‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.’ ”
Parallel Translations
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‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.’ ”
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My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
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My father made me swear, saying: Lo, I die; in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come back.'
Cross-references (17)
Passages linked to Genesis 50:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Chronicles 16:14 They buried him in his own tomb, which he had dug out for himself in David’s city, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumers’ art; and they made a very great fire for him.
- Isaiah 22:16 ‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!”
- Matthew 27:60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut out in the rock, and he rolled a great stone against the door of the tomb, and departed.
- Genesis 47:29-31 The time came near that Israel must die, and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please don’t bury me in Egypt, but when I sleep with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place.” Joseph said, “I will do as you have said.” Israel said, “Swear to me,” and he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself on the bed’s head.
- Genesis 3:19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground, for you were taken out of it. For you are dust, and you shall return to dust.”
- Genesis 48:21 Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers.
- Genesis 49:29-30 He instructed them, and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 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 from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place.
- Genesis 50:24 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
- Deuteronomy 4:22 but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan, but you shall go over and possess that good land.
- 1 Samuel 14:43 Then Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you have done!” Jonathan told him, and said, “I certainly did taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand; and behold, I must die.”
- Job 30:23 For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house appointed for all living.
- Psalms 79:3 They have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them.
- Ecclesiastes 6:3 If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:
- Ecclesiastes 12:5 yes, they shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be on the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets:
- Ecclesiastes 12:7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- Matthew 8:21-22 Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
- Luke 9:59-60 He said to another, “Follow me!” But he said, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but you go and announce God’s Kingdom.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (7 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 50:5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo,…
Gen 50:5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
Ver. 5. In my grave which I have digged for me.] A usual thing of old. {2Ch 16:14 Mat 27:60} {See Trapp on "Gen 23:9"} Quintillus Plautianus, an ancient senator of Rome, in the days of Severus the Emperor, being wrongfully accused and condemned to die, desired before his death to see those things that he had long since laid by for his burial; {a} which when he saw to be little worth with long lying, Quid hoc rei est? inquit; itane cunctati sumus? What a thing is this? said he. Have we made no more haste to die than so? {b}
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{a} Postulavit, ut ea quae ad sepulturam suam comparaverat, &c.
{b} τι τουτο εβραδυνωμεν. - Dio.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Here is a triple obligation upon Joseph:
Here is a triple obligation upon Joseph:
1. His duty to fulfil the will of the dead.
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2. The obedience which he owed to his father’s command.
3. The the of a solemn oath: all which had weight even with the heathens, and were so many arguments to Pharaoh and his courtiers.
In my grave which I have digged for me, according to the manner of those ancient and succeeding times. See 2Ch 16:14; Isa 22:16; Mat 27:60. In that large cave which Abraham bought for a burying-place for his family, Jacob had digged a particular and small cell or repository for himself, as others did after him upon the like occasion. And this reason is prudently added, to show that this desire proceeded not from any contempt of Pharaoh or his land, but from that common and customary desire of persons of all ages and nations to be buried in their fathers’ sepulchres.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain My father made me swear, saying, lo, I die,....…
My father made me swear, saying, lo, I die,.... Having reason to believe he should not live long, he sent for Joseph, and took an oath of him to do as follows; this Joseph would have observed to Pharaoh, to show the necessity of his application to him, and the reasonableness of his request. The words of dying men are always to be regarded; their dying charge is always attended to by those who have a regard to duty and honour; but much more when an oath is annexed to them, which among all nations was reckoned sacred:
in the grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me; it was usual with persons in their lifetime to prepare graves or sepulchres for themselves, as appears from the instances of Shebna, Joseph of Arimathea, and others, and so Jacob provided one for himself; and when he is said to "dig" it, it is not to be supposed that he dug it himself, but ordered it to be dug by his servants, and very probably this was done at the time he buried Leah. Onkelos renders it, "which I have bought", possessed or obtained by purchase; and so the word is used in Hos 3:2 but the cave of Machpelah, in which Jacob's grave was, was not bought by him, but by Abraham; for to say, as some Jewish writers (h) suggest, that he bought Esau's part in it with a mess of pottage, is without foundation; it is better to take the words in the first sense. And now, since it was Jacob's desire, yea, his dying charge, to be buried in the grave he had provided for himself, the mention of this to an Egyptian king could not fail of having its desired effect; since the Egyptians, as the historian (i) says, were more careful about their graves than about their houses:
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now therefore let me go up, I pray thee; to the land of Canaan, which lay higher than Egypt:
and bury my father; there, in the grave he has provided for himself:
and I will come again: to the land of Egypt; this he would have said, lest it should be thought he only contrived this to get an opportunity of going away to Canaan with all his wealth and riches.
(h) R. David Kimchi Sepher Shorash. rad. Ben Melech in loc. (i) Diodor. Sic. Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 47.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain He asked and obtained leave of Pharaoh to go…
He asked and obtained leave of Pharaoh to go to Canaan, to attend the funeral of his father. It was a piece of necessary respect to Pharaoh, that he would not go without leave; for we may suppose, though his charge about the corn was long since over, yet he continued a prime minister of state, and therefore would not be so long absent from his business without license.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Digged, in the sepulchre which Abraham had purchased. This…
Digged, in the sepulchre which Abraham had purchased. This circumstance, and the exact words here used by Joseph, are not mentioned elsewhere. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. Which I have digged for me — Some…
5. Which I have digged for me — Some take the word כרה, here rendered digged, in the sense of purchased, as קנה is used in reference to Abraham’s purchase in Gen_49:30. If so rendered, the language used would make Jacob speak of Abraham’s act as his own. This is an allowable explanation, but unnecessary. The more common meaning of כרה is dig, and Jacob may have excavated his own sepulchre or separate chamber in the cave after the burial of Abraham and Isaac. See on Gen_23:9.
I will come again — “The earnestness of Joseph’s entreaty, and the repetition of his solemn oath to his father, show what difficulty a naturalized foreigner would have in leaving the land of the Pharaohs. Jacob’s characteristic foresight and prudence appear in exacting this oath, which he knew Pharaoh’s religious scruples would guarantee from violation, while, at the same time, Joseph would be protected from the national jealousy.” — Newhall.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. have digged] or, bought. Both meanings are possible.…
5. have digged] or, bought. Both meanings are possible. LXX and Lat. favour “digged.” Syr. Pesh. and Targ. Onk. favour “bought.” The word in the Hebrew appears for “to buy” in Deu_2:6, and for “to dig” in Gen_26:25. It has been objected that, in the case of Jacob, neither meaning is appropriate to Machpelah (Gen_47:30), and that this passage refers to some other grave, e.g. that of Rachel (see note on Gen_48:7). But it is unreasonable to press this objection. Joseph’s report of Jacob’s words might well imply, that either Jacob or his forefathers had thus provided a burial-place. Moreover, he might possibly have hewn out a burial-place for himself in the rock of the cave. On the whole, “digged” seems more appropriate than “bought.” The language is not explicit enough to throw light upon the possibly independent legend of a burial-place, where Rachel was buried (Gen_48:7). The tradition of a “purchase” of ground by Jacob is connected with Shechem (see Gen_33:19; cf. Act_7:16), but not with a burial-place.
I will come again] Joseph is anxious to assure his master, Pharaoh, that he is not going treacherously to leave the Egyptian service.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.