Genesis 47

1-2Joseph took five of his brothers to the king and told him, “My father and my brothers have come from Canaan. They have brought their sheep, goats, cattle, and everything else they own to the region of Goshen.”

Then he introduced his brothers to the king, 3who asked them, “What do you do for a living?”

“Sir, we are shepherds,” was their answer. “Our families have always raised sheep. 4But in our country all the pastures are dried up, and our sheep have no grass to eat. So we, your servants, have come here. Please let us live in the region of Goshen.”

5The king said to Joseph, “It's good that your father and brothers have arrived. 6I will let them live anywhere they choose in the land of Egypt, but I suggest that they settle in Goshen, the best part of our land. I would also like your finest shepherds to look after my own sheep and goats.”

7Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and introduced him to the king. Jacob gave the king his blessing, 8and the king asked him, “How old are you?”

9Jacob answered, “I have lived only a hundred and thirty years, and I have had to move from place to place. My parents and my grandparents also had to move from place to place. But they lived much longer, and their life was not as hard as mine.” 10Then Jacob gave the king his blessing once again and left. 11Joseph obeyed the king's orders and gave his father and brothers some of the best land in Egypt near the city of Rameses. 12Joseph also provided food for their families.

A famine in Egypt

13The famine was bad everywhere in Egypt and Canaan, and the people were suffering terribly. 14So Joseph sold them the grain that had been stored up, and he put the money#47.14 money: See the note at 42.25. in the king's treasury. 15But when everyone had run out of money, the Egyptians came to Joseph and demanded, “Give us more grain! If you don't, we'll soon be dead, because our money's all gone.”

16“If you don't have any money,” Joseph answered, “give me your animals, and I'll let you have some grain.” 17From then on, they brought him their horses and donkeys and their sheep and goats in exchange for grain.

Within a year Joseph had collected every animal in Egypt. 18Then the people came to him and said:

Sir, there's no way we can hide the truth from you. We are broke, and we don't have any more animals. We have nothing left except ourselves and our land. 19Don't let us starve and our land be ruined. If you'll give us grain to eat and seed to plant, we'll sell ourselves and our land to the king.#47.19 the king: See the note at 12.15. We'll become his slaves.

20The famine became so severe that Joseph finally bought every piece of land in Egypt for the king 21and made everyone the king's slaves,#47.21 made…slaves: One ancient translation and the Samaritan Hebrew Text; the Standard Hebrew Text “made everyone move to the cities”. 22except the priests. The king gave the priests a regular food allowance, so they did not have to sell their land. 23Then Joseph said to the people, “You and your land now belong to the king. I'm giving you seed to plant, 24but one-fifth of your crops must go to the king. You can keep the rest as seed or as food for your families.”

25“Sir, you have saved our lives!” they answered. “We are glad to be slaves of the king.” 26Then Joseph made a law that one-fifth of the harvest would always belong to the king. Only the priests did not lose their land.

Jacob becomes an old man

27The people of Israel made their home in the land of Goshen, where they became prosperous and had large families. 28Jacob himself lived there for seventeen years, before dying at the age of one hundred and forty-seven. 29When Jacob knew he did not have long to live, he called in Joseph and said, “If you really love me, you must make a solemn promise not to bury me in Egypt.#Gn 49.29-32; 50.6. 30Instead, bury me in the place where my ancestors are buried.”

“I will do what you have asked,” Joseph answered.

31“Will you give me your word?” Jacob asked.

“Yes, I will,” Joseph promised. After this, Jacob bowed down and prayed at the head of his bed.

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Genesis 47: CEVUK

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Genesis 47

Pharaoh let Jacob and his family live in Egypt country

1Joseph left Goshen, and he went to Pharaoh’s house. Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “My father and my brothers came here from Canaan country. They brought all their sheep and cows with them, and everything else that they own. They are staying in the place called Goshen.”

2Joseph took 5 of his brothers to Pharaoh. 3Then Pharaoh said to Joseph’s brothers, “What sort of work do you do?”

Joseph’s brothers said to Pharaoh, “Sir, we look after sheep, just like our father and our grand-fathers used to.” 4Then they said, “Sir, it is a really hard time in Canaan country. There is no rain, so there are no food plants growing, and there isn’t any grass there for our animals to eat. That’s the reason why we came here to Egypt country. We want to live here for a while. Please, sir, let us stay in the place called Goshen.”

5Then Pharaoh talked to Joseph. He said, “It is good that your father and your brothers have come here to be with you. 6There is lots of land here in Egypt country. Your father and brothers can live in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen, the land is good there.”

Pharaoh also said to Joseph, “Maybe some of the men in your family are really good at looking after animals. You can tell those men to look after my animals for me.”

7Then Joseph got his father Jacob, and he took Jacob to meet Pharaoh. Then Jacob said good things to Pharaoh, and he showed him respect.

8Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?”

