The death of Jacob

1. Abraham was buried with Sarah, Isaac with Rebecca, and Jacob with Rachel. Nope. Leah (Gen 49.32). Where was Rachel buried? Along the way to Ephrath (Gen 35.16-22). Jacob was clearly devastated with Rachel’s death, since out of nowhere he mentioned it when he talked with Joseph on his deathbed (Gen 48.1-7) and told Joseph how the death of Rachel has become his inheritance (bitter-sweet, don’t you think?). Yea, so perhaps when Jacob told his sons to bury him along with Leah, he must have remembered Rachel as well. Indeed, ‘Jacob loved Rachel.’ (Gen 29.18)

2. Genesis ended and Exodus started in the similar yet different way: Israel asked a permission to the Pharaoh of Egypt so that they were able to go to Canaan (Gen 50.4-14). In Genesis they asked to do so in order to bury Jacob, whose other name was Israel and from whom the name originated, and in Exodus they asked to do so in order to move to Canaan. So Genesis (book of birth) ended in the death of Israel, and Exodus marked the new birth of Israel.