Genesis 50:12

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

His sons did to him just as he commanded them,

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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צִוָּֽם

tsâvâh

H6680

“to command · them”

Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural

Appears 496× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 2:16

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 1887

to command, charge, give orders, lay charge, give charge to, order - (Piel) - to lay charge upon - to give charge to, give command to - to give charge unto - to give charge over, appoint - to give charge, command - to charge, command - to charge, commission - to command, appoint, ordain (of divine act) - (Pual) to be commanded

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

6: words
5: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
1 noun
1 preposition
2 particles

Verb forms

וַיַּעֲשׂ֥וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
צִוָּֽם Piel · Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 10 words from the Hebrew and 7 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 6 Hebrew tokens and 11 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Genesis 50:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 49:29–32 He charged them, and said to them, "I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
Acts 7:16 and they were brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem.
Genesis 47:29–31 The time drew near that Israel must die, and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, "If now I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please don't bury me in Egypt,
Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Genesis 50:12 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיַּעֲשׂ֥וּ בָנָ֖יו ל֑וֹ כֵּ֖ן כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוָּֽם

His sons did to him just as he commanded them,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 50:12 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ποιέω αὐτός οὕτως ὁ υἱός αὐτός καί θάπτω αὐτός ἐκεῖ

And thus his sons did to him.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַעֲבָדוּ בְּנוֹהִי לֵהּ כֵּן כְּמָא דִי פַּקֵדִנּוּן

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַעֲבָדוּ בְּנוֹי לֵיהּ הֵיכְדֵין כְּמָא דְפַקְדִינוּן

And his sons did for him as he had commanded them.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Genesis 50:12 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

There the Egyptian procession probably stopped short; for in Gen 50:12 the sons of Jacob only are mentioned as having carried their father to Canaan according to his last request, and buried him in the cave of Machpelah.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 12. And his sons did unto him] This and the thirteenth verse have been supposed by Mr. Locke and others to belong to the conclusion of the preceding chapter, in which connection they certainly read more consistently than they do here.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them. Not only Joseph, but all the sons of Jacob were concerned in the burial of him, being all charged by him with it, and who were obedient to his commands as follows; see Gen 49:29.

.

Genesis 50:13

gen 50:13

gen 50:13

gen 50:13For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan,.... That is, they took care that he was carried there, as he desired to be; for it cannot be thought that they carried him on their shoulders thither, in like manner as the devout men carried Stephen to his burial, Act 8:2.

and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, &c. the very place where he chose to be buried, Gen 47:29.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Pulpit Commentary

Vers. 12, 13. And his sons the Egyptians halting at Goren Atad (Keil, Havernick, Kalisch, Murphy, etc.); but this does not appear from the narrativedid unto him according as he commanded them (the explanation of what they did being given in the next clause): for his sons carried him not simply from Goren Atad, but from Egypt, so that this verse does not imply anything about the site of the Buckthorn threshing-floor (vide supra, ver. 11) into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a burying-place of Ephron the Hittite, before Mature. (vide Ge 23)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

So his sons

"So Jacob's sons"

just as he had instructed them

"just as he had directed them"

His sons carried him

"His sons took his body"

Machpelah

Machpela was the name of an area or region. See how you translated this in Genesis 23:9. (See: How to Translate Names)

Mamre

This was another name for the city of Hebron. It may have been named after Mamre, the friend of Abraham who lived there. See how you translated this in Genesis 13:18. (See: How to Translate Names)

Ephron the Hittite

This is the name of a man. "Hittite" means "descendent of Heth." See how you translated this in Genesis 23:8. (See: How to Translate Names)

Joseph returned into Egypt

"Joseph returned to Egypt"

all who had accompanied him

"all who had come with him"

translationWords

Canaan

bury

Abraham

Hittite

Egypt

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

כאשר צום AS HE COMMANDED THEM — What was it that he had commanded them? This you can gather from the next verse,

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 6 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is tsâvâh (“to command”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to command” (tsâvâh) shape what this verse is saying?
Genesis 49:29–32 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «וַיַּעֲשׂ֥וּ» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Keil & Delitzsch and Adam Clarke's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 6 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 3 words in this verse.
5 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.