Final Commands and Burial of Reuben

Reuben issues his final directives to his sons at the age of 125. He gathers his descendants in the fertile lowlands of the Nile River valley. The damp air presses against the heavy mud-brick walls of their Egyptian settlement. He commands them to submit to the tribal authority of Levi and Judah.

The patriarch draws his last breath during the period of Israelite prosperity in Egypt. This event takes place well before the exodus in the second millennium b.c. His sons place his remains in a sealed wooden coffin for temporary holding. They wait for the appointed time to transport him across the desert landscape.

The final destination for his remains is the ancient rock tomb in Hebron. This cavern sits roughly 20 miles south of Jerusalem in the steep hill country. Abraham originally purchased this double cave as a permanent family burial plot. The descendants eventually carry his heavy coffin over 200 miles to this limestone vault.

And he commanded them that they should carry up his bones to Hebron, and bury him in the double cave.

The heavy cedar coffin rests quietly within the dry Egyptian climate for generations. Decades pass as the political landscape shifts around the growing Israelite population. The bones of the firstborn son wait for the long march back to Canaan.