9And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “I am 130 years old. All my life, I’ve lived on country that belongs to other people. I never had my own land, just like my grand-fathers never had their own land. You know, my grand-fathers lived for a long time, and they died when they were very old. But my life has been short, and I had a lot of trouble in my life.”

10Then Jacob said good-bye to Pharaoh, and he went out of Pharaoh’s house.

11After that, Joseph gave his father and his brothers the best land in Egypt country, just like Pharaoh said, and they lived on that land. That land was in the place called Goshen, but later on, people called that place Rameses. 12And Joseph gave food to his father, and his brothers, and the rest of his father’s family. He made sure that each brother always had enough food for their whole family.

Joseph gave the Egypt people food

13There was no rain in all of Egypt and Canaan country, and no food plants grew. It was really hard for everyone. The people did not have enough food, so they got really hungry and weak.

14At first, all the people in Egypt and Canaan country, they paid money to Joseph, and he gave them food. And Joseph took all that money into Pharaoh’s house. 15But after a while, the people in Egypt and Canaan country had no more money left. So all the Egypt people went to Joseph, and they said to him, “We’ve got no more money to buy food. You have to help us. Give us food, or we will die.”

16Joseph said to them, “All right. You don’t have any money, so you can give me your animals instead of money, and then I will give you food.”

17So the people brought their animals to Joseph. They brought horses, and sheep, and cows, and donkeys. Every time somebody gave an animal to Joseph, he gave them some food, so they had enough food to eat. They kept on doing that for one year. Then after that, they had no more animals left.

18The next year, the people went to Joseph again, and they said, “Sir, you know that we’ve got no money, and we gave you all our animals. The only things we have left are our own bodies and our land. There’s nothing else we can give you. 19We need food, and we need seeds to plant in the ground. We know we can plant seeds now, and those food plants will grow, but we don’t have any seeds to plant. You have to help us, or we will die, and our land will be useless.”

Then the people said, “This is what we want to do. We will give you our land and ourselves. Then all the land that belongs to us will belong to Pharaoh. And we will belong to Pharaoh too, we will become his workers. Then you give us food to eat and seeds to plant, so that we can grow food plants on the land again. It will be like we are paying for that food and those seeds with ourselves and our land. That way, we will have food to eat, and we will stay alive. But if you don’t do that, we will die, and our land will be useless.”

20So Joseph did what the people asked. You see, there was no rain and no food plants growing in Egypt country. It was really bad, and the people needed food. So everyone in Egypt country gave all their land to Joseph, and he gave their land to Pharaoh. Then that land didn’t belong to the people any more, it belonged to Pharaoh. 21And Joseph got all the Egypt people to work for Pharaoh.

22-26And Joseph said to the people, “Listen. Today I gave you mob to Pharaoh, to work for him. And I gave him your land as well. Now I will give you seeds to plant in the ground, so that you can grow food plants. Every time you take food from those plants, you have to split up that food into 5 piles, and give one pile to Pharaoh. You can keep the rest of that food for yourselves. Then you and your families and your little kids, and all the people that live in your homes, you will all have food to eat. And you can take some of the seeds from those food plants, and you can plant those seeds in the ground, so that you can keep growing more food plants.”

Then the Egypt people said to Joseph, “Sir, you saved our lives. Thank you for being good to us. We will be Pharaoh’s workers, just like you said.”

So Joseph made a new law for Egypt country. That law said that every time the Egypt people got food from their food plants, they had to split up that food into 5 piles, and give one pile to Pharaoh. And you know, that law is still there in Egypt country.

After that time, Pharaoh owned all the land in Egypt country. Only the ceremony men still owned their own land. You see, Pharaoh always paid those ceremony men, so they didn’t need to sell him their land to get food. So their land still belonged to them, it didn’t belong to Pharaoh.

Jacob told Joseph to bury his body in Canaan country

27At that time, Jacob and his family started to live in Egypt country, in the place called Goshen. They got their own land in that place, and lots more kids were born into their family, so that they became a really big mob of people.

28Jacob lived in Egypt country for 17 years. He lived until he was 147 years old.

29This story is about some things that happened before Jacob died.#Genesis 49:29-32; 50:6

Jacob knew that he was going to die soon, so he sent somebody to get his son Joseph. Then Jacob said to Joseph, “I am going to ask you to put your hand under my leg, and make me a strong promise.” You see, in that culture, people sometimes made promises to each other that way. The person that made the promise put their hand under the other person’s leg, and that showed that they had to keep their promise.

Then Jacob said to Joseph, “I know that you love me, so I want you to promise that you will be good to me, and do the right thing. When I die, don’t bury my body here in Egypt country. 30You have to take my body out of Egypt country, and go back to Canaan country, and bury me in the same grave as my father and grand-father.”

And Joseph said, “I will do those things that you said.”

31Jacob said, “Make me that strong promise.” So Joseph put his hand under Jacob’s leg, and he made him that strong promise. Then Jacob put his face down towards his bed, to thank God.#Hebrews 11:21

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