And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt,.... At the request, and by the order of Joseph, Ge 50:25; which were punctually observed by the children of Israel under the direction and command of Moses, and therefore is ascribed to him, as here to them, Ex 13:19;buried they in Shechem; not in the city, but in a field near it, as the next clause shows.
The Jews in their Cippi Hebraici say , that Joseph was buried at a village called Belata, a sabbath day's journey from Shechem; but Jerom says he was buried in Shechem, and his monument was to be seen there in his time.
Not that they buried him at the same time Joshua was buried, but very probably as soon as the tribe of Ephraim was in the quiet possession of this place; though the historian inserts the account of it here, taking an occasion for it from the interment of Joshua:in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for an hundred pieces of silver; of which purchaseSee Gill on "Ge 33:19";and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph; and particularly of the tribe of Ephraim by lot, agreeably to the gift and disposal of it by Jacob to Joseph, See Gill on "Ge 48:22".
Ut supra. (Cippi Heb. p. 32.) Quaest. Heb. in Genesim, fol. 73.