Bible Strands
Genesis 48:21
Then Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Israel speaks to Joseph while preparing to die in Egypt, concluding his blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh and addressing Joseph’s future.
The words — The text foregrounds אָנֹכִי ('a.no.Khi) meaning "I" and מֵת (Met) meaning "[am] about to die," anchoring the promise in the speaker’s immediate mortality.
The thread — The assurance that God will accompany Joseph and return him to the ancestral land directly parallels Genesis 46:4 and anticipates the identical deathbed formula in Genesis 50:24.
Why it lands — The verse states that the patriarch’s physical death will not sever the covenant, requiring the reader to accept that divine presence and territorial promise secure Joseph’s return despite Jacob’s burial in Egypt.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.
Cross-references
- Genesis 46:4 I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will surely bring you back. And Joseph’s own hands will close your eyes.”
- Genesis 50:24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely visit you and bring you up from this land to the land He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
- Genesis 26:3 Stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.
- Genesis 28:15 Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
- Hebrews 7:3 Without father or mother or genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God, he remains a priest for all time.
- Hebrews 7:23 Now there have been many other priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office.
- Genesis 12:5 And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and people they had acquired in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,
- Genesis 15:14 But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions.
- Genesis 37:1 Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had resided, the land of Canaan.
- Deuteronomy 1:1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—in the Arabah opposite Suph—between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.