Genesis 47
47
CHAPTER 47
1Therefore Joseph entered, and told to Pharaoh, and said, My father and brethren, the sheep and the great beasts of them, and all things that they wield, have come from the land of Canaan; and lo! they stand in the land of Goshen.
2And Joseph ordained five, the least, or meekest, men of his brethren, to come before the king,
3whom he asked, What work have ye? They answered, We thy servants be keepers of sheep, both we and our fathers;
4we came into thy land to be pilgrims, that is, to dwell for a time, for no grass is to the flocks of thy servants; for hunger waxeth grievous in the land of Canaan, and we ask that thou command us thy servants to be in the land of Goshen.
5And so the king said to Joseph, Thy father and thy brethren have come to thee;
6the land of Egypt is in thy sight; make thou them to dwell in the best place, and give thou to them the land of Goshen; that if thou knowest that witting men be in them, ordain them masters of my beasts.
7After these things Joseph brought in his father to the king, and set him before the king, and he blessed the king;
8and he was asked of the king, How many be the days of the years of thy life?
9And he answered, The days of [the] pilgrimage of my life be few and evil, of an hundred and thirty years, and those [or they] have not come to the days of my fathers, in which they were pilgrims.
10And when Jacob had blessed the king again, he went out.
11Forsooth Joseph gave to his father and [his] brethren a possession in Egypt, in Rameses, the best soil of [the] earth, as Pharaoh commanded;
12and he fed them, and all the household of his father, and gave meats to them all.
13For bread failed in all the world, and hunger oppressed the land, mostly of Egypt and of Canaan;
14of which lands Joseph gathered all the money for the selling of wheat, and brought it into the king’s treasury.
15And when price failed to the buyers, all Egypt came to Joseph, and said, Give thou loaves to us; why shall we die before thee, while money faileth?
16To whom he answered, Bring ye your beasts, and I shall give you meats for those [or them], if ye have not price.
17And when they had brought those, he gave them meats for horses, and sheep, and oxen, and asses; and he sustained them in that year for the exchange of beasts.
18And they came in the second year, and said to him, We cover not from our lord, that the while money faileth, also our beasts failed altogether, neither it is hid from thee, that without bodies and land, we have nothing;
19why therefore shall we die, while thou seest this? both we and our land shall be thine; buy thou us into the king’s servage, and give thou us seeds to sow, lest while the tiller perisheth, the land be turned into wilderness.
20Therefore Joseph bought all the land of Egypt, while all men sold him their possessions, for the greatness of hunger; and he made it and all the peoples thereof subject to Pharaoh,
21from the last terms of Egypt till to the last ends thereof,
22except the land of priests, that was given of the king to them, to which priests also meats were given of the common barns, and therefore they were not compelled to sell their possessions.
23Therefore Joseph said to the peoples, Lo! as ye see, Pharaoh wieldeth both you and your land; now take ye seeds, and sow ye fields,
24that ye may have fruits; ye shall give the fifth part to the king; I suffer to you the four residue parts into seed, and into meats, to you, and to your free children.
25Which answered, Our health is in thine hands; only our God behold us, and we shall joyfully serve the king.
26From that time till to this present day, in all the land of Egypt, the fifth part is paid to the kings, and it is made as into a law, without the land of priests, that was free from this condition.
27Therefore Israel dwelled in Egypt, that is, in the land of Goshen, and wielded it; and he was increased, and multiplied full much.
28And he lived therein sixteen [or seventeen] years; and all the days of his life were made an hundred and seven and forty years.
29And when he saw the day of his death [to] nigh, he called his son Joseph to his bed, and said to him, If I have found grace in thy sight, put thine hand under mine hip, and swear that thou shalt do mercy and truth to me, that thou bury not me in Egypt;
30but I shall sleep with my fathers, and take thou away me from this land, and bury me in the sepulchre of my greaters. To whom Joseph answered, I shall do that that thou commandest.
31And Israel said, Therefore swear thou to me; and when Joseph swore, Israel turned to the head of the bed, and worshipped God.
