And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, [being] old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
29. gave up the ghost, &c.] Cf. the same phrase in Gen 25:8, Gen 49:33.
Esau and Jacob ] According to P, Esau and Jacob meet at the burial of Isaac, just as Ishmael and Isaac met to bury Abraham, Gen 25:9.
The Book of Jubilees (chs. 37, 38) relates that, after Isaac’s death, Esau was stirred up by his sons to attack Jacob with an army; and that Esau said: “If the boar can change its skin, and make its bristles as soft as wool then will I observe the tie of brotherhood with thee, &c.” Whereupon Jacob, listening to the advice of Judah his son, “bent his bow and sent forth the arrow and struck Esau his brother on the right breast and slew him.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 29. Isaac gave up the ghost – and was gathered unto his people] See Clarke on Ge 25:8.
Esau and Jacob buried him.] See Ge 25:9. Esau, as we have seen chap. xxxiii., was thoroughly reconciled to his brother Jacob, and now they both join in fraternal and filial affection to do the last kind office to their amiable father. It is generally allowed that the death of Isaac is mentioned here out of its chronological order, as several of the transactions mentioned in the succeeding chapters, especially xxxvii. and xxxviii., must have happened during his life; but that the history of Joseph might not be disturbed, his death is anticipated in this place. It is supposed that he lived at least twelve years after Joseph was sold into Egypt.
THIS chapter contains several subjects which are well worthy of the reader’s most serious attention.
1. That such a family as that of Jacob should have had false gods in it, is a matter not less astonishing than real: and suppose that we allow, as is very probable, that their images and rings were got from strangers, the Syrians and the Shechemites, yet their being tolerated in the family, though it is probable this was for a very short time, cannot be easily accounted for. It is true the LAW was not then given, and the unity of God not so particularly taught as it was afterwards. Besides, we have already seen that certain superstitions were compatible in those early times with general sincerity and attachment to the truth; those times and acts of ignorance were winked at, till superior light shone upon the world. Between many of the practices of Laban’s family and those of the surrounding heathenish tribes, there might have been but little difference; and this was probably the reason why Dinah could so readily mix with the daughters of the land, Ge 34:1, which led to the fatal consequences already reviewed. Sin is like the letting out of water – when once a breach is made in the dyke, the stream becomes determined to a wrong course, and its progress is soon irresistible. Had not Jacob put away these strange gods, the whole family might have been infected with idolatry. This saying of one of the ancients is good, Vitia transmittit ad posteros, qui praesentibus culpis ignoscit. – SENECA. “He who is indulgent to present offences, transmits sin to posterity.” The first motions of it should be firmly resisted; after struggles are too often fruitless.
2. The doctrine of a particular and especial providence has another proof in this chapter. After the sanguinary conduct of Jacob’s sons, is it not surprising that the neighbouring tribes did not join together and extirpate the whole family? And so they certainly would, had not the terror of God fallen upon them, Ge 35:5. Jacob and the major part of his family were innocent of this great transgression; and on the preservation of their lives, the accomplishment of great events depended: therefore God watches over them, and shields them from the hands of their enemies.
3. The impatience and fate of the amiable Rachel, who can read of without deploring? Give me children, said she, or else I die, Ge 30:1. Her desire was granted, and her death was the consequence! God’s way is ever best. We know not what we ask, nor what we ought to ask, and therefore often ask amiss when we petition for such secular things as belong to the dispensations of God’s providence. For things of this kind we have no revealed directory; and when we ask for them, it should be with the deepest submission to the Divine will, as God alone knows what is best for us. With respect to the soul, every thing is clearly revealed, so that we may ask and receive, and have a fulness of joy; but as to our bodies, there is much reason to fear that the answer of our petitions would be, in numerous cases, our inevitable destruction. How many prayers does God in mercy shut out!
4. The transgression of Reuben, of whatsoever kind, was marked, not only by the displeasure of his father, but by that of God also; see Ge 49:4. It brought a curse upon him, and he forfeited thereby the right of primogeniture and the priesthood: the first was given to Judah, the second to Levi. Is it not in reference to this that our Lord addresses these solemn words to the angel of the Church of Philadelphia: Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that NO MAN TAKE THY CROWN? A man, by sowing a grain of forbidden sweets, may reap an abundant harvest of eternal wretchedness. Reader, let not sin rob thee of the kingdom of God.
5. Here we have the death of Isaac recorded: most that can be said of his character has been already anticipated, see chap. xxii., &c. He appears to have been generally pious, deeply submissive and obedient. He was rather an amiable and good, than a great and useful, man. If compared with his son Jacob, in the early part of their lives, he appears to great advantage, as possessing more sincerity and more personal piety. But if compared with his father Abraham, O, what a falling off is here! Abraham is the most perfect character under the Old Testament, and even under the New he has no parallel but St. Paul. Isaac, though falling far short of his father’s excellences, will ever remain a pattern of piety and filial obedience.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
1715
Was gathered unto his people; either to the society of the dead, or to the congregation of the just. See Gen 15:15; 25:8.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
29. Isaac gave up the ghostThedeath of this venerable patriarch is here recorded by anticipationfor it did not take place till fifteen years after Joseph’sdisappearance. Feeble and blind though he was, he lived to a veryadvanced age; and it is a pleasing evidence of the permanentreconciliation between Esau and Jacob that they met at Mamre toperform the funeral rites of their common father.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died,…. According to an Arabic writer l, he died at the end of the year 3,668, in the month Jiar, when Jacob was one hundred and twenty years old, and his children buried him in the cave in which Abraham was buried, in the city Chabil: According to Ussher this at about 1,716 B.C.
