Genesis 50:3

Summary

The verse states that forty days were required to complete Jacob's embalming, following what the text calls the customary duration for this process, and that the Egyptians wept for him for seventy days.

Key words

• yimle'u ("they were completed", H4390) — appears twice, first as a narrative qal verb marking a completed action in the story sequence, then as an imperfect form describing the general or customary duration ("thus the days... are completed").
• arba'im ("forty", H0705) — cardinal number, masculine plural, specifying the exact count of days for the embalming process.
• yeme ha-chanutim ("days of the embalming", H3117G + H2590B) — a construct chain: yeme ("days of") governs ha-chanutim ("the embalming"), linking the noun "days" directly to the process it measures.
• yivku ("they wept for", H1058) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine plural, describing the mourning action performed by the Egyptians.
• Mitzrayim ("Egypt", H4713) — proper noun functioning as the grammatical subject of the weeping, referring collectively to the Egyptians as a people.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parallel statements joined by the narrative va ("and", H9001), which chains the events sequentially. The first clause reports that forty days "were completed" (yimle'u) for the embalming, then explains this figure with a subordinate clause introduced by ki ken ("for thus", H3588A + H3651C): "for thus are completed the days of the embalming" — using the same verb yimle'u but in a form describing customary or recurring duration rather than a single completed event. This creates a distinction between the specific instance (Jacob's forty days) and the general practice it follows.

The second clause shifts to weeping: Mitzrayim ("Egypt") functions grammatically as the subject of yivku ("they wept for him"), even though Mitzrayim is singular in form — a collective noun taking a plural verb, referring to the Egyptian people as a whole. The direct object marker 'oto ("him") specifies that the weeping is directed at the deceased. The seventy days of weeping are stated separately from the forty days of embalming, without explicit indication in the Hebrew whether the periods overlap or are sequential.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yeme ha-chanutim ("days of the embalming") as αἱ ἡμέραι τῆς ταφῆς ("the days of burial"), shifting the reference from the embalming process itself to burial more broadly. The LXX also uses καταριθμοῦνται ("are counted, reckoned") for yimle'u, and ἐπένθησεν ("mourned") rather than a verb of weeping for yivku. The Vulgate expands the text with explanatory phrasing not present in the Hebrew word-by-word data — "quibus jussa explentibus" ("while they fulfilled the orders") and "iste quippe mos erat cadaverum conditorum" ("this indeed was the custom for embalmed bodies") — while its "flevitque eum Aegyptus" matches the Hebrew's weeping verb more closely than the LXX's "mourned."