Jacob again expressed his faith in God's promises that Canaan would be the Israelites' homeland by requesting burial in the Cave of Machpelah near Hebron (cf. 47:29-32; 48:21-22). He died peacefully and was "gathered to his people"(i.e., reunited with his ancestors, implying life after death, in the place of departed spirits). Jacob was 147 when he died (47:28).
Joseph evidently had Jacob's body preserved as a mummy (50:2).942
Jacob's elaborate funeral was probably due both to the high regard in which the Egyptians held him as Joseph's father and to the Egyptians' love of showy funeral ceremonies (vv. 7-10).943It is the grandest state funeral recorded in the Bible, appropriate since Jacob's story spans more than half of Genesis. The Egyptians mourned for Jacob just two days less than they normally mourned the death of a Pharaoh.944
The record of Jacob's burial in the land is important to the purpose of Genesis. God had promised the land to Abraham and had given the patriarchs small portions of it. The faith of these men that God would fulfill His promises and do for their descendants all that He had promised is obvious in their view of Canaan as their homeland. They counted on the future faithfulness of God who had proved Himself faithful to them personally during their lifetimes.
