Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Genesis 49:28
All these [are] the twelve tribes of Israel: and this [is it] that their father spoke unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
28. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel ] In the enumeration of the twelve tribes, in this song, Joseph is reckoned as one; in Deuteronomy 33, Simeon is omitted, and Ephraim and Manasseh take the place of Joseph. In Numbers 2, Simeon is retained; Levi is omitted; Ephraim and Manasseh replace Joseph.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
28 33. Gen 49:28 a is the editorial conclusion to Jacob’s blessing. Gen 49:28b 33 resume from Gen 49:1 a, and record Jacob’s death according to P.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 28. Every one according to his blessing] That is, guided by the unerring Spirit of prophecy, Jacob now foretold to each of his sons all the important events which should take place during their successive generations, and the predominant characteristic of each tribe; and, at the same time, made some comparatively obscure references to the advent of the Messiah, and the redemption of the world by him.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The twelve tribes, i.e. the heads and parents of the twelve tribes. A metonomy of the effect. The tribes are generally accounted twelve, though they were thirteen, because the land was divided only into twelve parts, Levi having no distinct part of his own.
Every one according to his blessing, i.e. according to that blessing which God in his purpose had allotted to each of them, which also he manifested unto Jacob by his Spirit.
Object. There is no blessing here given to Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, but rather a curse; how then is he said to bless every one of them?
Answ. He blessed them all implicitly and really, though not expressly, or in words, because he gave each of them a part in Canaan; and his taking away from Reuben only the right of the first-born, plainly supposeth that he left him his single portion and inheritance. And he might well be said to bless them all, because he left them all an interest in Gods covenant, one article whereof was the giving of Canaan, or part of Canaan, to them, and this was an earnest of the other branches or articles of it; though it is probable he also added some short blessing, or prayer to God for his blessing, upon them all.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. all these are the twelve tribesof Israelor ancestors. Jacob’s prophetic words obviously refernot so much to the sons as to the tribes of Israel.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel,…. The twelve sons of Jacob before mentioned were heads of twelve tribes, who were afterwards seated, and had their part in the land of Canaan; there were indeed thirteen tribes, two springing from Joseph; but then the tribe of Levi had no part in the land of Canaan, which was divided into twelve parts; this shows that the above predictions respect not the persons of the patriarchs, but their tribes:
and this [is it] that their father spake unto them, and blessed them: the above is the sum and substance of what he had delivered in his patriarchal benediction of them, a little before his death; and though some of them, as Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, may seem rather to be cursed than blessed, yet the greater part of them were clearly and manifestly blessed; and what he said by way of correction and rebuke to the others, might be blessed to them for their good; nor is it improbable, that after he had delivered out the above predictions, he might wish for and implore a blessing on them all; and certain it is, that they all had a part in the blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as it related to the land of Canaan:
everyone according to his blessing he blessed them; according to the blessing which was appointed to them of God, and was in later times bestowed on them, Jacob under a spirit of prophecy was directed to bless them with, or to foretell what blessings should come upon them, and which accordingly did.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The concluding words in Gen 49:28, “ All these are the tribes of Israel, twelve, ” contain the thought, that in his twelve sons Jacob blessed the future tribes. “ Every one with that which was his blessing, he blessed them, ” i.e., every one with his appropriate blessing ( accus. dependent upon which is construed with a double accusative); since, as has already been observed, even Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, though put down through their own fault, received a share in the promised blessing.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Death of Jacob. | B. C. 1689. |
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. 29 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. 32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth. 33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
Here is, I. The summing up of the blessings of Jacob’s sons, v. 28. Though Reuben, Simeon, and Levi were put under the marks of their father’s displeasure, yet he is said to bless them every one according to his blessing; for none of them were rejected as Esau was. Note, Whatever rebukes of God’s word or providence we are under at any time, yet, as long as we have an interest in God’s covenant, a place and a name among his people, and good hopes of a share in the heavenly Canaan, we must account ourselves blessed.
