Genesis 48:21

21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you[a] and take you[b] back to the land of your[c] fathers.

Genesis 48:21 in Other Translations

KJV
21 And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.
ESV
21 Then Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers.
NLT
21 Then Jacob said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will take you back to Canaan, the land of your ancestors.
MSG
21 Israel then said to Joseph, "I'm about to die. God be with you and give you safe passage back to the land of your fathers.
CSB
21 Then Israel said to Joseph, "Look! I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.

Genesis 48:21 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 48:21

And Israel said unto Joseph, behold, I die
Expected to die very shortly; and he not only speaks of it as a certain thing, and what would quickly be, but with pleasure and comfort, having no fear and dread of it on him, but as what was agreeable to him, and he had made himself familiar with: but God shall be with you;
with Joseph and his posterity, and with all his brethren, and theirs, to comfort and support them, to guide and counsel them, to protect and defend them, to carry them through all they had to endure in Egypt, and at length bring them out of it; he signifies he was departing from them, but God would not depart from them, whose presence would be infinitely more to them than his; and which, as it made him the more easy to leave them, so it might make them more easy to part with him: and bring you again unto the land of your fathers;
the land of Canaan, where their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had dwelt, and which was given to them and theirs for an inheritance, and where Joseph and his brethren had lived, and would be brought thither again, as the bones of Joseph were, and as all of them in their posterity were in Joshua's time.

Genesis 48:21 In-Context

19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.”
20 He blessed them that day and said, “In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing: ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’ ” So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.
21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers.
22 And to you I give one more ridge of land than to your brothers, the ridge I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”

Cross References 2

  • 1. S Genesis 26:3; Genesis 46:4
  • 2. S Genesis 15:16; S Genesis 28:13; Genesis 50:24; Deuteronomy 30:3; Psalms 126:1; Jeremiah 29:14; Ezekiel 34:13

Footnotes 3

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