What Does Genesis 49:31 Mean?
There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.THE KEY
The family tomb gathers generations, but Isaac’s name keeps laughter inside the burial roll.
THE MEANING
The same ground gathers a family across generations without erasing anyone’s name. Jacob’s “I buried Leah” keeps one act of grief personal within that shared place.
THE ROOT
קָבַר
qābar
GROWS FROM
קבר
To bury, to place in a grave.
“buried” in this verse is qābar. The root also forms the word for the grave itself: Hebrew holds the act of burial and its lasting place in the same family of words. The repeated “there” makes that shared place central to the verse.
ALSO GROWS
qeber: Grave, tomb.
קֶבֶר
The place named by this branch gives the repeated “there” a concrete shape: this family gathers in a shared tomb.
qevurah: Burial, interment.
קְבוּרָה
This branch names the act itself, linking Jacob’s personal burial of Leah to the family’s wider resting place.
יִצְחָק
Yitzchak
GROWS FROM
צחק
To laugh.
Isaac’s name grows from צחק (tzachaq, “to laugh”). The burial roll therefore carries laughter within its genealogy of loss: the name preserves a living trace of joy.
ALSO GROWS
tsechoq: Laughter.
צְחֹק
This branch makes the meaning within Isaac’s name audible as the family is gathered into the grave.
metzaḥeq: Laughing, playing.
מְצַחֵק
This active form shows the root as lived action, adding a trace of play to the name Isaac bears here.
THE PATTERN
Burial places anchor particular grief in ground shared across generations.
And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre, which is Hebron in the land of Canaan.For his sons lifted him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a holding of a grave of Ephron the Hittite, facing Mamre.So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews' day of preparation, for the tomb was near at hand.THE THREAD
And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre, which is Hebron in the land of Canaan.Genesis 23:19 uses קָבַר (qābar, “bury”) when Abraham buries Sarah at Machpelah. Genesis 49:31 uses the same root for the family buried there, linking Sarah’s burial to the generations gathered in that place.
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