II. The solemn charge Jacob gave them concerning his burial, which is a repetition of what he had before given to Joseph. See how he speaks of death, now that he is dying: I am to be gathered unto my people, v. 29. Note, It is good to represent death to ourselves under the most desirable images, that the terror of it may be taken off. Though it separates us from our children and our people in this world, it gathers us to our fathers and to our people in the other world. Perhaps Jacob uses this expression concerning death as a reason why his sons should bury him in Canaan; for, says he, “I am to be gathered unto my people, my soul must go to the spirits of just men made perfect: and therefore bury me with my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and their wives,” v. 31. Observe, 1. His heart was very much upon it, not so much from a natural affection to his native soil as from a principle of faith in the promise of God, that Canaan should be the inheritance of his seed in due time. Thus he would keep up in his sons a remembrance of the promised land, and not only would have their acquaintance with it renewed by a journey thither on that occasion, but their desire towards it and their expectation of it preserved. 2. He is very particular in describing the place both by the situation of it and by the purchase Abraham had made of it for a burying-place, Gen 49:30; Gen 49:32. He was afraid lest his sons, after seventeen years’ sojourning in Egypt, had forgotten Canaan, and even the burying-place of their ancestors there, or lest the Canaanites should dispute his title to it; and therefore he specifies it thus largely, and the purchase of it, even when he lies a-dying, not only to prevent mistakes, but to show how mindful he was of that country. Note, It is, and should be, a great pleasure to dying saints to fix their thoughts upon the heavenly Canaan, and the rest they hope for there after death.
III. The death of Jacob, v. 33. When he had finished both his blessing and his charge (both which are included in the commanding of his sons), and so had finished his testimony, he addressed himself to his dying work. 1. He put himself into a posture for dying; having before seated himself upon the bed-side, to bless his sons (the spirit of prophecy bringing fresh oil to his expiring lamp, Dan. x. 19), when that work was done, he gathered up his feet into the bed, that he might lie along, not only as one patiently submitting to the stroke, but as one cheerfully composing himself to rest, now that he was weary. I will lay me down, and sleep. 2. He freely resigned his spirit into the hand of God, the Father of spirits: He yielded up the ghost. 3. His separated soul went to the assembly of the souls of the faithful, which, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity: he was gathered to his people. Note, If God’s people be our people, death will gather us to them.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 28-33:
Jacob’s blessing upon his twelve sons was in reality a benediction upon the tribe which spring from them. Having spoken these words, he charged all the twelve as he had privately charged Joseph regarding his burial. He was under no circumstances to be buried in Egypt. At his death, the sons were to take his body back to the Land, to the burial plot Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite (chapter 23). Here Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah were buried. Here Jacob had buried Leah. And here he wanted his final resting place. This was a token of his faith that God would vindicate His Word and return the Chosen people to the Land He had promised.
Following this solemn charge, Jacob gathered his feet upon the bed, lay down, and peacefully departed this life. Thus ended the career of the most pilgrim-like of all the patriarchs.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
28. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. Moses would teach us by these words, that his predictions did not apply only to the sons of Jacob, but extended to their whole race. We have, indeed, shown already, with sufficient clearness, that the expressions relate not to their persons only; but this verse was to be added, in order that the readers might more clearly perceive the celestial majesty of the Spirit. Jacob beholds his twelve sons. Let us grant that, at that time, the number of his offspring, down to his great grandchildren, had increased a hundredfold. He does not, however, merely declare what is to be the condition of six hundred or a thousand men, but subjects regions and nations to his sentence; nor does he put himself rashly forward, since it is found afterwards, by the event, that God had certainly made known to him, what he had himself decreed to execute. Moreover, seeing that Jacob beheld, with the eyes of faith, things which were not only very remote, but altogether hidden from human sense; woe be unto our depravity, if we shut our eyes against the very accomplishment of the prediction in which the truth conspicuously appears.
