And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. It has been said by many that 'going to one's fathers,' or 'being gathered to one's people' was a phrase synonymous with 'being buried.' But here the distinction is clearly brought out. Abram was buried in the cave of Machpelah, but none of his ancestors had been interred there. Whereas his 'going to his fathers' is a beautiful and gentle form of expression for death, his soul then departing to the place of spirits, whither his deceased forefathers had preceded him. This is the first passage in which the phraseology occurs; and the Jewish commentator Rashi infers, from the use of the words by God himself, that Terah, Abram's father, must have renounced idolatry and returned in penitence and faith to the worship of the true God, since there could be a reunion between his spirit and Abram's in the future state.