From the Blue Letter Bible

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Gen 50:3 — 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.

Phrase of Scripture		Correlating Passages

forty days		We learn from the Greek historians, that the time of mourning was while the body remained with the embalmers, which Herodotus says was seventy days. During this time the body lay in nitre, the use of which was to dry up all its superfluous and noxious moisture: and when, in the space of 30 days, this was sufficiently effected, the remaining forty, the time mentioned by Diodorus, were employed in anointing it with gums and spices to preserve it, which was properly the embalming. This sufficiently explains the phraseology of the text.
mourned		Heb. wept.
threescore		Num 20:29; Deu 21:13; Deu 34:8

Correlating Passages

threescore

	Num 20:29	And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days, [even] all the house of Israel.
	Deu 21:13	And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.
	Deu 34:8	And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping [and] mourning for Moses were ended.

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Cite This Page: (explanation of citations)

Scott, Thomas. "Genesis 50:3," The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Blue Letter Bible. 1836. 9 Jul 2004. .
<http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Gen/50/3.html>.

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