But it may seem little consonant to reason, that Jacob is said to have blessed his posterity. For, in deposing Reuben from the primogeniture, he pronounced nothing joyous or prosperous respecting him; he also declared his abhorrence of Simon and Levi. It cannot be alleged that there is an antiphrasis in the word of benediction, as if it were used in a sense contrary to what is usual; because it plainly appears to be applied by Moses in a good, and not an evil sense. I therefore reconcile these things with each other thus; that the temporal punishments with which Jacob mildly and paternally corrected his sons, would not subvert the covenant of grace on which the benediction was founded; but rather, by obliterating their stains, would restore them to the original degree of honor from which they had fallen, so that, at least, they should be patriarchs among the people of God. And the Lord daily proves, in his own people, that the punishments he lays upon them, although they occasion shame and disgrace, are so far from opposing their happiness, that they rather promote it. Unless they were purified in this manner, it were to be feared lest they should become more and more hardened in their vices, and lest the hidden virus should produce corruption, which at length would penetrate to the vitals. We see how freely the flesh indulges itself, even when God rouses us by the tokens of his anger. What then do we suppose would take place if he should always connive at transgression? But when we, after having been reproved for our sins, repent, this result not only absorbs the curse which was felt at the beginning, but also proves that the Lord blesses us more by punishing us, than he would have done by sparing us. Hence it follows, that diseases, poverty, famine, nakedness, and even death itself, so far as they promote our salvation, may deservedly be reckoned blessings, as if their very nature were changed; just as the letting of blood may be not less conducive to health than food. When it is added at the close, every one according to his blessing, Moses again affirms, that Jacob not only implored a blessing on his sons, from a paternal desire for their welfare, but that he pronounced what God had put into his mouth; because at length the event proved that the prophecies were efficacious.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 49:28-33
THE DYING JACOB
I. His peace. His work is now done, his last blessing pronounced, his last prayer uttered. Nothing more is left but to gather up his feet and die. His life was satisfied with the goodness of the Lord. With great calmness he gives command concerning his burial, but here he reveals that habit of mind which he had of always dwelling upon the past. He was a man who was fond of recording seasons. He had his history by heart. He gives orders to be buried with his fathers, but he cannot help reviving the tender memories that gather around that sacred spot. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; and there I buried Leah.The sense of Gods goodness in the past gave him peace and hope. (Isa. 43:1-3).
II. His faith. He was one of those who died in faith. (Heb. 11:13-21). He had faith that God would give his descendants the land of Canaan for an eternal possession, and as a pledge thereof desired that his body should rest in that sacred soil. Like Moses, he was ready to forsake whatever honours his family might have in Egypt. He had faith also in his own future bliss. The salvation which he had long waited for, he is now destined to see. He was gathered unto his people, not only laid with them in the grave, but joined them in that better country which is an heavenly.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 49:28. Here is something which tells of the character of future judgment. Have you ever attended the opening of a will, where the bequests were large and unknown, and seen the bitter disappointment and the suppressed anger? Well, conceive those sons listening to the warning doom. Conceive Reuben, or Simeon, or Levi listening to their fathers words. Yet the day will come when, on principles precisely similar, our doom must be pronounced. Destiny is fixed by character, and character is determined by separate acts.(Robertson.)
Gen. 49:29-32. Jacob loved Rachel with warmer affection than his fathers Abraham and Isaac, yet it was not his wish to be buried with her. He would show that he had the same pious confidence as they had in the Divine promises. His command, therefore, to his sons was a public profession that he also lived and was now dying in the same faith by which his venerable progenitors had embraced the promise.(Bush.)
Gen. 49:33. He was gathered to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. (Heb. 12:23.) In Jerusalem, records were kept of the names of all the citizens. (Psa. 87:5.) So it is in heaven, where Jacob is now a denizen.(Trapp.)
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(28) These are the twelve tribes.As we have seen in the case of Dan, Jacob had the further object of forming his descendants into twelve separate communities, which were, like the States in America, each to be independent, and have its own tribal government. From this position Levi naturally was excluded, when selected for the priesthood, and room was thus made for the bestowal of two of these communities upon the descendants of Joseph. Only in case of war they were to combine under the chieftainship of Judah. In the Book of Judges, however, we find the tribes as separate in matters of war as of peace, and by the time of Saul the need of a closer union had been felt, and tribal independence had been found to lead only to anarchy.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE DEATH OF JACOB, Gen 49:28-33.
