Genesis 49:29
And he charged them, saying: I am now going to be gathered to my people: bury me with my fathers in the double cave, which is in the field of Ephron the Hethite,
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et præcepit eis, dicens : Ego congregor ad populum meum : sepelite me cum patribus meis in spelunca duplici quæ est in agro Ephron Hethæi,
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Ἐγὼ προστίθεμαι πρὸς τὸν ἐμὸν λαόν· θάψατέ με μετὰ τῶν πατέρων μου ἐν τῷ σπηλαίῳ ὅ ἐστιν ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ Ἐφρὼν τοῦ Χετταίου,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיְצַ֣ו אוֹתָ֗ם וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֲלֵהֶם֙ אֲנִי֙ נֶאֱסָ֣ף אֶל עַמִּ֔י קִבְר֥וּ אֹתִ֖י אֶל אֲבֹתָ֑י אֶל הַ֨מְּעָרָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר בִּשְׂדֵ֖ה עֶפְר֥וֹן הַֽחִתִּֽי
Haydock's commentary
To be gathered to my people. That is, I am going to die, and so to follow my ancestors that are gone before me, and to join their company in another world. (Challoner)
Jacob's life was embittered with many afflictions, which he bore with admirable patience, and thus deserved to be considered as an excellent figure of Jesus Christ.
The man of sorrows. His faith in the promises of God, made him contemplate the land of Chanaan as his own, and parcel it out among his children. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Lactantius The Divine Institutes, Chap. XII. Of the kinds of beneficence, and works of mercy
Moreover, there have not been wanting those who esteemed burial as superfluous, and said that it was no evil to lie unburied and neglected; but their impious wisdom is rejected alike by the whole human race, and by the divine expressions which command the performance of the rite. But they do not venture to say that it ought not to be done, but that, if it happens to be omitted, no inconvenience is the result. Therefore in that matter they discharge the office, not so much of those who give precepts, as of those who suggest consolation, that if this shall by chance have occurred to a wise man, he should not deem himself wretched on this account. But we do not speak of that which ought to be endured by a wise man, but of that which he himself ought to do. …
Theodoret Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus, The Impassible
Orth. And when you hear the Patriarch Jacob saying “Bury me with my Fathers,” do you suppose this refers to the body or to the soul?
Theodoret Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus, To the Soldiers
This is the unanimous teaching of the evangelists. But if your opponents urge that the angels said “Come see the place where the Lord lay” let the foolish folk learn that the divine Scripture says also about the victorious Stephen “And devout men carried Stephen to his burial.” And yet it was the body only which was deemed proper for burial, while the soul was not buried together with the body; nevertheless the body alone was spoken of by the common name. Similarly the blessed Jacob said to his sons “Bury me with my fathers.” He did not say “Bury my body.” Then he went on “There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.” He did not say “their bodies.” The names are common to bodies or souls, but nevertheless it is only the bodies which he called by the common names. …
St Ambrose On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book II. On the Belief in the Resurrection
23. The holy patriarch Israel fled from his country, was exiled from his father, relatives, and home, he mourned over the shame of his daughter and the death of his son, he endured famine, when dead he lost his own grave, for he entreated that his bones should be translated, lest even in death he should find rest.
Aphrahat Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations, Of the Resurrection of the Dead
7. For all our fathers, in hope of the Resurrection and the quickening of the dead, were looking forward and hastening; as the blessed Apostle said, If the righteous had been looking forward to that city from which Abraham went forth, they would have had an opportunity of again turning back and to it; but they showed that they were looking forward to one better than it, namely that which is in heaven . They were looking forward to be released and to go speedily thither. And from that which I am writing unto thee, understand and observe that they were looking forward to the Resurrection. For Jacob our father, when he was dying, bound Joseph his son with an oath, and said to him, Bury me in the tomb of my fathers, with Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebecca. …