Genesis 37:35

All his sons and daughters rose up to comfort him.

He had eleven sons remaining, but only one daughter; the term, however, probably includes his sons' wives. Though the sons were the authors of his calamity, they offer to him unavailing comfort. What shallow and deceitful comfort it must have been when they knew that Jacob was mourning. fate for Joseph which had not taken place!

I will go down into the grave to my son mourning.

The word rendered here "grave," is sheol in the Hebrew, and does not mean the grave, but the place of departed spirits, the hades of the Greeks, the under world. Jacob did not suppose that Joseph's body was in the grave, but devoured by ravenous beasts. He means, therefore, that he will continue to mourn his son until he meets him in the spirit world. This language shows then that Jacob was not only. believer in future existence, but in the existence of the spirit apart from the body. He expects to follow Joseph to sheol, and to find him there. Many passages in the Hebrew Scriptures show. belief in the continued, separate existence of the soul, after the death of the body, in another state of being, where all are gathered who have passed through life. See Genesis 49:33. also, 25:8. It would be hard to choose language more pathetic or indicative of inconsolable grief than that of Jacob.