28. All these are the twelve tribes The sacred historian, having inserted in his book the prophetic words which the sons and sons’ sons had been careful to preserve, thus resumes his narrative, and now proceeds to add an account of the patriarch’s last charge and death.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘All these are the twelve offshoots (tribes) of Israel, and this is what their father said to them, and he blessed them, with a blessing suitable to each one he blessed them.’
“The twelve offshoots (tribes) of Israel.” This is the first use of this full phrase (only used elsewhere in Exo 24:4; Eze 47:13), but we must recognise here that in this initial mention there is more emphasis on Israel the person. These are his twelve offshoots (or ‘rods’ – see on verse 16), twelve leaders, the representatives of the twelve sub-groups under their father Israel himself. They represent in their persons their ‘sub-tribes’, and in embryo the future tribes. It is then emphasised immediately that the above words are words spoken to them as persons and blessings as befitted each one. Even the warnings are blessings for they can be acted on and even responded to. This comment may well have been added by Moses as he saw its fruition in the twelve groups he led.
In context ‘offshoots’ fits better than ‘tribes’. It is only if we take the dogmatic position that the later tribes of Israel are in mind here that ‘tribes’ fits as a translation. But the writer or compiler certainly describes this passage as words spoken to the sons not to the tribes.
It will be seen that this blessing of Jacob can be related very closely to their time in Egypt, and not so much (with exceptions) to their later time in Canaan. This is what we would expect from a genuine blessing by Jacob.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 49:28. All these are the twelve tribes of Israel Bishop Sherlock observes (Diss. 3: on prophecy) 1st, That what is commonly called Jacob’s blessing his sons, may be as well called Jacob’s appointment of twelve rulers, or princes, to govern the house of Israel: for, that this form of government took place immediately upon the decease of Jacob, may be collected from hence, that from this time all applications and messages are made, not to the people, but to the elders or heads of tribes, Exo 3:16; Exo 3:7. And we see the people and their rulers are distinguished plainly, Exo 34:31-32. Now, as there is no designation of this form of government in any other place in Scripture, and it could not be settled tacitly by a mere devolution of Jacob’s power among his sons after his decease, it must be allowed to be settled by Jacob himself, in this and the foregoing chapter: and to this all the circumstances, reported in these two chapters answer. 2ndly, Jacob, having thus settled twelve princes or rulers of people in his house, speaks to them as heads of a people, and not as single persons; and what he says, relates to them and their people collectively, and not to them personally: this is evident from the present words, all these are the twelve tribes of Israel; and hence, likewise, that the things foretold and ascribed to them, are by no means capable of being understood of single persons. When the sacred writer says twelve tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, though not expressly mentioned, are to be understood as blessed in Joseph.
And blessed them; every one, &c. i.e.. He informed each of them what would happen in after-times to his posterity respectively, as we are told in the introduction to the prophecy. The verb, barek, in this place, neither signifies, to bless, nor yet, on the contrary, to curse, though it is true, that it is applicable to all Jacob’s children separately; as the three eldest were cursed, and the rest were blessed: yet, whatever the precise meaning of it be, it is certain that it must be used in such a manner as to be common to them all, in the same sense. The sense therefore given to this word by Schultens on Job 1:5 viz. to bid farewel, or to take leave, will be here very suitable. It is thus used, 2Sa 19:39. And Calmet says, that benir (to bless) is here put to express the last sentiments of a dying father toward his children. Durell.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
One thought meets us here. It is this, though Israel’s tribes were thus diversified under many and various exercises, yet it is a precious thought to consider Israel as a people brought into Covenant mercies. Isa 54:7-10 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 49:28 All these [are] the twelve tribes of Israel: and this [is it] that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
Ver. 28. Blessed them; every one according, &c. ] These hard blessings, to some of them especially, hindered not the covenant. Still they were patriarchs, and heirs of the promises. Afflictions, how sharp soever, show us not to be castaways. If a man should be baited, and used as a dog or a bear, yet so long as he hath human shape and a reasonable soul, he will not believe he is either dog or bear. Let not crosses cause us to take up hard thoughts of God, or heavy thoughts of ourselves, as if out of his favour; but account it a mercy rather, that we may scape so; and be “judged” here “of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.” 1Co 11:32 Jacob is here said to have blessed all his sons. He rather seemed to curse some of them. And for his well-beloved Benjamin, Parum auspicata et honorifica videtur haec prophetia, saith Pareus. But because they were not rejected from being among God’s people, – as Ishmael and Esau were, for less faults perhaps, – though they were to undergo great and sore afflictions, they are said to be blessed, yea, and they shall be blessed, as Isaac said to his whining son, Esau.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gen 49:28-33
28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He blessed them, every one with the blessing appropriate to him. 29Then he charged them and said to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a burial site. 31There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah, there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah-32the field and the cave that is in it, purchased from the sons of Heth.” 33When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
Gen 49:29 “gathered to my people” This is an idiom for death and burial (cf. Gen 25:8; Gen 25:17; Gen 35:29; Gen 49:33; Num 20:26; Num 27:13; Num 31:2; Deu 32:50; Jdg 2:10; 2Ki 22:20). Whether this implies a family reunion in Sheol is uncertain. It may be a way of referring to family tombs or caves. But because of the worship of teraphim (cf. Gen 31:19; Gen 31:34-35, see Special Topic at Gen 31:19) it may have had a greater implication (cf. Mat 22:31-32).
