104 
“ putting-forth '' of figs in the Song of Solomon, ii. 13. The 
verb is Jchdnat. Is it an Egyptian word ? ^ ^ 
Kena-t is given by Pierret* in his <e Hieroglyphic Yocabulary,'' 
and translated as “ colour.'' He adds, “ we see the word 
always written above paintings of yellow colour." Now the 
prevailing colour of the Theban mummies of the best style, 
. and of their interminable bandages, is a saffron yellow. The 
word as applied to figs might refer to colour. And the plural 
ptqn, lihintm , wheat, in Ezra f may well signify originally 
yellow, as wheat is named from colour in many languages 
besides our own. This may be worth the trouble of sifting. 
Doubtless by my grave " (Heb. qever) “ which I have 
digged for me in the land of Canaan " J Jacob intended the 
special recess in the “ cave,"” rnra, m’drah, which he had 
prepared for his own body, as Dr. Thomson has explained the 
matter. § It was doubtless “ by faith " that he was moved 
to make his command, and this faith not only laid hold of the 
covenant and promise of God with regard to the land of 
Canaan, and inspired the pious wish to be “ gathered to his 
fathers " in the Makpelah, as well as in She'ol, the unseen 
world : but Jacob was probably moved by the desire to avoid 
lying in an Egyptian sepulchre (as Abraham had avoided “ the 
choice " of the tombs of the sons of Kheth) surrounded by 
the pomp and circumstance 33 of that religion which he 
repudiated. Josephus “ servants the physicians 33 may be 
distinguished from the Egyptian priestly masters of the 
obsequies, and so (as the Abbe Yigouroux believes) by 
Joseph's pious care the observances of the Ritual were 
avoided, even if Jacob could have been subjected to the 
ordinary treatment of the Egyptians, and embalmed by their 
embalm ers," which Bishop Harold Browne || thinks was not 
the case. 
The mourning of “ seventy days 33 for Jacob seems to have 
been the full term for the expression of the utmost honour, 
as Diodorus states the mourning for a king to have lasted 
seventy-two days. 
Jacob's express and repeated mention of Ephron, and the 
sons of Kheth, and the extraordinary honour rendered in the 
magnificent Pharaonic procession of “ all the servants of 
Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land 
* Vocoh., 624. t vi. 9 ; vii. 22. f Gen. 1. 5 ; cf. Is. xxii. 16, &c. 
§ The Land and the Book , 106. || Sp. Bib., I. 234. 
