Genesis 47:29

וַיִּקְרְבוּ יְמֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל לָמוּת וַיִּקְרָא׀ לִבְנוֹ לְיוֹסֵף וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ אִם־נָא מָצָאתִי חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ שִֽׂים־נָא יָדְךָ תַּחַת יְרֵכִי וְעָשִׂיתָ עִמָּדִי חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת אַל־נָא תִקְבְּרֵנִי בְּמִצְרָֽיִם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיִּקְרְב֣וּ יְמֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֘ל לָמוּת֒ וַיִּקְרָ֣א׀ לִבְנ֣וֹ לְיוֹסֵ֗ף וַיֹּ֤אמֶר לוֹ֙ אִם־נָ֨א מָצָ֤אתִי חֵן֙ בְּעֵינֶ֔יךָ שִֽׂים־נָ֥א יָדְךָ֖ תַּ֣חַת יְרֵכִ֑י וְעָשִׂ֤יתָ עִמָּדִי֙ חֶ֣סֶד וֶאֱמֶ֔ת אַל־נָ֥א תִקְבְּרֵ֖נִי בְּמִצְרָֽיִם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἤγγισαν δὲ αἱ ἡμέραι Ἰσραὴλ ἀποθανεῖν, καὶ ἐκάλεσεν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ Ἰωσὴφ καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ Εἰ εὕρηκα χάριν ἐναντίον σου, ὑπόθες τὴν χεῖρά σου ὑπὸ τὸν μηρόν μου, καὶ ποιήσεις ἐπ’ ἐμὲ ἐλεημοσύνην καὶ ἀλήθειαν τοῦ μή με θάψαι ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Cumque appropinquare cerneret diem mortis suæ, vocavit filium suum Joseph, et dixit ad eum: Si inveni gratiam in conspectu tuo, pone manum tuam sub femore meo: et facies mihi misericordiam et veritatem, ut non sepelias me in Ægypto:

Spanish

Cuando se acercaba el momento de su muerte, Israel llamó a su hijo José y le dijo: “Si realmente me amas, por favor pon tu mano debajo de mi muslo y júrame que me tratarás con lealtad y bondad: por favor, no me entierres en Egipto.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y llegáronse los días de Israel para morir, y llamó á José su hijo, y le dijo: Si he hallado ahora gracia en tus ojos, ruégote que pongas tu mano debajo de mi muslo, y harás conmigo misericordia y verdad; ruégote que no me entierres en Egipto;

English

When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “ If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise to show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt,

✦ What the text says

Summary

Genesis 47:29 narrates that as Israel's (Jacob's) days approached death, he summoned his son Joseph and made a request: that Joseph place his hand under his thigh as a gesture accompanying a solemn promise, and that he not bury him in Egypt. The verse is built as a chain of narrative verbs introducing direct speech with polite/urgent particles.

Key words

yiqrevu ("they drew near", H7126G) — qal narrative form; the subject is yemei ("days of"), so literally "the days of Israel drew near to die," a common Hebrew idiom for approaching death.
na' ("please", H4994) — this interjection appears three times in the verse (with matza'ti, with sim, with tikbereni), marking the request as courteous/urgent at each key point.
chesed ("loyalty", H2617A) and 'emet ("faithfulness", H0571G) — paired nouns joined by ve ("and", H9002), forming a fixed expression describing the quality of the promised action.
tikbereni ("you bury", H6912) — qal jussive with negation 'al ("may not", H0408); jussive + 'al expresses a prohibition/wish rather than a simple future negative.
yerekhi ("my thigh", H3409) with suffix -i ("my") — construct noun governed by the preposition tachat ("under", H8478L), specifying the location for Joseph's hand.

What the text says

The verse opens with two narrative vav-forms (yiqrevu, "they drew near" and yiqra', "he summoned") that advance the story in sequence, followed by a third (yomer, "he said") introducing direct speech. The phrase yemei-Yisra'el lamut ("the days of Israel to die") uses a construct chain (yemei, "days of") plus an infinitive with le- ("to die"), a standard idiom meaning "the time approached for Israel to die," without a specific verb "to be dying."

Within the speech, the particle na' recurs three times, attached respectively to matzati ("I have found," perfect tense), to the imperative sim ("put"), and to the jussive tikbereni ("you bury," negated by 'al). This repetition marks the entire request — favor, gesture, and prohibition — as a single unified appeal rather than three separate demands. The instruction sim na' yadkha tachat yerekhi ("put please your hand under my thigh") uses the construct yerekhi ("thigh of me") governed by tachat ("under"), specifying a physical position rather than a symbolic act described in the text itself. The concluding clause pairs chesed ("loyalty") and 'emet ("faithfulness") without further grammatical marking beyond the conjunction ve, presenting them as two qualities Joseph is asked to enact together (ve'asita, "you will do," sequential perfect continuing the imperative force).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chesed ve'emet as ἐλεημοσύνην καὶ ἀλήθειαν ("mercy and truth"), where the Hebrew nouns chesed ("loyalty") and 'emet ("faithfulness") carry a different semantic range than "mercy." The Vulgate translates the same pair as misericordiam et veritatem ("mercy and truth"), similarly shifting chesed toward "mercy" rather than "loyalty." The LXX also renders the purpose of the hand-under-thigh gesture with an added infinitival clause τοῦ μή με θάψαι ("so that you not bury me"), explicitly linking the gesture to the burial request, whereas the Hebrew presents the hand placement (v.29) and the burial prohibition as two separate clauses joined only by narrative sequence.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.