And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons,.... Had given all the proper directions and instructions concerning his interment in the land of Canaan: he gathered up his feet into the bed; on which he sat while he blessed his sons, and gave orders to them about his burial; but now he gathered up his feet into the bed, laid himself along, and composed himself in a proper posture to die. What authority the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem on Genesis 49:21 had for saying this bed was a bed of gold, I know not:

and he yielded up the ghost; he expired, he died an easy death, without any pain or sickness: which Ben Melech says this phrase is expressive of. He died in the year of his age one hundred and forty seven, and not one hundred and forty four, as a Jewish chronologer t wrongly puts it, and in the year of the world 2315, and before Christ 1689, according to Bishop Usher u: and was gathered unto his people:

Genesis 49:29.

t Ganz. Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 6. 2. u Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 2315.

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