And his sons did to him according as he had commanded them;
Jacob has died in Egypt, far from the land God promised his family. His sons obeyed his burial charge, and that obedience carries a family history, a refusal to settle in Egypt, and a hope that reaches past the grave.
Jacob's sons were doing what Isaac's sons had done before them. This was not one man's private wish. Each generation acted on a promise none of them had yet seen kept.
Hamilton SmithGod had revealed Himself to Abraham as the Almighty, and as the God of resurrection. He had assured him that He had given him the land where he was a stranger — all the land of Canaan — as an everlasting possession (Gen. 17:8). All was his by promise, though not yet in possession... In the same faith, at a later date, the sons of Isaac bury their father at Hebron, in the land of Canaan (Gen. 35:27-29). So, too, in due time, Jacob dies in Egypt, yet his sons bury him in faith in the land of Canaan, in the cave of Machpelah (Gen. 50:13). With the same fine faith, Joseph, when he came to die, makes the children of Israel swear that they will carry his bones from Egypt to the land of Canaan (Gen. 50:25-26; Ex. 13:19).
Egyptian custom shaped part of the funeral. But there was a line Jacob would not let his sons cross.
F. B. HoleThey were in Egypt, so they kept the burial customs of that land up to a certain point. But Jacob's body was not to lie embalmed in an Egyptian tomb. By Jacob's desire, as well as Joseph's, it was to lie in the land of promise. The promise of God was a reality to their faith, since "Faith is the substantiating of things hoped for" (Heb. 11:1, Darby Translation). The things hoped for are real, and faith substantiates them, or makes them real, to us.
Jacob gave this charge more than once, and the repetition carries weight. Death did not cancel what God had promised him.
Numerical Bible NotesFirst, Jacob dies, and is buried. Again we find him charging, this time all his sons, to bury him with his fathers in Machpelah. Do we not need the impressive reiteration that the promise of life is all untouched by death? The living man sends his dead body in to take possession in hope of his inheritance.
The care these men took over their dead bodies can look strange today. It said something about what they expected God to do with those bodies.
J. G. BellettThe patriarchs of the Jewish family all put special value on their dead bodies. They laid them up with great care in Machpelah. This care and zeal of theirs was the confession of their sure and certain hope of resurrection. But they connected resurrection with the land of Canaan. And so Jacob and Joseph, who died in Egypt, 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 finally possessing the promised land.
The mourning at the threshing floor of Atad happened somewhere on the way, and commentators differ over where. The phrase "beyond the Jordan" can be read from either bank, depending on where you imagine the writer standing.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe context in Gen. 50:11 indicates "mourning" as a part of the name. It was the threshing floor of Atad "beyond Jordan." This would seem to place the seven days' mourning on the east of Jordan, before the body was carried into Canaan, for burial: compare Gen. 50:12-13. But some hold that Moses by "beyond Jordan" means the west, because his own standpoint was the east... It is not identified.
A splendid funeral once carried a meaning it no longer carries.
J. G. BellettIn other days funerals were to be magnificent. This was because resurrection was then only in prospect, and funerals then were a kind of pledge of the expected resurrection. It was fitting that the pledge should be magnificent, matching the glory of what it pledged. But now resurrection has become real in the person of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. So the grand funeral, like the ceremonious worship, is instead a reproach. It is as though the great mystery itself had not yet become real in its substance and power. Funeral pomp is not the pledge of our coming resurrection now. The resurrection of the Lord is that pledge, the firstfruits of a promised harvest.
- Charge — Jacob told all his sons where to bury him, and he said it more than once.
- Carried — the sons obeyed, as Isaac's sons had done before them. They buried their father in Canaan, not in Egypt.
- Claim — the grave staked out promised ground. A dying man sent his body ahead to take hold of an inheritance he had never owned.
- Confession — the care over their bones declared one hope. They expected resurrection in the land God had promised.
