What Does the Bible Say About Burial?
Here are 3 Bible verses about burial, ordered by how relevant readers found them, with the King James Version and the modern Berean Standard Bible side by side.
- #1Genesis 49:29
And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
BSBThen Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.
- #2Romans 6:3-4
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
BSBOr aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.
- #3Revelation 21:4
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
BSB‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Verse rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY). Scripture: KJV & BSB (public domain).
Burial in Torrey's Topical Textbook
- Probable origin of: Ge 4:9,10
- Design of: Ge 23:3,4
- ATTENDED BY
- Family of the dead: Ge 50:5,6,8; Mt 8:21
- Numbers of friends, &c: Ge 50:7,9; 2Sa 3:31; Lu 7:12
- Female friends: Mr 15:47; Lu 7:13
- Hired mourners: Jer 9:17,18
- Great lamentation at: Ge 50:10,11; 2Sa 3:31,32
- Orations sometimes made at: 2Sa 3:33,34
- THE BODY WAS
- Washed before: Ac 9:37
- Anointed for: Mt 26:12
- Wound in linen for: Joh 11:44; 19:40
- Preserved with spices: Joh 19:39,40
- Sometimes burned before: 1Sa 31:12
- Carried on a bier to: 2Sa 3:31; Lu 7:14
- Perfumes burned at: 2Ch 16:14; Jer 34:5
- Antiquity of coffins for: Ge 50:26
- Often took place immediately after death: Joh 11:17,39; Ac 5:6,10
- Of persons embalmed, deferred for seventy days: Ge 50:3,4
- Of persons hanged, always on the days of execution: De 21:23; Joh 19:31
- The right of all nations
- Jud 16:31: Joh 19:38
- Of enemies, sometimes performed by the conquerors: 1Ki 11:15; Eze 39:11-14
- Of the friendless, a kind act: 2Sa 2:5
- PLACES USED FOR
- Natural caves: Ge 23:19; Joh 11:38
- Caves hewn out of rocks: Isa 22:16; Mt 27:60
- Gardens: 2Ki 21:18,26; Joh 19:41
- Under trees: Ge 35:8; 1Sa 31:13
- Tops of the hills: Jos 24:33; 2Ki 23:16
- Houses of the deceased: 1Sa 25:1; 1Ki 2:34
- The city of David for the kings of Judah: 1Ki 2:10; 2Ch 21:20; 24:16
- Antiquity of purchasing places for: Ge 23:7-16
- PLACES OF
- Frequently prepared and pointed out during life: Ge 50:5; 2Ch 16:14; Mt 27:60
- Members of a family interred in the same: Ge 25:10; 49:31; 2Sa 2:32
- Held in high veneration: Ne 2:3,5
- Provided for the common people: Jer 26:23
- Provided for aliens and strangers: Mt 27:7
- Visited by sorrowing friends: Joh 11:31
- Pillars erected on: Ge 35:20
- Tombs erected over: Mt 23:27-29
- Sometimes had inscriptions: 2Ki 23:17
- Sometimes not apparent: Lu 11:44
- For criminals, marked by heaps: Jos 7:26
- Were ceremonially unclean: Nu 19:16,18
- Often desecrated by idolatry: Isa 65:3,4
- The Jews anxious to be interred in their family places of: Ge 47:29-31; 49:29,30; 50:25; 2Sa 19:37
- Followed by a feast: 2Sa 3:35; Jer 16:7,8; Ho 9:4
- Privation of, considered a calamity: Ec 6:3
- Privation of, threatened as a punishment: 2Ki 9:10; Jer 8:2; 16:4
- An ignominious, compared to the burial of an ass: Jer 22:19
- Illustrative of regeneration: Ro 6:4; Col 2:12