in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is opposite to Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite along with the field for a possession of a sepulchre.
Jacob's dying charge does not just say "bury me at home." It names a cave, a field, a landmark, a country, and a purchase. Why did a man dying in the wealth of Egypt care so much about one plot of ground he never owned?
Jacob spent his last energy describing the exact place where his body was to lie. One writer connects this with his whole life in Egypt:
He lives for seventeen years in Egypt. He builds nothing and trades nothing there, as he had done earlier at Succoth and at Shechem. And at last, in his dying hour, with great zeal he declares his resurrection-hope in line with the call of God. He asks Joseph to promise not to bury him in Egypt. Joseph is to take his body to the burying-place of his fathers in the land of Canaan. He makes him swear to it. Then he charges all his sons to do the same for him, describing to them the exact spot in Canaan where his bones were to lie, "in sure and certain hope." His whole soul seems taken up with this. He wanted to make it clear that all his expectations were bound up with the promise of God, with the hope of his fathers, with the objects and inheritance of faith.
Jacob stresses that Abraham bought the field. Some read that purchase as proof that Abraham owned land in Canaan. One commentator argues the opposite:
It is completely wrong to say that God later gave him a possession in Canaan, meaning the plot he bought from Ephron as a burial-place (Genesis 23:17). God's gift is absolute and future. Buying a burial-place from the Hittite confirms this; it does not weaken it. For who that already owned this land, or any land, would think of buying his own possession? There he lays his dead in land that is not his own at all. He has to buy it, and that purchase is the pledge to faith that he will have it another day.
God promised Abraham everything, yet gave him nothing to hold:
Abraham had the heir and all the promises, yet he had nothing here below. He had to buy a burial place to bury his dead out of his sight. That was all he had as a present possession on earth.
Their care for their graves was a claim on the land God had promised:
They valued their dead bodies and the burying places that held them. While they lived, they were content to live as strangers in Canaan without owning so much as a foot of it. But "they died in faith." The promise of God had made over that land, that very land, to them, though they themselves were to be gathered to their fathers (Genesis 15). That was the ground for their dying in faith, in the sure and certain hope of a resurrection to the enjoyment of it. They would link their dead bodies, though not their living ones, with that land.
Another writer asks why this burial charge is repeated:
Do we not need this striking repetition, that the promise of life is untouched by death? The living man sends his dead body in to take possession, in the hope of his inheritance.
Jacob's last requests show which country he counted as his own:
With Machpelah and his burial, Jacob ends these dying conversations with his sons, just as he had begun them (Genesis 47:29; 49:29). He already had Joseph's word and oath on the matter. Now he must put all of them under the same commitment to him. Death mattered more to him than life. Life kept him in Egypt; death would restore him to Canaan. Death linked him with the God and the promise of his fathers. The hopes of faith lay beyond life, and outside Egypt.
One commentator finds meaning in the names attached to this grave:
Jacob was showing that he had the same faith as his fathers in the resurrection power of God. He mentions that Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah had been buried there. He also reminds his sons that Abraham bought the cave and the field from the children of Heth, whose name means "fear." Those who are not saved are the children of fear. Through fear of death they are subject to lifelong slavery (Hebrews 2:15).
- Bought — Abraham paid for the field, and paying proves the land was not yet his; the deed was a pledge of a gift still to come.
- Owned — a grave was the single thing the man of all the promises actually held on earth.
- Buried — the family put their dead in that one plot to tie their bodies to the land God had promised them.
- Claimed — the living man sent his dead body ahead to take possession, because the promise of life is untouched by death.
- Restored — life kept Jacob in Egypt; death carried him back to Canaan. His hope lay beyond life, and outside Egypt.
There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife; and there I buried Leah.
Jacob is dying in Egypt, and his last words name a graveyard in Canaan. Why does a man living in Egypt's wealth care so much about one cave — and why ask to lie beside Leah, not Rachel, the wife he loved?
Three times the verse says "there," pointing at one small plot. It was the only piece of the promised land these people owned.
In the noble manners and simple ways of the patriarchs, we meet a great truth. Abraham had the heir and all the promises, yet he owned nothing here below. He had to buy a burial place to bury his dead out of his sight. That was all he held as a present possession in the earth.
Jacob's love had always gone to Rachel. His dying wish went the other way, and the reason lay in what the bought ground stood for.
It is worth noting that his thoughts turned to the original spot that Abraham had bought near Mamre. Rachel had been so special to him. We might have expected him to want a grave at her side. But no! There was this spot, bought in the land. To faith it was a pledge that one day God would keep His promise and the whole land would be theirs.
Scripture never tells us when Leah died. The only record of her burial is Jacob's own word, spoken by a husband who disliked her.
It was Leah who bore children, while Rachel remained fruitless for a long time... Despite his dislike for Leah, Jacob never suggested doing what people do today: putting his wife away. In fact he kept her longer than Rachel, who died in childbirth and was buried on the way to Ephrath (Gen. 35:19), before Jacob came to his father at Mamre. We are not told of Leah's death, but Jacob says he buried her at Mamre.
Jacob had already made Joseph swear about his burial. Now he binds all his sons to the same promise, and the repetition tells us where his heart was.