- Celebration — their splendid funeral pledged a resurrection still to come. Christ has risen, so His resurrection is now the pledge. Ours needs no display.
and his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah which Abraham had bought along with the field, for a possession of a sepulchre, of Ephron the Hittite, opposite to Mamre.
Jacob's sons carry his body out of Egypt and bury it in a cave near Mamre, in ground Abraham had bought. Why does Scripture name the field, the seller, and the purpose of the grave with such care?
Abraham paid Ephron for this field. One writer asks what that payment shows about God's promise:
William KellySome say that God did later give him a possession in Canaan: the piece of land he bought from Ephron as a burial-place (Genesis 23:17). That is completely wrong. God's gift is absolute and future. Buying a burial-place from the Hittite confirms that; it does not weaken it. For who that owned this land, or any other, would think of buying what he already owned? There he lays his dead, in land so obviously not his own that he has to buy it for the purpose — the pledge to faith that he will have it another day.
Jacob laid this charge on all his sons. One writer asks what the repeated telling is for:
F. W. GrantFirst, Jacob dies, and is buried. Again we find him charging, this time all his sons, to bury him with his fathers in Machpelah. Do we not need the impressive reminder, said again and again, that the promise of life is completely untouched by death? The living man sends his dead body in to take possession in hope of his inheritance.
Jacob asked more than once to be buried in Canaan. One writer weighs what that insistence shows:
J. G. BellettJacob ends these last conversations with his sons where he had begun them: with Machpelah and his burial (Genesis 47:29; 49:29). 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 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.
Joseph had his father embalmed in the Egyptian way. But there the borrowing stopped:
F. B. HoleBeing in Egypt, they followed that land's burial customs up to a certain point. But Jacob's body was not to lie embalmed in an Egyptian tomb. By Jacob's wish, as well as Joseph's, it was to lie in the land of promise. The promise of God was a reality to their faith, since "faith is the assurance of things hoped for." The things hoped for are real, and faith makes them real to us.
The writer quoted Hebrews 11:1 from an older translation: "faith is the substantiating of things hoped for."
Burials in that cave began with Sarah and run down to Jacob. One writer traces the line, and names the one man missing from it:
William KellyBurial in the land began with Sarah. In Abraham it was no mere feeling or fancy, no sentiment or superstition, but a fruit of faith. He looked to receive from God's hand the land where he laid her body… He knew that all the land of Canaan would be his for an everlasting possession. That is why burial in Canaan mattered so much to the patriarchs, while they kept their character as pilgrims… Joseph also made the sons of Israel swear (Genesis 50:25-26): "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here." So he too was embalmed and put in a coffin in Egypt. But when deliverance came, Moses took the bones of Joseph with him (Exodus 13:19). In due time the children of Israel buried them — not in the cave of Machpelah, but in Shechem.
One writer weighs what a splendid funeral meant then, and what it would say now:
J. G. BellettIn earlier days funerals were meant to be splendid. That was because resurrection was then only in prospect. Funerals were a kind of pledge of the resurrection they expected. It was fitting that the pledge should be magnificent, matching the glory of what it pledged. But resurrection is now a reality in the person of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. So the splendid funeral, like ceremonious worship, is rather a reproach — as though the great mystery itself were still not real in its substance and power. For it is not funeral pomp that is now the pledge of our coming resurrection; the resurrection of the Lord is that, the first-fruits of a promised harvest.
- Bought — Abraham paid for the field. Paying proved the land was not yet his, and the deed was faith's receipt for a promise God would still keep.
- Pledged — the grave was Jacob's claim on an inheritance he had never held; the living man sent his body ahead to take possession in hope.
- Carried — Egypt embalmed Jacob but did not bury him. Life kept him in Egypt; death restored him to Canaan.
- Gathered — Sarah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lie in one bought cave. Joseph's bones went to Shechem instead.
- Fulfilled — a grand funeral once pledged a resurrection still to come. Now the pledge is Christ's own resurrection, the first-fruits of the harvest.