Teks -- Genesis 50:4 (NET)

50:4 When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s royal court, “If I have found favor in your sight, please say to Pharaoh,

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

JFB: Gen 50:4-5 - Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, &c.

Care was taken to let it be known that the family sepulchre was provided before leaving Canaan and that an oath bound his family to convey the remains thither. Besides, Joseph deemed it right to apply for a special leave of absence; and being unfit, as a mourner, to appear in the royal presence, he made the request through the medium of others.

Clarke: Gen 50:4 - Speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh

Speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh - But why did not Joseph apply himself? Because he was now in his mourning habits, and in such none must appear in the presence of the eastern monarchs. See Est 4:2.

Calvin: Gen 50:4 - Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh

4.Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh. A brief narration is here inserted of the permission obtained for Joseph, that, with the goodwill and leave of the king, he might convey his father’s remains to the sepulcher of the double cave. Now, though he himself enjoyed no common decree of favor, he yet makes use of the courtiers as his intercessors. Why did he act thus, unless on the ground that the affair was in itself odious to the people? For nothing (as we have said before) was less tolerable to the Egyptians, than that their land, of the sanctity of which they made their especial boast, should be despised. Therefore Joseph, in order to transfer the offense from himself to another, pleads necessity: as if he would say, that the burying of his father was not left to his own choice, because Jacob had laid him under obligation as to the mode of doing it, by the imposition of an oath. Wherefore, we see that he was oppressed by servile fear, so that he did not dare frankly and boldly to profess his own faith; since he is compelled to act a part, in order to transfer to the deceased whatever odium might attend the transaction. Now, whereas a more simple and upright confession of faith is required of the sons of God, let none of us seek refuge under such pretexts: but rather let us learn to ask of the Lord the spirit of fortitude and constancy which shall direct us to bear our testimony to true religion. Yet if men allow us the free profession of religion, let us give thanks for it. Now, seeing that Joseph did not dare to move his foot, except by permission of the king, we infer hence, that he was bound by his splendid fortune, as by golden fetters. And truly, such is the condition of all who are advanced to honor and favor in royal courts; so that there is nothing better for men of sane mind, than to be content with a private condition. Joseph also mitigates the offense which he feared he was giving, by another circumstance, when he says, that the desire to be buried in the land of Canaan was not one which had recently entered into his father’s mind, because he had dug his grave there long before; whence it follows that he had not been induced to do so by any disgust taken against the land of Egypt.

TSK: Gen 50:4 - the days // Joseph // found grace

the days : Gen 50:10

Joseph : Est 4:2

found grace : Gen 18:3

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Gen 50:4 - The house of Pharaoh

The house of Pharaoh the household or family, namely, those of them which were chief in place and favour with the king. Joseph makes use of their intercession, either,

1. Lest he might seem to despise them, or to presume too much upon his own single interest. Or,

2. By engaging them in this matter to stop their mouths, who otherwise might have been ready enough to censure this action, which they would have a fair opportunity to do in Joseph’ s absence. Or,

3. Because it was the custom here, as it was elsewhere, Est 4:2 , that persons in mourning habit might not come into the king’ s presence, partly because they would not give them any occasion of sadness, and partly because, according to their superstitions conceits, the sight of such a person was judged ominous.

Haydock: Gen 50:4 - Expired

Expired. Before the corpse was interred, Joseph could not lay aside his mourning attire, in which it was not lawful to appear at court. (Calmet)

Gill: Gen 50:4 - And when the days of his mourning were past // Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh // saying, if now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh; // saying

And when the days of his mourning were past,.... The forty days before mentioned, in which both the Egyptians and Jacob's family mourned for him. An Arabic writer ^g says, the Egyptians mourned for Jacob forty days, which was the time of embalming; but the text is express for sventy days:

Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh; to the court of Pharaoh, the principal men there; so the Targum of Jonathan and the Septuagint version, to the great men or princes of the house of Pharaoh: it may seem strange that Joseph, being next to Pharaoh in the administration of the government, should make use of any to speak for him to Pharaoh on the following account. It may be, that Joseph was not in so high an office, and in so much power and authority, as in the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine; and it is certain that that branch of his office, respecting the corn, must have ceased; or this might have been a piece of policy in Joseph to make these men his friends by such obliging treatment, and by this means prevent their making objections to his suit, or plotting against him in his absence; or if it was the custom in Egypt, as it afterwards was in Persia, that no man might appear before the king in a mourning habit, Est 4:2 this might be the reason of his not making application in person: moreover, it might not seem so decent for him to come to court, and leave the dead, and his father's family, in such circumstances as they were: besides, he might speak to them not in person, but by a messenger, since it is highly probable he was now in Goshen, at a distance from Pharaoh's court; unless it can be supposed that these were some of Pharaoh's courtiers who were come to him in Goshen, to condole his father's death:

saying, if now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh; however, as these men had the ear of Pharaoh, and an interest in him, Joseph entreats the favour of them to move it to him:

saying, as follows, in his name.