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Genesis 47:27–31, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Genesis 47:27–31
Jacob Makes Joseph Swear to Bury Him in Canaan
Fruitful in Egypt, buried with the fathers
Israel multiplies in Goshen. After seventeen years there, Jacob summons Joseph, asks for steadfast kindness, and requires an oath: do not bury me in Egypt; carry me to the ancestral place. Joseph swears.
Jacob bows at the head of the bed in the Masoretic reading, or on his staff in the Greek reading later cited in Hebrews. Present security is not allowed to define final belonging. The gesture's symbolism is not certain.
How this should shape us
Discuss burial and care wishes before a crisis, and appoint someone willing to carry them out. Receive present stability without forgetting longer commitments, and do not weaponize ancestry against living people.
Teach it back
Explain why Genesis 47:27–31 places Israel's flourishing in Egypt beside Jacob's burial oath. Include Jacob's approaching death, Joseph's obligation, Canaan and the ancestors, the bed/staff textual question, and what the scene does not permit readers to claim about prosperity, burial, land, or oath gestures.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Does Jacob's death-bed story begin at verse 27 or verse 28?
Why it fits:
Difficulty: The contrast between corporate flourishing and personal mortality contributes meaningfully to the final arrangement.
Why it fits:
Difficulty: Verse 27 also looks backward to the Goshen and famine material.
Best judgment:
How certain? strongDid Jacob bow at his bed or on his staff?
Why it fits:
Difficulty: The unpointed consonants also permit staff, which is anciently attested.
Why it fits:
Difficulty: It is not the Masoretic pointing preserved by the KJV and fits the immediate bed imagery less directly.
Best judgment:
How certain? very strongWhy did Jacob demand burial in Canaan?
Why it fits:
Difficulty: The paragraph does not list Jacob's motives in analytical form.
Why it fits:
Difficulty: Genesis 47 does not identify any one as the exhaustive motive.
Best judgment:
How certain? strongResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Displayed text, settlement, lifespan, oath, burial, canonical land-and-bones movement, and New Testament reception.
Genesis 47:27–31 with 23:1–20; 28:10–22; 35:16–20; 46:1–7; 48:1–22; 49:29–50:14; 50:22–26; Exodus 13:19; Joshua 24:32; and Hebrews 11:21–22 in the pinned standardized 1769 KJV
Supports: Settlement, multiplication, oath, death, burial, bowing, and bed/staff lexical and grammatical evidence.
WLC Genesis 47:27–31, especially vayye'ahazu, vayyifru, vayyirbu, hesed ve'emet, tahat yereki, shakhav im avot, vayyishtahu, and the consonants h-m-t-h in verse 31
Supports: Translation, syntax, and textual-variant cross-checks.
NET Genesis 47:27–31 translator and textual notes, especially possession, kindness and faithfulness, oath wording, bowing, and the Masoretic bed / Septuagint staff difference
Supports: Final-form contrast between Egyptian settlement and ancestral burial and the beginning of Jacob's closing movement.
Genesis commentary, Genesis 47:27–31 and transition into chapters 48–50
Supports: Modern literary-critical counterpoint for Israel in Egypt, promise, death, and movement toward Exodus.
Genesis 37–50 Joseph study guide, final Jacob and Joseph scenes
Supports: One documented Jewish procreative and descendant interpretation preserved as a proposal rather than certainty.
Jewish Bible Quarterly 37.3, pages 189–191, especially the two hand-under-thigh oath contexts in Genesis 24 and 47
Supports: Complete narrative-convention analysis and a fully inspected argument for the scene's place in Genesis 47:28–50:26.
The Death of Jacob, pages 44–62 and 229–241, especially Genesis 47:28–31 preparation, summons, oath, executor duty, denouement, bed/staff discussion, and whole death-bed structure
Supports: Current peer-reviewed burial-and-belonging interpretation with clearly bounded modern ethnographic analogy.
Religions 16.9 article 1109, sections 1, 4–6, especially Jacob as migrant, burial belonging, posthumous return, family tomb, and comparison with Joseph's bones
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Displayed text, settlement, lifespan, oath, burial, canonical land-and-bones movement, and New Testament reception.
Exact location: Genesis 47:27–31 with 23:1–20; 28:10–22; 35:16–20; 46:1–7; 48:1–22; 49:29–50:14; 50:22–26; Exodus 13:19; Joshua 24:32; and Hebrews 11:21–22 in the pinned standardized 1769 KJV
Open source ↗hebrew text morphology and lemma data
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible — Genesis
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project
Open Scriptures, Version 2.2 released 2021; repository inspected 2026
Supports: Settlement, multiplication, oath, death, burial, bowing, and bed/staff lexical and grammatical evidence.
Exact location: WLC Genesis 47:27–31, especially vayye'ahazu, vayyifru, vayyirbu, hesed ve'emet, tahat yereki, shakhav im avot, vayyishtahu, and the consonants h-m-t-h in verse 31
Open source ↗Translation and textual notes
NET Bible — Genesis with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, Digital edition accessed 2026
Supports: Translation, syntax, and textual-variant cross-checks.
Exact location: NET Genesis 47:27–31 translator and textual notes, especially possession, kindness and faithfulness, oath wording, bowing, and the Masoretic bed / Septuagint staff difference
Open NET Genesis 47 ↗modern open whole book commentary
Genesis
T. Desmond Alexander
The Gospel Coalition Bible Commentary, 2023
Supports: Final-form contrast between Egyptian settlement and ancestral burial and the beginning of Jacob's closing movement.
Exact location: Genesis commentary, Genesis 47:27–31 and transition into chapters 48–50
Open source ↗modern critical open study guide
Genesis 37–50: Joseph — Study Guide
Joel S. Baden and Yale Bible Study
Yale Divinity School, 2021 course; page inspected 2026
Supports: Modern literary-critical counterpoint for Israel in Egypt, promise, death, and movement toward Exodus.
Exact location: Genesis 37–50 Joseph study guide, final Jacob and Joseph scenes
Open source ↗open Jewish biblical word and reception study
The Function of the Root Y-R-KH in Genesis
Ben Zion Katz
Jewish Bible Quarterly 37(3), pages 189–191, 2009
Supports: One documented Jewish procreative and descendant interpretation preserved as a proposal rather than certainty.
Exact location: Jewish Bible Quarterly 37.3, pages 189–191, especially the two hand-under-thigh oath contexts in Genesis 24 and 47
Open source ↗open doctoral narrative and deathbed study
The Death of Jacob: Narrative Conventions in Genesis 47.28–50.26
Kerry D. Lee
University of Edinburgh PhD thesis, 2014
Supports: Complete narrative-convention analysis and a fully inspected argument for the scene's place in Genesis 47:28–50:26.
Exact location: The Death of Jacob, pages 44–62 and 229–241, especially Genesis 47:28–31 preparation, summons, oath, executor duty, denouement, bed/staff discussion, and whole death-bed structure
Open source ↗open peer reviewed migration and burial study
‘Bury Me with My Ancestors:’ Posthumous Repatriation in the Biblical Story of Jacob
Frederik Poulsen
Religions 16.9, article 1109, 2025
Supports: Current peer-reviewed burial-and-belonging interpretation with clearly bounded modern ethnographic analogy.
Exact location: Religions 16.9 article 1109, sections 1, 4–6, especially Jacob as migrant, burial belonging, posthumous return, family tomb, and comparison with Joseph's bones
Open source ↗