Endnote 6 – Jacob’s Terrible Burden

This much has been understood by some, but by no means all, commentators. Many understood the interpolation of 48:7 as an apology to Joseph for not burying Rachel in the ancestral tomb in Hebron, even as Jacob extracted an oath from Joseph that he would bury him there (see, for example, Rashi, Rashbam, ibn Ezra, and Ramban). This explanation fails because Jacob’s instructions to Joseph to bring his body back to Hebron were given in a previous conversation (recorded in chapter 47), and the present conversation concerned only Jacob’s adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh.