Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 50:2

2 And Joseph commanded his servants the Physitians to imbalm his father : and the Physitians imbalmed Israel.

The dead Corps of his Father with Spices and Oyntments and other things necessary for the preservation of the body from putrefaction as long as might be. This Ioseph did partly because he would comply as far as he could with the Egyptians, whose custom this was, from whom also the Jews took it, 2 Chron. 16. 14. Iohn 19. 39, 40. Partly to do honour and shew his affections to his worthy Father; and partly because this was necessary for the keeping of the body so long as the times of mourning and the journey to Canaan required.