Genèse 47:29

And the days of Israel drew near to die. And he called to his son, to Joseph, and said to him, If now I have found favour before thee, put thy hand on the place of my circumcision, and deal with me in goodness and truth, That thou wilt not bury me in Mizraim,

AND WHEN THE DAYS OF ISRAEL DREW NEAR TO DIE. This means when the time for Israel’s death approached, which was during the last year of his life, he called his son Joseph. The purport of it is that he felt exhaustion and undue weakness in himself, but he was not sick. Rather, he knew that he would not live much longer, and therefore he called his son Joseph. Now after Joseph returned to Egypt [from visiting with his father who lived in Goshen, Jacob] became ill, whereupon Joseph was informed, and he came before him with his two sons so that he [Jacob] would bless them.
In a similar sense is the verse, Now the days of David drew near that he should die, and there it says, I go the way of all the earth,, Verse 2. [which clearly indicates that the meaning of the first verse is] that David knew in his heart that his end was approaching.

ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות, whenever a person is reported as about to make his last will and testament to his children, the introductory phrase is that he felt death approaching, i.e. ויקרבו. When Yitzchok was about to bestow the blessing on Esau, the Torah also prefaced this by describing that he felt himself close to death (27,1-20) [even if the word for approaching used there was not the same as here, i.e. ויקרבו. Ed.] He did say: “I do not know the day of my death.” In Kings I 2,1 when David gives his final instructions to his son Solomon, we also read the preface ויקרבו ימי דוד למות ויצו, “when David felt death approaching, he commanded, etc.” Actually, our paragraph commences with the words וישב ישראל בארץ מצרים, “Israel settled down in the land of Egypt,” (verse 27 in our chapter.) The words ויחי יעקב בארץ מצרים in our verse must be understood as a direct continuation of verse 27. The Jewish communities were not willing to conclude the reading of the weekly portion with the words ותהי הארץ לפרעה, “the land belonged permanently to Pharaoh.” This is why they added verse 27 as the final verse of Parshat Vayigash.

שים נא ידך, we already explained this expression on 24,2 when Avraham requested an oath from his servant Eliezer using the same words.

אל נא תקברני במצרים, even temporarily, in a coffin, as was done with Joseph (50,26). Yaakov reasoned that if he allowed himself to be interred even temporarily, Joseph would never be allowed to take his remains to the land of Canaan at a later date. They would argue that the honour done to him and burial in the soil of Egypt was adequate as it had been for the most outstanding kings. [we must understand the preoccupation the Egyptians had with the cult of death and what they presumed to be their afterlife. The whole culture of that people revolved around burial, hence the pyramids. Ed.]

ויקרבו, Yaakov felt himself that he was approaching death, as his physical weakness kept increasing, and he began to be afraid that his death would occur without adequate warning signs, suddenly. This is why he commanded Joseph that when the time came he should carry him to his final resting place in the land of Canaan where he wished to lie next to his fathers.

שים נא ידך תחת ירכי, we explained the meaning of this phrase in Parshat Chayey Sarah (24,2).

חסד ואמת, the word אמת, a truth, i.e. a requirement he can insist on, referred to Joseph’s duty to bring his father to burial. The word חסד, an act of love, not required by law, was that he should take the trouble to transport his remains from Egypt and have them buried in the land of Canaan.

ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות, “Israel’s days of living approached their end;” wherever the expression קריבה, “approach,” is used in the Torah in connection with death, it signals that the person concerned died prematurely, i.e. before the time originally allocated to him at birth, or younger than the lifespan of his father. We find the same type of wording in Kings I 1,2 ויקרבו ימי דוד למות, where the approach of death of King David is discussed, the reason being that he did not live as long as his paternal forefathers Boaz, Oved, and Yishai Their combined lifetimes were over 400 years, whereas David died at the age of 70. (Compare B’reshit Rabbah 96,4)

ועשית עמדי חסד ואמת, “and perform for me an act of true kindness;” the reason why Yaakov used both the adjectives “kind, and true,” was that Joseph, as his son, was obligated to bury his father, whereas he was not obligated to transport his remains to the cave of Machpelah in the land of Canaan. Yaakov is aware that what he is asking is more than he has a right to ask of a person of such a high rank.