The Nugget:
Gen 37:35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. (KJV)
My Comment:
The following study is a continuation of the study begun at Daily Bible Nugget #760 where I mentioned Genesis 37:35 and its note.
There is much misunderstanding about what the Bible teaches about life after death, both among the various cult groups like the Jehovah Witnesses and some Christian denominations like the Seventh Day Adventists. In my fairly wide reading I believe I have seen mistaken views presented in some of the very best modern study Bibles on this subject.
Below, I share an important note I placed in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and The Ultimate Cross Reference Treasury. Careful study of this note and the Scripture references given should clarify for careful readers just what the Bible teaches about these matters. Other verses in the NTSK and UCRT contain important related notes. Many of those verses and notes I have shared in previous posts here so any reader who desires to dig deeper can use the search feature on this site to find those posts by entering the Scripture reference in the search box.
Cross Reference Bible Study for Genesis 37:35 from The Ultimate Cross Reference Treasury:
Genesis 37:35
his daughters. Gen 31:43; Gen 35:22, 23, 24, 25, 26.
rose up to comfort. Gen 24:67, 2Sa 12:17; 2Sa 13:39, Job 2:11; Job 42:11, Psa 77:2, Jer 31:15, Joh 11:19; Joh 11:31, 1Th 4:13.
but he refused. Gen 45:26; Gen 48:11, Est 4:4, Psa 30:11, Pro 15:15, Jer 45:3.
For I will go down. *Gen 42:38; Gen 44:29, 30, 31; Gen 45:28, **+2Sa 12:23; 2Sa 13:39.
grave. Num 16:30, *Deut 32:22, Job 11:8; Job 14:3, Pro 30:15, 16, Isa 5:14, Hab 2:5, T1003x (“Upright as well as wicked go to hell”–this topic and the following three references are taken from Jehovah Witness literature): Job 14:13, *Psa 9:17; Psa 16:10. Heb. sheol. First mention. *S# H7585. Rendered grave in the following passages: Gen 37:35; Gen 42:38; Gen 44:29; Gen 44:31, 1Sa 2:6, 1Ki 2:6; 1Ki 2:9, Job 7:9; Job 14:13; Job 17:13; Job 21:13; Job 24:19, Psa 6:5; Psa 30:3; Psa 31:17; Psa 49:14; Psa 49:14, 15; Psa 88:3; Psa 89:48; Psa 141:7, Pro 1:12; Pro 30:16, Ecc 9:10, Song 8:6, Isa 14:11; Isa 38:10; **Isa 38:18, Eze 31:15, Hos 13:14; Hos 13:14. Rendered hell in the following passages: Deut 32:22, 2Sa 22:6, Job 11:8; Job 26:6, Psa 9:17; Psa 16:10; Psa 18:5; Psa 55:15; Psa 86:13; Psa 116:3; Psa 139:8, Pro 5:5; Pro 7:27; Pro 9:18; Pro 15:11; Pro 15:24; Pro 23:14; Pro 27:20, Isa 5:14; Isa 14:9; Isa 14:15; Isa 28:15; Isa 28:18; Isa 57:9, Eze 31:16, 17; Eze 32:21; %**Eze 32:27, %**Amos 9:2, Jon 2:2, Hab 2:5, Rendered pit in the following passages: Num 16:30; %**Num 16:33, Job 17:16, For *S# H6900, qeburah, grave, see +Gen 35:20, For *S# H6913, qeber, grave, buryingplace, sepulchre, see +Gen 23:4, For *S# H7845, shachath, pit, ditch, destruction, corruption, see +Job 9:31.
R.B. Girdlestone suggests (Synonyms of the Old Testament, Chapter 24, “Destruction, Death, Hell”) that the state which we call death, i.e., the condition consequent upon the act of dying, is to be viewed in three aspects:
First, there is the tomb, or sepulchre, the local habitation of the physical frame, which is called qeber, Gen 50:5 (+Gen 23:4).
Secondly, there is the corruption whereby the body itself is dissolved, which is represented by the word shachath, Gen 6:13; Gen 6:17; Gen 9:11; Gen 9:15, with reference both to the moral corruption and also to the physical destruction of all that was living on the earth; and of the earth itself, which, as Peter said, perished (2Pe 3:6).
In the N.T. the verb used here (2Pe 3:6, apollumi) is applied to the waste of ointment (Mat 26:8), to the destruction of physical objects, e.g., wine-skins (Mat 9:17), gold (1Pe 1:7), food (Joh 6:27), and the hair of the head (Luk 21:18). In these cases it is not annihilation that is spoken of, but such injury as makes the object practically useless for its original purpose. It is applied to the destruction of the world in 2Pe 3:6 in exactly the same sense; for as the world was destroyed at the Deluge, so shall it be hereafter; it will be rendered useless as a habitation for man. Nevertheless, as after the first destruction it was restored, so it may be after the second. [Note that the future destruction mentioned in 2 Peter 3:7 is selective–it is restricted to the “perdition of ungodly men.”]
Again, the word is applied to the perishing or being destroyed from off the face of the earth in death, when the physical frame which is the temple of life becomes untenanted; and a contrast is drawn between the power of those who can bring about the death of the body, and of Him who can destroy both body and soul in gehenna. Death is spoken of in this sense in Mat 2:13; Mat 8:25; Mat 12:14; Mat 21:41; Mat 22:7; Mat 26:52; Mat 27:20, and probably in Mat 18:14, Rom 2:12; Rom 14:15, and 1Co 8:11, The destruction of the body is compared to the disintegration of the seed which falls into the ground and dies. It is dismemberment and dissolution, and renders the body useless for the time being, so far as its original purpose is concerned, but it is not annihilation. The use of the word apollumi, rendered perish, in the argument in 1Co 15:18 is worthy of note; it here implies, that, physically speaking, the Christian has perished, if Christ be not risen. But since Christ has risen from the dead, Paul affirms emphatically that the Christian who has suffered physical death has not perished. The soul or spirit of each individual person continues in conscious existence after the physical death of the body (Zec 12:1 note. Heb 12:23), as Jesus asserted in +*Mat 10:28 note and promised in Luk 23:43 note. There is not a word here about annihilation of the person (which would continue in hades), but simply of the blotting out of existence in the body. See also, for the moral sense, such passages as Mat 18:11, Luk 15:32, Isa 53:6, Joh 3:15, 16, 2Pe 3:9, Thirdly, there is sheol, which represents the locality or condition of the departed. There is no reason to doubt that what the grave or pit is to the body, that sheol is to the soul.
unto my son. As far as Jacob knew, Joseph had been devoured by a wild beast (Gen 37:33), and was not buried in a grave at all; even had he supposed Joseph perished in some pit, Jacob certainly did not expect his own body to be deposited in the same place: therefore, the use of sheol in the preceding clause, considering these factors in the case, shows that Jacob expected to meet Joseph in a conscious existence after the death of his own body. Gen 25:8 note. Gen 42:38, 1Sa 28:12 note. +*2Sa 12:23, Jer 31:15, 16, 17, +*Amos 9:2, Mat 10:28 note. Luk 23:43 note.