Joseph is here paying his last respects to his deceased father. 1. With
tears and kisses, and all the tender expressions of a filial affection,
he takes leave of the deserted body, v. 1. Though Jacob was old and
decrepit, and must needs die in the course of nature--though he was
poor comparatively, and a constant charge to his son Joseph, yet such
an affection he had for a loving father, and so sensible was he of the
loss of a prudent, pious, praying father, that he could not part with
him without floods of tears. Note, As it is an honour to die lamented,
so it is the duty of survivors to lament the death of those who have
been useful in their day, though for some time they may have survived
their usefulness. The departed soul is out of the reach of our tears
and kisses, but with them it is proper to show our respect to the poor
body, of which we look for a glorious and joyful resurrection. Thus
Joseph showed his faith in God, and love to his father, by kissing his
pale and cold lips, and so giving an affectionate farewell. Probably
the rest of Jacob's sons did the same, much moved, no doubt, with his
dying words. 2. He ordered the body to be embalmed (v. 2), not only
because he died in Egypt, and that was the manner of the Egyptians, but
because he was to be carried to Canaan, which would be a work of time,
and therefore it was necessary the body should be preserved as well as
it might be from putrefaction. See how vile our bodies are, when the
soul has forsaken them; without a great deal of art, and pains, and
care, they will, in a very little time, become noisome. If the body
have been dead four days, by that time it is offensive. 3. He observed
the ceremony of solemn mourning for him, v. 3. Forty days were taken up
in embalming the body, which the Egyptians (they say) had an art of
doing so curiously as to preserve the very features of the face
unchanged; all this time, and thirty days more, seventy in all, they
either confined themselves and sat solitary, or, when they went out,
appeared in the habit of close mourners, according to the decent custom
of the country. Even the Egyptians, many of them, out of the great
respect they had for Joseph (whose good offices done for the king and
country were now fresh in remembrance), put themselves into mourning
for his father: as with us, when the court goes into mourning, those of
the best quality do so too. About ten weeks was the court of Egypt in
mourning for Jacob. Note, What they did in state, we should do in
sincerity, weep with those that weep, and mourn with those that mourn,
as being ourselves also in the body. 4. He asked and obtained leave of
Pharaoh to go to Canaan, thither to attend the funeral of his father,
v. 4-6. (1.) It was a piece of necessary respect to Pharaoh that he
would not go without leave; for we may suppose that, though his charge
about the corn was long since over, yet he continued a prime-minister
of state, and therefore would not be so long absent from his business
without licence. (2.) He observed a decorum, in employing some of the
royal family, or some of the officers of the household, to intercede
for this licence, either because it was not proper for him in the days
of his mourning to come into the presence-chamber, or because he would
not presume too much upon his own interest. Note, Modesty is a great
ornament to dignity. (3.) He pleaded the obligation his father had laid
upon him, by an oath, to bury him in Canaan, v. 5. It was not from
pride or humour, but from his regard to an indispensable duty, that he
desired it. All nations reckon that oaths must be performed, and the
will of the dead must be observed. (4.) He promised to return: I will
come again. When we return to our own houses from burying the bodies of
our relations, we say, "We have left them behind;" but, if their souls
have gone to our heavenly Father's house, we may say with more reason,
"They have left us behind." (5.) He obtained leave (v. 6): Go and bury
thy father. Pharaoh was willing his business should stand still so
long; but the service of Christ is more needful, and therefore he would
not allow one that had work to do for him to go first and bury his
father; no, Let the dead bury their dead, Matt. viii. 22.