What Does Genesis 47:30 Mean?

"Let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place." Jacob's request specifies both the principle ("lie with my fathers") and the practical instruction ("carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place"). "Lie with my fathers" is the patriarchal idiom for death and burial with the family: the physical joining of the patriarch's remains with those who preceded him. Abraham is buried in Machpelah (Genesis 25:9 to 10); Isaac is buried in Machpelah (Genesis 35:29). Jacob wants to be buried with them.

"Carry me out of Egypt": the verb is an active transportation requirement: Jacob's body must physically leave Egypt and be carried to Canaan for burial. This is not simply an expression of sentiment but a specific instruction that will require significant effort: transporting a body from Goshen to Hebron across the Sinai with an escort is an extended logistical operation. Genesis 50:4 to 14 will describe exactly this: Joseph requesting Pharaoh's permission, a large Egyptian and family escort traveling to Canaan, and the burial at Machpelah.

The burial-in-Canaan request is the patriarch's final act of faith in the promise. He is dying in Egypt; he will be buried in Canaan. The direction of his body after death reverses the direction of his migration to Egypt: he went down to Egypt; his body will be carried up to Canaan. The promise that Canaan is the family's land is asserted in the burial instruction. Future generations who see Jacob's body transported to Canaan will understand: even in Egypt, the patriarchs claimed Canaan. The burial instruction in Egypt points to the return that Exodus will eventually accomplish.