See Hard Sayings of the Bible, pp. 127-129, for a brief discussion on the phrase implying an afterlife.
“in the cave” This refers to the burial site of the Patriarchs which was bought from Ephron the Hittite, alluded to in Gen 23:1-19. There is a sense in which the covenant families are united in the afterlife.
Jacob is asserting in a veiled way that his family would not stay in Egypt, but at some point would return to Canaan (cf. Gen 15:12-21). Joseph makes the same kind of prophetic request in Gen 50:24-25. Egypt was a temporary shelter that would turn into an exploitation.
Gen 49:31 “Rebekah. . .Leah” This is the first account of the burial of these two. The rabbis say that Joseph may have been angry because his mother was buried by the side of the road, but this seems to be a prophetic allusion to the time when the northern tribes go into captivity and Rachel will weep for her children as she sees them go by for she is buried beside the road that they would take as they go into exile (cf. Jer 31:15).
Gen 49:33 “drew his feet into the bed” If Jacob was sitting up the whole time this simply means he laid down; otherwise it seems to refer to the fetal position. Then he will breathe his last (an idiom for death).
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.
These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought-provoking, not definitive.
1. Why does Jacob adopt Ephraim and Manasseh?
2. What is the significance of the threefold titles of God found in Gen 48:15-16?
3. How are the blessings of chapter 49 related to the names of these sons found in Gen 29:30 to Gen 30:24?
4. What two sons seem to receive the greatest blessing and what aspect of the blessing do we remember them for?
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
The sons collectively. See App-45.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jacobs Last Directions and Death
Gen 49:28-33; Gen 50:1-3
Jacob gave a final charge as to his burial in Machpelah-that his dust at least should be there to welcome his children and childrens children, when they came thither in due course, as God had promised. Then the weary pilgrim gathered up those tired feet, which had paced out their last mile, into the bed, and gave up his spirit to God. When we are told that he was gathered to his people it must mean more than that his dust mingled with their dust in the place of burial. There are great gatherings of loving friends awaiting us on the other side. See Heb 11:40. At the ladder-scene in Bethel, God had told him that He would not leave him till He had done what He promised, and surely not one good thing had failed. Life may be hard and sad, but God will end it rightly. Be of good cheer and trust!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
blessed them
Jacob’s life, ending in serenity and blessing, testifies to the power of God to transform character. His spiritual progress has six notable phases:
(1) the first exercise of faith, as shown in the purchase of the birthright Gen 25:28-34; Gen 27:10-22.
(2) the vision at bethel Gen 28:10-19.
(3) walking in the flesh Gen 29:1 to Gen 31:55.
(4) the transforming experience Gen 32:24-31.
(5) the return to Bethel: idols put away Gen 35:1-7.
