Genesis 46:30

30 And Israel said to Joseph, Now let me die, after I have seen thy face, since thou still livest.

Genesis 46:30 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 46:30

And Israel said unto Joseph
He broke silence first:

now let me die, since I have seen thy face;
not that he was impatient to die, and not desirous to live any longer; for it could not but yield pleasure to him, and make the remainder of his life more comfortable to live with such a son, his darling, and now in so much honour and grandeur; but this he said to express his great satisfaction at the sight of him, that he could now be content to die, having all his heart could wish for, an interview with his beloved son:

because thou [art] yet alive;
whom he had looked upon as dead, and the receiving him now was as life from the dead, and could not but fill him with the greatest joy, see ( Luke 15:23 Luke 15:24 Luke 15:32 ) ; Jacob lived after this seventeen years, ( Genesis 47:28 ) .

Genesis 46:30 In-Context

28 And he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to give notice before he came to Goshen. And they came into the land of Goshen.

29 Then Joseph yoked his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and he presented himself to him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.

30 And Israel said to Joseph, Now let me die, after I have seen thy face, since thou still livest.

31 And Joseph said to his brethren and to his father's house, I will go up, and tell Pharaoh, and say to him, My brethren and my father's house, who were in the land of Canaan, are come to me;

32 and the men are shepherds, for they have been occupied with cattle; and they have brought their sheep, and their cattle, and all that they have.

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit. 'this time.'