Commentary on Genesis John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.
23. Et vidit Joseph ipsi Ephraim filios tertiae generationis: eitam filii Machir filii Menasseh aducati sunt super genua Joseph.
24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
24. Et dixit Joseph fratribus suis, Ego morior, et Deus Visitando visitabit vos, et ascendere faciet vos e terra hac ad terram, quam juravit Abraham, Ishac, Jahacob.
25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
25. Et adjuravit Joseph filios Israel, dicendo, visitando visitabit Deus vos, et tolletis ossa mea hinc.
26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
26. Itaque mortuus est Joseph filius centum et decem annorum: et aromatibus condierunt eum, et positus est in are in Aegypto.
1. And Joseph fell upon his father's face. In this chapter, what happened after the death of Jacob, is briefly related. Moses, however, states that Jacob's death was honored with a double mourning — natural (so to speak) and ceremonial. That Joseph falls upon his father's face and sheds tears, flows from true and pure affection; that the Egyptians mourn for him seventy days, since it is done for the sake of honor, and in compliance with custom, is more from ostentation and vain pomp, than from true grief: and yet the dead are generally mourned over in this manner, that the last debt due to them may be discharged. Whence also the proverb has originated, that the mourning of the heir is laughter under a mask. And although sometimes minds are penetrated with real grief; yet something is added to it, by the affectation of making a show of pious sorrow, so that they indulge largely in tears in the presence of others, who would weep more sparingly if there were no witnesses of their grief Hence those friends who meet together, under the pretext of administering consolation, often pursue a course so different, that they call forth more abundant weeping. And although the ceremony of mourning over the dead arose from a good principle; namely, that the living should meditate on the curse entailed by sin upon the human race,