Genesis 50:2
And he commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Præcepitque servis suis medicis ut aromatibus condirent patrem.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ προσέταξεν Ἰωσὴφ τοῖς παισὶν αὐτοῦ τοῖς ἐνταφιασταῖς ἐνταφιάσαι τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἐνεταφίασαν οἱ ἐνταφιασταὶ ⸆ τὸν Ἰσραήλ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיְצַ֨ו יוֹסֵ֤ף אֶת עֲבָדָיו֙ אֶת הָרֹ֣פְאִ֔ים לַחֲנֹ֖ט אֶת אָבִ֑יו וַיַּחַנְט֥וּ הָרֹפְאִ֖ים אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵֽל
Haydock's commentary
Physicians, whose business it was to embalm dead bodies, with a composition of myrrh, &c., in order to keep them from putrefaction, (Menochius) as the Egyptian mummies are treated. (Haydock)
The entrails are taken out, &c., by the embalmer during 30 days, and the body is left in salt and various drugs, for other 40, in all 70 days, as Herodotus informs us, (B. xi. 86,) and as Moses here insinuates, ver. 3. This was an honour peculiar to the kings. Before any person was buried, his praises were rehearsed; and it was lawful on this occasion to declare, what evil even the kings themselves had done; which sometimes caused them to be deprived of funeral honours. We have several funeral canticles preserved in Scripture: 2 Kings i. 18; iii. 33; 2 Paralipomenon xxxv. 25. (Calmet)
The Lamentations of Jeremias were perhaps of this nature, on the death of King Josias. The usual time for mourning among the Jews, was 30 days for people of eminence, (Numbers xx.; Deuteronomy xxxiv. 8; Procopius) and seven for the rest, Ecclesiasticus xxii. 13. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.