King James Bible Dictionary

EMB'ALM, verb transitive emb'am.

1. To open a dead body, take out the intestines, and fill their place with odoriferous and desiccative spices and drugs, to prevent its putrefaction.

Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel. Genesis 50:2.

2. To fill with sweet scent.

3. To preserve, with care and affection, from loss or decay.

The memory of my beloved daughter is embalmed in my heart.

Virtue alone, with lasting grace, Embalms the beauties of the face.

EMB'ALMED, participle passive Filled with aromatic plants for preservation; preserved from loss or destruction.

EMB'ALMER, noun One who embalms bodies for preservation.

The process of preserving a body by means of aromatics (Genesis 50:2, 3, 26). This art was practised by the Egyptians from the earliest times, and there brought to great perfection. This custom probably originated in the belief in the future reunion of the soul with the body. The process became more and more complicated, and to such perfection was it carried that bodies embalmed thousands of years ago are preserved to the present day in the numberless mummies that have been discovered in Egypt.

The embalming of Jacob and Joseph was according to the Egyptian custom, which was partially followed by the Jews (2 Chronicles 16:14), as in the case of king Asa, and of our Lord (John 19:39, 40; Luke 23:56; 24:1). (See PHARAOH.)

Of Jacob
Genesis 50:2-3

Of Joseph
Genesis 50:26

Of Asa
2 Chronicles 16:14

Of Jesus
Mark 15:46; Mark 16:1

the process by which dead bodies are preserved from putrefaction and decay. It was most general among the Egyptians, and it is in connection with this people that the two instances which we meet with in the Old Testament are mentioned. (Genesis 50:2,26) The embalmers first removed part of the brain through the nostrils, by means of a crooked iron, and destroyed the rest by injecting caustic drugs. An incision was then made along the flank with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and the whole of the intestines removed. The cavity was rinsed out with palm wine, and afterwards scoured with pounded perfumes. It was then filled with pure myrrh pounded, cassia and other aromatics, except frankincense. This done, the body was sewn up and steeped in natron (salf-petre) for seventy days. When the seventy days were accomplished, the embalmers washed the corpse and swathed it in bandages of linen, cut in strips and smeared with gum. They then gave it up to the relatives of the deceased, who provided for it a wooden case, made in the shape of a man, in which the dead was placed,a nd deposited in an erect position against the wall of the sepulchral chamber. Sometimes no incision was made in the body, nor were the intestines removed, but cedar-oil was injected into the stomach by the rectum. At others the oil was prevented from escaping until the end of the steeping process, when it was withdrawn, and carried off with it the stomach and intestines in a state of solution, while the flesh was consumed by the natron, and nothing was left but the skin and bones. The body in this state was returned to the relatives of the deceased. The third mode, which was adopted by the poorer classes, and cost but little, consisted in rinsing out the intestines with syrm'a, an infusion of senna and cassia, and steeping the body for several days in natron. It does not appear that embalming was practiced by the Hebrews. The cost of embalming was sometimes nearly , varying from this amount down to or .

EMB'ALMING, participle present tense Filling a dead body with spices for preservation; preserving with care from loss, decay or destruction.