Genesis 37:35

35 His sons and daughters tried to comfort him but he refused their comfort. "I'll go to the grave mourning my son." Oh, how his father wept for him.

Genesis 37:35 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 37:35

And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort
him
His sons must act a most hypocritical part in this affair; and as for his daughters, it is not easy to say who they were, since he had but one daughter that we read of, whose name was Dinah: the Targum of Jonathan calls them his sons wives; but it is a question whether any of his sons were as yet married, since the eldest of them was not more than twenty four years of age; and much less can their daughters be supposed to be meant, as they are by some. It is the opinion of the Jews, that Jacob had a twin daughter born to him with each of his sons; these his sons and daughters came together, or singly, to condole his loss, to sympathize with him, and speak a word of comfort to him, and entreat him not to give way to excessive grief and sorrow: but he refused to be comforted;
to attend to anything that might serve to alleviate his mind, and to abstain from outward mourning, and the tokens of it; he chose not to be interrupted in it: and he said, for I will go down into the grave unto my son, mourning;
the meaning is, not that he would by any means hasten his own death, or go down to his son in the grave, strictly and literally taken; since, according to his apprehension of his son's death he could have no grave, being torn to pieces by a wild beast; but either that he should go into the state of the dead, where his son was, mourning all along till he carne thither; or rather that he would go mourning all his days "for [his] son" ^F5, as some render it, till he came to the grave; nor would he, nor should he receive any comfort more in this world: thus his father wept for him;
in this manner, with such circumstances as before related, and he only; for as for his brethren they hated him, and were glad they had got rid of him; or, "and his father" ^F6; his father Isaac, as the Targum of Jonathan, he wept for his son Jacob on account of his trouble and distress; as well as for his grandson Joseph; and so many Jewish writers ^F7 interpret it; and indeed Isaac was alive at this time, and lived twelve years after; but the former sense seems best.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 (ynb la) "propter filium suum", Grotius, Quistorpius; so Jarchi and Abendana.
F6 (Kbyw) "et flevit", Pagninus, Montanus
F7 Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Abendana, in loc.

Genesis 37:35 In-Context

33 He recognized it at once. "My son's coat - a wild animal has eaten him. Joseph torn limb from limb!"

34 Jacob tore his clothes in grief, dressed in rough burlap, and mourned his son a long, long time.

35 His sons and daughters tried to comfort him but he refused their comfort. "I'll go to the grave mourning my son." Oh, how his father wept for him.

36 In Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, manager of his household affairs.