Genesis 47:29-31

47:29 The time ¹  for Israel to die approached, so he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh ²  and show me kindness and faithfulness. ³  Do not bury me in Egypt, 47:30 but when I rest ⁴  with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” Joseph ⁵  said, “I will do as you say.”

47:31 Jacob ⁶  said, “Swear to me that you will do so.” ⁷  So Joseph ⁸  gave him his word. ⁹  Then Israel bowed down ¹⁰  at the head of his bed. ¹¹ 

Genesis 49:29-32

49:29 Then he instructed them, ¹²  “I am about to go ¹³  to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite. 49:30 It is the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought for a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite. 49:31 There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah; there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah; and there I buried Leah. 49:32 The field and the cave in it were acquired from the sons of Heth.” ¹⁴ 

Exodus 20:12

20:12 “Honor ¹⁵  your father and your mother, that you may live a long time ¹⁶  in the land ¹⁷  the Lord your God is giving to you.

Acts 7:16

7:16 and their bones ¹⁸  were later moved to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a certain sum of money ¹⁹  from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

Ephesians 6:1

6:1 Children, ²⁰  obey your parents in the Lord ²¹  for this is right.

[47:29]  ¹ tn Heb “days.”

[47:29]  ² sn On the expression put your hand under my thigh see Gen 24:2.

[47:29]  ³ tn Or “deal with me in faithful love.”

[47:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “lie down.” Here the expression “lie down” refers to death.

[47:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[47:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[47:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “swear on oath to me.” The words “that you will do so” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[47:31]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[47:31]  ⁹ tn Heb “swore on oath to him.”

[47:31]  ¹⁰ sn The Hebrew verb normally means “bow down,” especially in worship or prayer. Here it might simply mean “bend low,” perhaps from weakness or approaching death. The narrative is ambiguous at this point and remains open to all these interpretations.

[47:31]  ¹¹ tc The MT reads מִטָּה (mittah, “bed, couch”). The LXX reads the word as מַטֶּה (matteh, “staff, rod”) and interprets this to mean that Jacob bowed down in worship while leaning on the top of his staff. The LXX reading was used in turn by the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 11:21).

[49:29]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text adds “and he said to them,” which is not included in the translation because it is redundant in English.

[49:29]  ¹³ tn Heb “I am about to be gathered” The participle is used here to describe what is imminent.

[49:32]  ¹⁴ tn Some translate the Hebrew term “Heth” as “Hittites” here (see also Gen 23:3), but this gives the impression that these people were the classical Hittites of Anatolia. However, there is no known connection between these sons of Heth, apparently a Canaanite group (see Gen 10:15), and the Hittites of Asia Minor. See H. A. Hoffner, Jr., “Hittites,” Peoples of the Old Testament World, 152-53.

[20:12]  ¹⁵ tn The verb כַּבֵּד (kabbed) is a Piel imperative; it calls for people to give their parents the respect and honor that is appropriate for them. It could be paraphrased to say, give them the weight of authority that they deserve. Next to God, parents were to be highly valued, cared for, and respected.

[20:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “that your days may be long.”

[20:12]  ¹⁷ sn The promise here is national rather than individual, although it is certainly true that the blessing of life was promised for anyone who was obedient to God’s commands (Deut 4:1, 8:1, etc.). But as W. C. Kaiser (“Exodus,” EBC 2:424) summarizes, the land that was promised was the land of Canaan, and the duration of Israel in the land was to be based on morality and the fear of God as expressed in the home (Deut 4:26, 33, 40; 32:46-47). The captivity was in part caused by a breakdown in this area (Ezek 22:7, 15). Malachi would announce at the end of his book that Elijah would come at the end of the age to turn the hearts of the children and the parents toward each other again.

[7:16]  ¹⁸ tn “and they.”

[7:16]  ¹⁹ sn See Gen 49:29-32.

[6:1]  ²⁰ tn The use of the article τά (ta) with τέκνα (tekna) functions in a generic way to distinguish this group from husbands, wives, fathers and slaves and is left, therefore, untranslated. The generic article is used with γύναῖκες (gunaikes) in 5:22, ἄνδρες (andres) in 5:25, δοῦλοι (douloi) in 6:5, and κύριοι (kurioi) in 6:9.

[6:1]  ²¹ tc B D* F G as well as a few versional and patristic representatives lack “in the Lord” (ἐν κυρίῳ, en kuriw), while the phrase is well represented in Ì⁴⁶ א A D¹ I^vid Ψ 0278 0285 33 1739 1881 Ï sy co. Scribes may have thought that the phrase could be regarded a qualifier on the kind of parents a child should obey (viz., only Christian parents), and would thus be tempted to delete the phrase to counter such an interpretation. It is unlikely that the phrase would have been added, since the form used to express such sentiment in this Haustafel is ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ/Χριστῷ (Jw" tw kuriw/Cristw, “as to the Lord/Christ”; see 5:22; 6:5). Even though the witnesses for the omission are impressive, it is more likely that the phrase was deleted than added by scribal activity.