What Does Genesis 50:3 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for embalming is also used for figs ripening, placing bodily preparation beside a word for fruit reaching its season.
THE MEANING
Loss can carry two measures at once: care for the body and grief among the living. One process can reach its full span while the other continues; finishing what can be done does not mean mourning is over.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that completing the practical work of loss means grief should be finished too: mourning continues beyond the days of embalming.
THE ROOT
חָנַט
ḥānaṭ
GROWS FROM
חנט
To embalm; the same root is also used of figs ripening.
“embalmed” in this verse is ḥānaṭ. English gives embalming a technical sound, while this Hebrew root is also used when a fig tree’s fruit ripens. The two settings are distinct, but the shared root lets bodily preparation echo a word used for fruit reaching its season.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānaṭ: To prepare or embalm a body.
חָנַט
This is the word behind the forty days set apart for bodily care.
ḥāneṭāh: Used of the fig tree as its early figs ripen (Song of Songs 2:13).
חָנְטָה
This branch reveals the root’s connection to a process reaching its season.
THE PATTERN
Grief has its own time and expression, distinct from the practical work surrounding loss.
And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;Jesus wept.THE THREAD
And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.The verb translated “weep” here is בָּכָה (bākāh, to weep), the same root rendered “mourned” in Genesis 50:3. The shared root connects communal mourning with the direct act of weeping.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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