It gradually unfolds the purpose and method of grace to the returning penitent through a Deliverer who is successively announced as the seed of the woman, of Shem, of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. This is the second Adam, who, when the covenant of works was about to fall to the ground through the failure of the first Adam, undertook to uphold it by fulfilling all its conditions on behalf of those who are the objects of the divine grace.
Hence, the Lord establishes his covenant successively with Adam, Noah, and Abraham; with Adam after the fall tacitly, with Noah expressly, and with both generally as the representatives of the race descending from them; with Abraham especially and instrumentally as the channel through which the blessings of salvation might be at length extended to all the families of the earth. So much of this plan of mercy is revealed from time to time to the human race as comports with the progress they have made in the education of the intellectual, moral, and active faculties. This only authentic epitome of primeval history is worthy of the constant study of intelligent and responsible man.
約瑟為離世的父親發出了一陣自然而然的悲慟之後，便照埃及的習俗吩咐人把遺體用香料薰製防腐。「他的僕人——那些醫生。」身為埃及的宰相，他的隨行人員中有醫生。埃及醫生的階層與職司，可從希羅多德（Herodotus）（第二卷 81-86）得知。每一種病症各有專門的醫生；而薰尸的人自成一個階層。薰製防腐的過程需用「四十天」；「七十天」——包括那四十天在內——則用來為死者哀哭。希羅多德所提到的這個數目，正是指薰尸的時期。狄奧多羅斯（Diodorus）（第一卷 91）則說這過程需時三十天以上。實際的過程大概持續了四十天，而在其餘三十天的哀悼期內，遺體則浸於泡鹼（natron）之中。可參 Hengstenberg 的《B. B. Mos. u. Aeg.》以及 Rawlinson 的 Herodotus 註釋。