Genesis 47:31

_AND THE TIME DREW NIGH THAT ISRAEL MUST DIE: AND HE CALLED HIS SON JOSEPH, AND SAID UNTO HIM, IF NOW I HAVE FOUND GRACE IN THY SIGHT, PUT, I PRAY THEE, THY HAND UNDER MY THIGH, AND DEAL KINDLY AND TRULY WITH ME; BURY ME NOT, I PRAY THEE, IN EGYPT:_ The time drew nigh ... One only of his dying arrangements is recorded; but that one reveals his whole character. It was the disposal of his remains, which were to be carried to Canaan, not from a mere romantic attachment to his native soil, nor, like his modern descendants, from a superstitious feeling for the soil of the Holy Land, but from faith in the promises. His address to Joseph - "If now I have found grace in thy sight," i.e., as the vizier of Egypt-his exacting a solemn oath that his wishes would be fulfilled, and the special form of that oath (see the note at Genesis 24:2), all pointed significantly to the promise

31._And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head_. By this expression, Moses again affirms that Jacob esteemed it a singular kindness, that his son should have promised to do what he had required respecting his burial. For he exerts his weak body as much as he is able, in order to give thanks unto God, as if he had obtained something most desirable. He is said to have worshipped towards the head of his bed: because, seeing he was quite unable to rise from the bed on which he lay, he yet composed himself with a solemn air in the attitude of one who was praying. The same is recorded of David (1 Kings 1:47) when, having obtained his last wish, he celebrates the grace of God. The Greeks have translated it, at the top of his staff: which the Apostle has followed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, (Hebrews 11:21.) And though the int

27-31 At last the time drew nigh that Israel must die. Israel, a prince with God, had power over the Angel, and prevailed, yet must die. Joseph supplied him with bread, that he might not die by famine, but that did not secure him from dying by age or sickness. He died by degrees; his candle gradually burnt down to the socket, so that he saw the time drawing nigh. It is an advantage to see the approach of death, before we feel it, that we may be quickened to do, with all our might, what our hands find to do. However, death is not far from any of us. Jacob's care, as he saw the day approach, was about his burial; not the pomp of it, but he would be buried in Canaan, because it was the land of promise. It was a type of heaven, that better country, which he declared plainly he expected, Hebrews 11:14. Nothing will better help to make a death-bed easy, than the certain prospect of rest in th...

Verse Genesis 47:31. _AND ISRAEL BOWED HIMSELF UPON THE BED'S HEAD._] Jacob was now both old and feeble, and we may suppose him reclined on his couch when Joseph came; that he afterwards sat up erect (see Genesis 48:2) while conversing with his son, and receiving his oath and promise; and that when this was finished he _bowed himself upon_ _the bed's head _- exhausted with the conversation, he again reclined himself on his bed as before. This seems to be the simple meaning, which the text unconnected with any religious system or prejudice, naturally proposes. But because שחה _shachah_, signifies not only to _bow_ but to _worship_, because acts of religious worship were performed by _bowing_ or _prostration_, and because מטה _mittah, a bed_, by the change of the...

- Jacob in Goshen 11. רעמסס _ra‛m__e__sês_, Ra‘meses “son of the sun.” 31. מטה _mı̂ṭṭāh_, “bed.” מטה _maṭṭeh_ “staff.” Arrangements are now made for the settlement of Israel in Goshen. The administration of Joseph during the remaining years of the famine is then recorded. For the whole of this period his father and brothers are subject to him, as their political superior, according to the reading of his early dreams. We then approach to the death-bed of Jacob, and hear him binding Joseph by an oath to bury him in the grave of his fathers. Genesis 47:1 Joseph announces to Pharaoh the arriv

EXPOSITION GENESIS 47:28 AND JACOB LIVED IN THE LAND OF EGYPT SEVENTEEN YEARS: SO THE WHOLE AGE OF JACOB WAS (literally, _the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were_)_ _AN HUNDRED FORTY AND SEVEN YEARS. He had lived seventy-seven years in Canaan, twenty years in Padanaram, thirty-three in Canaan again, and seventeen in Egypt, in all 147 years. GENESIS 47:29 AND THE TIME DREW NIGH THAT ISRAEL (i.e. Jacob) MUST DIE (literally, and _the days of Israel to die drew near_):_ _AND HE CALLED HIS SON JOSEPH, AND SAID UNTO HIM, IF NOW I HAVE FOUND GRACE IN THY SIGHT (not as if Jacob doubted Joseph's affection, but simply as desiring

AND HE SAID, SWEAR UNTO ME,.... This he required, not from any distrust of Joseph, but to show his own eagerness, and the intenseness of his mind about this thing, how much he was set upon it, and what an important thing it was with him; as also, that if he should have any objections made to it, or arguments used with him to divert him from it, by Pharaoh or his court, he would be able to say his father had bound him by an oath to do it, which would at once stop their mouths, and be judged a sufficient reason for what he did, see Genesis 50:5: AND HE SWARE UNTO HIM; not only gave his promise, but confirmed it with an oath: AND ISRAEL BOWED HIMSELF UPON THE BED'S HEAD: not in a way of civil respect to Joseph, giving him thanks for the assurance he had given him, that he would bury him, not in Egypt, but in Canaan; but in a religious way to Go

CHAPTER 47 THE SETTLEMENT IN GOSHEN _ 1. Before Pharaoh (Genesis 47:1)_ 2. The settlement (Genesis 47:11) 3. Joseph's wise administration (Genesis 47:13) 4. Jacob's request (Genesis 47:27) Jacob and some of his sons were presented to Pharaoh, who received them graciously, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. The great and powerful monarch of the great land of Egypt was blessed by the poor old Jacob. He is more than blessed, but a blesser, a type of what Israel is yet to be for the nations of the earth. There is no discrepancy in...

GENESIS 47:27 TO GENESIS 48:22. JACOB EXTRACTS AN OATH THAT JOSEPH WILL BURY HIM IN CANAAN, AND BLESSES EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH. Genesis 47:22 f., Genesis 48:3 belong to P. To J Genesis 47:29 may be assigned. Genesis 48:1 f., Genesis 48:8 was formerly attributed to E, recent critics assign it to JE. The analysis is somewhat as follows: E,...

BOWED HIMSELF UPON THE BED'S HEAD— The Septuagint and Syriac versions render this, _Israel worshipped upon the top of his staff;_ and I see no sort of reason why the Hebrew should not have been rendered exactly the same in our version of the Bible; for, literally, it is, _and Israel bowed himself upon the head of his staff,_ המטה עלאּראשׁ _al rosh hammittah;_ מטה _matteh,_ signifies, a rod, staff, or stick, or any thing upon which men are inclined, or lean; and in this view there is no contradiction between the passage, Hebrews 11:21 and the present: here it is only a mistake in our translation of the Bible, which has too exactly copied the Vulgate. The bowing himself was probably an act of religious worship; and Hallett remarks, that the _leaning on his staff_, is pertinently mentioned to intimate, that, feeble as he was, he would worship God in the best manner he