(6) the walk of faith Gen 37:1 to Gen 49:33.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
the twelve: Num 23:24, Est 8:7, Est 8:9, Est 8:11, Est 9:1 – Est 10:3, Eze 39:8-10, Zec 14:1-7
every one: Gen 35:22, Exo 28:21, 1Ki 18:31, Act 26:7, Jam 1:1, Rev 7:4
Reciprocal: Gen 14:19 – he blessed Gen 27:4 – that my Gen 27:38 – General Gen 28:1 – blessed Gen 48:9 – bless them Gen 48:15 – blessed Deu 33:1 – the blessing 2Ch 11:3 – to all Israel Luk 24:50 – he lifted Heb 7:7 – the less Heb 11:13 – all died
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Section 6. (Gen 49:28-33.)
The final victory: of life over death, and of God over evil.
The sixth section closes Joseph’s history and the book together: a sweet if a solemn ending; for what does the number speak of but of the limit of man’s life of toil, -a limit imposed through sin, and for our discipline because of it, -a limit in which we recognize God’s mastery of evil, the victory of good over it? Just so does this last section speak. One might say its subject is death: Jacob dies and Joseph dies. All that our hearts have linked themselves with passes under the shadow in which for the present we leave them, though in the faith of a future beyond. And this, we may be sure, is good. The night lets fall the dew. Our souls grow soft and tender with fruitful memories. Day and night together, linked by the ordinance of God, we learn to link, and call it, from the brightness that is in it, but “one ‘day.'”
There are two points, as I take it, in this section.
First, Jacob dies, and is buried. Again we find him charging, this time all his sons, to bury him with his fathers in Machpelah. Do we not need the impressive reiteration that the promise of life is all untouched by death? The living man sends his dead body in to take possession in hope of his inheritance.
Jacob they bury with great lamentation, and the Egyptians -all the world -lament. We read of nothing like this in the case of Abraham or Isaac, or even of Joseph afterward. Why does the Spirit of God dilate on this mourning for Jacob? It is in “the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan,” that this mourning of the Egyptians is specially marked; and Atad is the buck-thorn, from one of the kinds of which tradition asserts that Christ’s crown of thorns was procured. It is not necessary to affirm this in order to get the lesson from it. The threshing-floor conveys aptly the very moral of Jacob’s life of discipline. The thorn is the sign of the curse, -the growth of a barren soil. These thoughts associate themselves together without difficulty. The “thorn in the flesh” was a needful discipline for even the chief of the apostles. The threshing-floor of buckthorn doubly emphasizes, then, the sorrow of Jacob’s life, “beyond Jordan,” -that is, the earth-side of death, looking, as we mostly do in Scripture, from Canaan, not toward it. Here are the thorns, and here is the threshing-floor; and here, too, is the mourning. Only, the world, as well as faith, can see the thorns; but faith alone can see the threshing-floor. The world laments the “few and evil days,” -the blighting and the poverty of life. Faith, smiling through her tears, owns the necessary chastening of a Father’s love. Joseph and the Egyptians are not one, although the Canaanites may indeed confound them.
In the second and last place, we have Joseph before us -Christ abiding when all else departs; and abiding in His love unchangeably. The unbelief of Joseph’s brethren only brings out and confirms to them this. How the truth of Christ’s love is questioned by His own, because of the testimony of our lives against us! Conscience may rightly upbraid us: Christ does not upbraid. Let us not make our Joseph weep afresh.
Now Joseph himself departs; but we have not lost him: here is an exception from all else we have seen. He is not to be buried. Why? There is absolutely no thought of burial, so far as this book is concerned. Israel’s future departure from Egypt is seen in faith, and when God visits them, and they become pilgrims, they are to carry his bones with them on their pilgrimage. Though He be no longer dead, but living, are we not also bidden to “bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body”?
Sweet and suited admonition wherewith to close the story of “Life” in the book of Genesis. “That the life may be MANIFEST:” is it not the great aim of all these communications to us? Let us turn it into a prayer, and make it our own: Blessed Saviour, grant that in us indeed Thy life may be manifest!
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Gen 49:28 b Gen 50:13. Death and Burial of Jacob.
