Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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Now, it was a stately funeral. He was attended to the grave, not only by his own family, but by the courtiers, and all the great men of the kingdom, who, in token of their gratitude to Joseph, showed this respect to his father for his sake, and did him honour at his death. Though the Egyptians had had an antipathy to the Hebrews, and had looked upon them with disdain (Ge 43:32), yet now, that they were better acquainted with them, they began to have a respect for them. Good old Jacob had conducted himself so well among them as to gain universal esteem. Note, Professors of religion should endeavour, by wisdom and love, to remove the prejudices which many may have conceived against them because they do not know them. There went abundance of chariots and horsemen, not only to attend them a little way, but to go through with them. Note, The decent solemnities of funerals, according to a man's situation, are very commendable; and we must not say of them, To what purpose is this waste? See Ac 8:2, Lu 7:12.
8 and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house:
only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it
was a very great company.
10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond
Jordan; and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
It was a sorrowful funeral (Ge 50:10, 11); standers-by took notice of it as a grievous mourning. Note, The death of good men is a great loss to any place, and ought to be greatly lamented. Stephen dies a martyr, and yet devout men make great lamentations for him. The solemn mourning for Jacob gave a name to the place, Abel-Mizraim, the mourning of the Egyptians, which served for a testimony against the next generation of the Egyptians, who oppressed the posterity of this Jacob to whom their ancestors showed such respect.
11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the
mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, this is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called