and was gathered unto his people; his soul was gathered to the righteous, his body was laid where Abraham and Sarah were buried:
[being] old, and full of days; the number of which is observed in
Ge 35:28;
and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him; in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, where he lived and died, and where his parents had been buried, and Rebekah his wife. Esau very probably was sent for upon his father’s death, or a little before it. This shows that there was a reconciliation between Jacob and Esau, and that it continued; and that Jacob did not decline the visit of him at Seir, nor in a clandestine manner took his journey another way, and avoided going thither on his invitation.
l Elmacin. p. 26. apud Hottinger. Smegma Orient. p. 341.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(29) Esau and Jacob buried him.Esau, who apparently still dwelt at Hebron until his fathers death, takes here the precedence as his natural right. But having in previous expeditions learnt the physical advantages of the land of Seir, and the powerlessness of the Horites to resist him, he gives up Hebron to his brother, and migrates with his large wealth to that country.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
29. Esau and Jacob buried him Again the brothers (like Isaac and Ishmael, Gen 25:9) come together, both bound by tender affection for their venerated father . Esau had, probably long before this, removed his household and possessions unto Mount Seir. See Gen 36:6-8. Here ends the section of the generations of Isaac, which began with Gen 25:19.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 35:29. Esau and Jacob buried him Instead of taking this opportunity of murdering Jacob, as he had purposed, Esau’s heart was so influenced, that he amicably assisted at Isaac’s funeral.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
It is good to see that Esau and Jacob’s love continued. Death indeed in a family, may well induce affection in the survivors. It is awful to see relations, sometimes for a little property, fighting over the graves of their friends, while they themselves are falling after them. Gen 27:41 .Gen 35
REFLECTIONS
Reader! while we pass over this Chapter to admire and adore the divine goodness manifested in so many sweet and repeated visits of his love to the Patriarch Jacob; let us examine our own hearts for the like tokens of such Bethel enjoyments. Will you look within, and ask your own heart; (for I desire continually to put the same questions to mine); when did the visions of GOD begin with my soul? When did JESUS, (according to his most sure promise to his people), manifest himself to me otherwise than he doth to the world? When did I experience the renewings of the HOLY GHOST? Reader! do not dismiss these questions unanswered?
In the sorrows of the Patriarch’s household, let us seriously contemplate the lot of a fallen state. Sin hath indeed entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passeth upon all men because all have sinned. But my soul, look with an eye of faith beyond the grave. What though thy friends, children, servants, die; nay, thou thyself art hastening after them? yet JESUS, thy JESUS liveth. And am I not his in an everlasting covenant, and is he not mine? And shall I mourn then with such bright prospects in view? Dearest LORD! when all friends leave me, and when my heart and strength fail, be thou the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
One look more at Isaac before we dose the Chapter, and drop the Patriarch’s history. I delight in every person and in everything, which receives in scripture the particular notice of GOD the HOLY GHOST, to trace somewhat which may lead my heart to JESUS. And is there nothing striking to this amount in Isaac’s life? Was not the Redeemer long promised, long looked for, with a devout earnestness by all the church, and at length born into the world in a method contrary to the established course of natural causes; similar, but infinitely beyond the example of Isaac’s birth? And were there not Ishmaels to mock the LORD JESUS in the long and trying persecutions he sustained, like the son of Hagar the Egyptian, despising Isaac? In the cheerful acquiescence which Isaac made to his father’s will for sacrifice; carrying the wood; being bound upon the altar; and not offering a repining word when Abraham took the knife to slay his son; can I not, as a type, trace somewhat of thine unequalled love; oh! thou Lamb of GOD, who voluntarily didst undertake, by the sacrifice of thyself, the redemption of thy people; when fainting beneath thy cross, thou wast led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so openedst not thou thy mouth! Oh! may my soul live in the constant, daily, hourly meditation of thy love! May everything tend to lead my heart unto thee! And may thy love at length awaken mine, and induce all those precious effects of loving thee who hast so loved me, as to have given thyself for me.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
and died. Figure of speech Synonymia, for great emphasis. They all mean the same thing, repeated in other words, to add solemnity to the event.
was gathered. See note on Gen 49:33. 2Sa 12:23.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
am 2288, bc 1716
Isaac: Gen 3:19, Gen 15:15, Gen 25:7, Gen 25:8, Gen 25:17, Gen 27:1, Gen 27:2, Gen 49:33, Job 5:26, Ecc 12:5-7
his sons: Gen 23:19, Gen 23:20, Gen 25:9, Gen 27:41, Gen 49:31
Reciprocal: Gen 36:5 – in the land Gen 49:29 – bury me Gen 50:13 – the cave Exo 23:26 – the number Num 20:24 – gathered 1Ch 23:1 – old 1Ch 29:28 – full of days