Gen 49:28 b Gen 49:33, Gen 50:12 f. are in the main from P; Gen 50:1-11 in the main from J. The dying charge requires no comment. The body is embalmed simply because burial could not be immediate; the motive for the Egyptian practice was that the body might be preserved for the ka or double to reanimate it. Joseph does not make his request for leave of absence direct to Pharaoh, possibly because as a mourner, he was unclean, hardly because absence might seem to veil some traitorous design, though Joseph explicitly promises to return (Gen 49:5). To do his father honour, an immense company of Egyptians of high rank accompanies the body. The way to Machpelah did not pass E. of the Jordan, so that if the text of Gen 49:10 f. is right, it is possible that in one tradition the tomb was located on the E. of Jordan. Abel-mizraim means meadow (not mourning) of Egypt. The actual account of the burial is not preserved in J or E.
Gen 50:14-26. Joseph Reassures his Brothers. Josephs Death.
Gen 49:14 belongs to J, Gen 49:15-26 to E. The request for pardon put in Jacobs mouth (Gen 49:17) is not elsewhere recorded. Gen 49:20 f. suggests that the famine was over. According to P Jacob was in Egypt seventeen years (Gen 47:28), in Gen 45:11 we learn that the famine lasted five years after his arrival. Joseph survives to see the great-grandchildren of his younger son, but the VSS read grandchildren. Machir was a powerful Manassite clan; his children are adopted by Joseph. The length of Josephs life, 110 years, was regarded in Egypt as ideal. Convinced that the Israelites will go back to Canaan, he extracts an oath from them to take his bones with them, that he may participate in the return and rest in the promised land. So he, too, was embalmed and the body placed in a mummy case. The fulfilment of the pledge is recorded in Exo 13:19, Jos 24:32.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
In his twelve sons Jacob blessed all the future tribes of Israel. [Note: See Darby, 1:80-82, for further observations concerning the fulfillment of these prophecies.] This is only the second mention of the 12 tribes in the Bible, the previous reference being in Gen 49:16, where we read "the tribes of Israel."
"Within Jacob’s words to each of the sons (after Judah), the theme of blessing has been evident in two primary images. First, the reverse side of the blessing is stressed in the imagery of the victorious warrior. The defeat of the enemy is the prelude to the messianic peace. Second, the positive side of the blessing is stressed in the imagery of great prosperity and abundance. Behind such imagery of peace and prosperity lies the picture of the Garden of Eden-the Paradise lost. The focus of Jacob’s words has been the promise that when the one comes to whom the kingship truly belongs, there will once again be the peace and prosperity that God intended all to have in the Garden of Eden." [Note: Sailhamer, "Genesis," pp. 278-79.]
Sailhamer also proposed that this poetic section plays a significant role in the larger structure of the Pentateuch.
"At three macrostructural junctures in the Pentateuch, the author has spliced a major poetic discourse onto the end of a large unit of narrative (Genesis 49; Numbers 24; Deuteronomy 31). A close look at the material lying between and connecting the narrative and poetic sections reveals the presence of a homogeneous composition stratum. It is most noticeably marked by the recurrence of the same terminology and narrative motifs. In each of the three segments, the central narrative figure (Jacob, Balaam, Moses) calls an audience together (imperative: Gen 49:1; Num 24:14; Deu 31:28) and proclaims (cohortative: Gen 49:1; Num 24:14; Deu 31:28) what will happen (Gen 49:1; Num 24:14; Deu 31:29) in ’the end of days’ (Gen 49:1; Num 24:14; Deu 31:29). . . .
"In sum, the apparent overall strategy of the author in these three segments suggests that one of the central concerns lying behind the final shape of the Pentateuch is an attempt to uncover an inherent relationship between the past and the future. That which happened to God’s people in the past portends of future events. To say it another way, the past is seen as a lesson for the future. . . .
"The narrative texts of past events are presented as pointers to future events. Past events foreshadow the future. It is not hard to see that such a hermeneutic leads to a form of narrative typology. We should, then, look for signs of such a typology in the composition of the smaller units of narrative in the Pentateuch as well as in the arrangement of the legal material." [Note: Idem, The Pentateuch . . ., pp. 36-37.]
A believer’s works during this life significantly determine the extent of divine blessing that he or she and their descendants will receive in the future.