Bible Strands
Genesis 50:13
They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Jacob’s sons transporting his body to Canaan immediately after Joseph concludes the Egyptian mourning period and before the group departs for Egypt.
The words — וַ/יִּקְבְּר֣וּ (va/i.yik.be.Ru) translates literally as "and they buried," executing the final command. אֹת֔/וֹ ('o.T/o) functions as the accusative object pronoun "him," anchoring the action to Jacob.
The thread — The burial site directly fulfills Jacob’s charge in Genesis 49:29 and reuses the field Abraham secured from Ephron the Hittite (Genesis 23:16). The patriarchal tomb at Machpelah is later distinguished from the separate burial plot Abraham purchased in Shechem from the sons of Hamor (Acts 7:16).
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to verify covenant continuity through the physical relocation of patriarchal remains. It demands attention to how ancestral promises are executed through precise geographic and familial obedience.
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
For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
Cross-references
- Genesis 23:16 Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.
- Genesis 49:29 Then Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.
- Acts 7:16 Their bones were carried back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a price he paid in silver.
- Genesis 23:20 So the field and its cave were deeded by the Hittites to Abraham as a burial site.
- Genesis 25:9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.
- Genesis 35:27 Jacob returned to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.
- Genesis 35:29 Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
- 2 Kings 21:18 And Manasseh rested with his fathers and was buried in his palace garden, the garden of Uzza. And his son Amon reigned in his place.