Wycliffe’s Bible with Modern Spelling ©2017
Wycliffe’s Apocrypha ©2013, 2015
Wycliffe’s Bible © 2012, 2015
Wycliffe’s New Testament ©2001, 2011
Wycliffe’s Old Testament ©2001, 2010
Genesis 47
47
1Joseph went to report to Pharaoh and told him, “My father and brothers, along with their flocks and herds and all their possessions, have arrived from the land of Canaan and now they're here in Goshen.” 2Joseph took five of his brothers to go with him and introduced them to Pharaoh.
3Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What work do you do?”
“Your servants are shepherds, just like our fathers before us,” they replied.
4“We have come to live in Egypt because there's no grass left in Canaan for our flocks to eat,” they explained. “The famine is really bad in Canaan. So we would like to please ask permission to live in Goshen.”
5Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now that your father and brothers have arrived to join you, 6you can choose wherever you like in Egypt, the best place, for them to live. Let them live in Goshen. If you know any of them who are good at what they do, put them in charge of my livestock as well.”
7Then Joseph went with his father Jacob and introduced him to Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, 8Pharaoh asked him, “So how long have you lived?”
9“I have been wandering for 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My life has been short and difficult—I have not lived as long as my forefathers who also wandered from place to place.” 10Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh again before leaving him.
11So Joseph arranged for his father and brothers to live in Egypt and gave them land in the best part near Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered. 12He also provided food for all of them—his father, his brothers, and his father's whole household—depending on family size.
13No food was left in the whole country because the famine had become so bad. Throughout Egypt and Canaan people were starving. 14By selling grain Joseph collected all the money in Egypt and Canaan, and placed it in Pharaoh's treasury. 15Once the money from Egypt and Canaan had run out, the Egyptians all came to Joseph and demanded, “Give us food! Do you want us to die right in front of you? All our money is gone!”
16“Bring me your livestock,” Joseph told them. “I'll give you grain in exchange for your livestock if you've run out of money.”
17So they brought Joseph their livestock, and he provided them with grain in exchange for their horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. He gave them grain in return for their livestock during that year.
18But when that year was over, they came to him the next year and said, “My lord, we can't hide from you the fact that our money is gone and that you now own our livestock. All we have left to give you are our bodies and our land. 19Do you want us to die right in front of you? So buy us and our land in return for food. Then our land will belong to Pharaoh, and we'll be his slaves. Just give us grain so we can live and won't die, and so the land won't be abandoned.”
20So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. Each and every Egyptian sold their fields, because the famine was hurting them so badly. The land ended up being owned by Pharaoh, 21and all the people became his slaves,#47:21. “The people became his slaves”: Septuagint and other ancient translations. The Hebrew has “he moved them to the cities.” from one end of Egypt to the other. 22The only land he didn't buy belonged to the priests because they had a food allowance provided to them by Pharaoh, so they didn't have to sell their land.
23Then Joseph told the people, “Listen to me! Now that I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh, I'm giving you some seed for you to sow the fields. 24However, when it's harvested, you have to give one-fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you can keep as seed for the fields and as food for you, your households, and your children.”
25“You've saved our lives,” they declared. “May you continue to treat us well, my lord, and we'll be Pharaoh's slaves.”
26So Joseph made it a law for Egypt which is still is in effect today that one-fifth of all produce from the land belongs to Pharaoh. Only the priests' land was exempt since it did not belong to Pharaoh.
27The Israelites settled in Goshen in Egypt where they became prosperous landowners and rapidly increased in number. 28Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen years, so he lived in total 147 years.
29When the time came for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If you think well of me, place your hand under my thigh and promise to treat me with trustworthy love and faithfulness. Don't bury me here in Egypt. 30When I die, bury me with my forefathers. You must take my body from Egypt to the family tomb and bury me with them.”
“I will do as you say,” Joseph promised.
31“Swear to me that you will,” he said. Joseph swore that he would. Israel bowed in worship at the head of his bed.
Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com