Notes 71: Jacob asks to be buried in Canaan (47:28-31)

SYNOPSIS: Jacob lives in Egypt for several years. As he approaches the end of his life he asks Joseph to promise him he will bury him in Canaan.

• Text of the passage (in Nawat)

As readers of Genesis as literature we may see this last section of the book, following the dénouement of Joseph's story in the eleventh section, as a tying of loose ends in a way relevant, not so much to that story, but to the larger picture of Genesis within the even broader narrative framework of the Pentateuch. Thus Genesis goes back briefly to being the history of the patriarchs which commenced in ch. 12 and is now drawing to its final conclusion with the death and burial of Jacob and a footnote or two about the final fate of his sons.

This tying-up process gets going without further ado in this very short passage in which Jacob calls Joseph (described simply as b'no, his son) to his bedside, states that his death is near and has him make a promise: Joseph must swear to his father that he will not bury him in Egypt, where he is now living, but in Canaan, the land from whence he came. 

The whole scene is quite reminiscent of another "promise scene" in ch. 24, where Abraham summoned his chief servant and made a similar request (24:2): wayyómer avraham el ‛avdo... sim na yad'kha táxat y'rekhi 'Abraham said to the servant...: Put your hand under my thigh'; compare (47:29): wayyiqra livno l'yosef wayyómer lo im na matzati xen b'‛enékha sim na yad'kha táxat y'rékhi 'He summoned his son Joseph and said to him: Do me this favor, place your hand under my thigh.' Placing one's hand under someone's thigh was evidently a custom accompanying a solemn promise to an elderly person. 

But the actual promises also share some common points. In ch. 24, Abraham tells his servant: w'ashbi‛akha... asher lo tiqqax issha livni mibb'not hakk'na‛ani asher anokhi yoshev b'qirbo ki el artzi w'el moladti telekh w'laqaxta issha livni l'yitzxaq 'I will make you swear... that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but will go to the land of my birth and get a wife for my son Isaac', and in the present passage, Jacob says to Joseph: al na tiqb'réni b'mitzráyim w'shakhavti ‛im avotay un'satáni mimmitzráyim uq'vartáni biqvuratam 'Please do not bury me in Egypt; when I lie down with my fathers, take me up from Egypt and bury me in their burial-place.' 

Both patriarchs ask for something tying them to their respective lands of origin. Abraham through his son, Jacob through his final resting place. Abraham looks back to Haran, Jacob to Canaan. Abraham does not want his son to marry a Canaanite; Jacob does not wish to be buried in Egypt. 

Do we all have to abandon our point of departure in order somehow to return to it?