Library
<< Genesis 49:32 Genesis 50:1 >>
Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Genesis 49:33:
Genesis 49:33
Excerpted from: Imagining the Garden of Eden (Part 10)I do not know if you are aware of this, but this “gathered to his people” is a Hebraism that came about because of the way they did their burials in that time. You remember that Abraham bought the cave at Machpelah where he buried Sarah and later he was buried. And it happened that Israelites, from that point on, tried to bury those who died among them in the same way, in a cave, or in the rock, hew out a cave or crypt out of the rock. If they could not do that, they would often make a box of stone. Sometimes they did this, as well as burying them in the caves, but each family would have one of these stone boxes called an ossuary, meaning a “bone box.”
So they would bury the person in the cave or in the crypt. His body would be displayed on a ledge, and they would allow the body to decay. In the climate, it would decay fairly quickly. It would not be long, within a year or so, and the body would be basically bones. They would then gather the bones and put them in the ossuary. Over time, over generations, there would be a collection of bones in the ossuary, from their fathers, and their father’s fathers, and their father’s fathers. So a person was then “gathered to his people,” to his fathers. So all of the family would be together in death. They would all be buried in the same bone box.
<< Genesis 49:32 Genesis 50:1 >>
Join 137,879+ readers
A Verse and a Thought,
Every Morning
Consistent Bible study is hard to start.
The Berean gives you the starting point: one scripture and a focused commentary in your inbox each morning — read it in minutes, or go as deep as you like.
Free, daily, and spam-free. We never share your address. Unsubscribe anytime.