With Machpelah and his burial, Jacob ends these dying conversations with his sons, just as he had begun them. He already had Joseph's word and oath on this matter. Now he must put all of them under the same commitment. Death was more important to him than life. Life kept him in Egypt; death would restore him to Canaan. Death linked him with the God and the promise of his fathers. The hopes of faith lay beyond life, and outside Egypt.
Listing the graves is not morbid bookkeeping. Every name in that cave is a claim staked on ground God had promised but not yet handed over.
Do we not need this striking repetition? Death leaves the promise of life wholly untouched. The living man sends his dead body in to take possession, in hope of his inheritance.
The family also took great care over the bodies themselves.
The patriarchs of the Jewish family all placed a special value on their dead bodies. They laid them up in Machpelah with reverent care. This care and zeal was their confession of a sure and certain hope of resurrection. But they connected resurrection with the land of Canaan. So Jacob and Joseph both died in Egypt. Both arranged for their bones to be carried over and laid in Canaan. This tells us that their hope of resurrection was the same as their hope of possessing the promised land at last.
Jacob also reminds his sons who sold the field. One writer draws meaning from the seller's name. That is his reading, not a statement of the text.
Jacob keeps full possession of his senses to the end. He instructs his sons to bury him with his fathers, Abraham and Isaac, in the cave of Machpelah that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite. Jacob was showing that he had the same faith as his fathers in the resurrection power of God... He reminds his sons that Abraham bought the cave and the field from the children of Heth, a name which means "fear." Those who are unsaved are the children of fear. Through fear of death they live in slavery all their lifetime (Heb. 2:15).
- Bought — the grave was the only piece of Canaan the family owned. Everything else was promise.
- Buried — six names in one cave, each burial a fresh claim on land God had pledged but not yet given.
- Beyond — their care over dead bodies confessed a hope of resurrection, and of resurrection in that land.
- Back — life kept Jacob in Egypt; death would bring him home to Canaan.
- Beside Leah — the unloved wife lies in the tomb of promise; the loved Rachel lies by the road. Faith chose the pledge over the preference.
The purchase of the field, and of the cave that is in it, was from the children of Heth.
Chapter 49 has swept across the future of twelve tribes. Now the dying man's last words are not a prophecy at all, but the record of a land deal — the receipt for a grave.
Abraham bought that ground. He paid the full price, and he paid it in public.
He would pay in full for a possession, not of a mansion nor of an estate, but of a sepulchre. Ephron, in eastern fashion, set his price very high for those days. Abraham weighed out the payment in front of everyone. That was the accepted way of making a lawful and secure transfer, and it strikingly anticipates our modern exactness.
God promised Abraham a whole country. The only ground he could call his own was a grave.
In the noble manners and feelings of that simple early age, we see a great truth. Abraham had the heir and all the promises, yet he owned nothing here below. He had to buy a burial place to bury his dead out of his sight. That was all he held on earth at the time.
Jacob could have asked to lie beside Rachel, the wife he loved most. He chose Machpelah instead.
Notice that his thoughts turned to the original spot that Abraham had bought near Mamre. Rachel was such a special object of his affection that we might have expected him to choose a grave at her side. But no! Abraham had bought this spot in the land. To faith it was a kind of pledge that one day God would fulfil His promise and the whole land would be theirs. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah and Leah lay there, and he would lie there too.
Jacob is dying in Egypt, far from the cave. He asks his sons to carry him back, and that turns his funeral into a claim.
Again we find him charging his sons — this time all of them — to bury him with his fathers in Machpelah. Do we not need this striking repetition — that death leaves the promise of life completely untouched? The living man sends his dead body in to take possession, in the hope of his inheritance.
The whole family shared that hope. It shaped how they treated their dead.
They valued their dead bodies and the burial places that held them. While they lived, they were content to live as strangers in Canaan without owning so much as a foot of it. But "these all died in faith." God's promise had made that land — that very land — over to them. Yet they themselves were to be gathered to their fathers. That was the ground of their dying in faith, in the sure and certain hope of a resurrection to enjoy it.
One writer finds meaning in the sellers themselves — in the older wording "the children of Heth" as a picture.
He also reminds his sons that Abraham had bought the cave and the field from the children of Heth, whose name means "fear." Those who are unsaved are the children of fear. Through fear of death they are held in slavery all their lives.
One thread runs through these last talks with his sons: where his body would lie.
With Machpelah and his burial, Jacob ends these dying conversations with his sons, just as he had begun them. He already had Joseph's word and oath on this matter, and now he must put all of them under the same promise to him about it. Death mattered more to him than life. Life kept him in Egypt; death would restore him to Canaan. Death linked him with the God and the promise of his fathers.
- Purchased. Abraham paid the full price in front of witnesses. The grave was bought, never given.
- Pledge. That one paid-for plot was faith's down payment on a whole country God had promised but not yet given.
- Possession. Jacob sends his dead body ahead to claim the inheritance. Death leaves the promise of life untouched.
- Pilgrim. The man who held all the promises owned one piece of earth: a grave. Everywhere else he lived as a stranger.
- Peace. He ends his farewell where he began it. Death would carry him out of Egypt and link him to the God of his fathers.