Genesis 47
47
1Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father and brothers, with their flocks and herds and everything they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.” 2He chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh.
3Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What is your occupation?”
“Your servants are shepherds,” they replied to Pharaoh, “just as our fathers were.” 4They also said to him, “We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.”
5Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you, 6and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.”
7Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed#47:7 Or greeted Pharaoh, 8Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”
9And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.” 10Then Jacob blessed#47:10 Or said farewell to Pharaoh and went out from his presence.
11So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed. 12Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their children.
Joseph and the Famine
13There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine. 14Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace. 15When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone.”
16“Then bring your livestock,” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.” 17So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.
18When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. 19Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”
20So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, 21and Joseph reduced the people to servitude,#47:21 Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint (see also Vulgate); Masoretic Text and he moved the people into the cities from one end of Egypt to the other. 22However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.
23Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. 24But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.”
25“You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”
26So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt—still in force today—that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.
27Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.
28Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. 29When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, 30but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.”
“I will do as you say,” he said.
31“Swear to me,” he said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.#47:31 Or Israel bowed down at the head of his bed
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Genesis 47
47
1Then Yosef came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Kena’an; and, behold, they [are] in the land of Goshen [Drawing Near].
2And he took some of his brethren, [even] five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.
3And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What [is] youri occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh (Great House), youri servants [are] shepherds, both we, [and] also our fathers.
4They said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; for youri servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine [is] sore in the land of Kena’an (merchant; trader; or that humbles and subdues): now therefore, we pray youi, let youri servants dwell in the land of Goshen [Drawing Near] (approaching; drawing near).
5And Pharaoh spoke unto Yosef, saying, youri father and youri brethren are come unto youi:
6The land of Mitzrayim [Egypt] (Double Distress or Double Stronghold, Black Land) is before youi; in the best of the land make youri father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen [Drawing Near] (approaching; drawing near) let them dwell: and if youi know [any] men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle.
7And Yosef (Increaser; May God the Powerful One add [Yah]) brought in Ya’akov (he who holds onto the heel of) his father, and set him before Pharaoh (Great House): and Ya’akov Blessed (Favored by God; happy; prosperous) Pharaoh.
8And Pharaoh said unto Ya’akov, How old [are] youi?
9And Ya’akov said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage [are] an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
10And Ya’akov Blessed (Favored by God; happy; prosperous) Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.
11And Yosef placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Mitzrayim [Egypt] in the best of the land, in the land of Ra’amses [child or born of the sun god Ra], as Pharaoh (Great House) had commanded.
12And Yosef (Increaser; May God the Powerful One add [Yah]) nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to [their] families.
13And [there was] no bread in all the land; for the famine [was] very sore, so that the land of Mitzrayim [Egypt] [all] the land of Kena’an (merchant; trader; or that humbles and subdues) fainted by reason of the famine.
14And Yosef gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Mitzrayim [Egypt], and in the land of Kena’an (merchant; trader; or that humbles and subdues), for the corn which they bought: and Yosef brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.
15And when money failed in the land of Mitzrayim [Egypt], and in the land of Kena’an all the Mitzrayimot [Egyptians] (People of the Black Land) came unto Yosef, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in youri presence? for the money fails.
16And Yosef said, Give youri cattle; and I will give youi for youri cattle, if money fail.
17And they brought their cattle unto Yosef: and Yosef gave them bread [in exchange] for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the donkeys: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.
18When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide [it] from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also has our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:
19For what reason shall we die before youri eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give [us] seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.
20And Yosef bought all the land of Mitzrayim [Egypt] for Pharaoh; for the Mitzrayimot [Egyptians] sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s.
21And as for the people, he removed them to cities from [one] end of the borders of Mitzrayim [Egypt] even to the [other] end thereof.
22Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion [assigned them] of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: For what reason they sold not their lands.
23Then Yosef said unto the people, Behold, I have bought youi this day and youri land for Pharaoh: lo, [here is] seed for you, and youf shall sow the land.
24And it shall come to pass in the increase, that youf shall give the fifth [part] unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be youri own, for seed of the field, and for youri food, and for them of your households, and for food for youri little ones.
25And they said, Youi have saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.
26And Yosef made it a law over the land of Mitzrayim [Egypt] unto this day, [that] Pharaoh should have the fifth [part]; except the land of the priests only, [which] became not Pharaoh’s.
27And Isra’el (he who holds onto God-The Creator) dwelt in the land of Mitzrayim [Egypt] (Double Distress or Double Stronghold, Black Land), in the country of Goshen [Drawing Near] (approaching; drawing near); and they had possessions in it, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.
28And Ya’akov (he who holds onto the heel of) lived in the land of Mitzrayim [Egypt] seventeen years: so the whole age of Ya’akov was an hundred forty and seven years.
29And the time drew near that Isra’el (he who holds onto God-The Creator) must die: and he called his son Yosef (Increaser; May God the Powerful One add [Yah]), and said unto him, If now I have found grace in youri sight, put, I pray youi, youri hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray youi, in Mitzrayim [Egypt] (Double Distress or Double Stronghold, Black Land):
30But I will lie with my fathers, and youi shall carry me out of Mitzrayim [Egypt], and bury me in their burying place. And he said, I will do as youi have said.
31And he said, Swear unto me. And he swore unto him. And Isra’el bowed himself upon the bed’s head.
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