Genesis 47

1So Joseph took five of his brothers and went to the king. He said, “My father and my brothers have come from Canaan with their flocks, their herds, and all that they own. They are now in the region of Goshen.” 2He then presented his brothers to the king. 3The king asked them, “What is your occupation?”

“We are shepherds, sir, just as our ancestors were,” they answered. 4“We have come to live in this country, because in the land of Canaan the famine is so severe that there is no pasture for our flocks. Please give us permission to live in the region of Goshen.” 5The king said to Joseph, “Now that your father and your brothers have arrived, 6the land of Egypt is theirs. Let them settle in the region of Goshen, the best part of the land. And if there are any capable men among them, put them in charge of my own livestock.”

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

9Jacob answered, “My life of wandering has lasted 130 years. Those years have been few and difficult, unlike the long years of my ancestors in their wanderings.” 10Jacob gave the king a farewell blessing and left. 11Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt, giving them property in the best of the land near the city of Rameses, as the king had commanded. 12Joseph provided food for his father, his brothers, and all the rest of his father's family, including the very youngest.

The Famine

13The famine was so severe that there was no food anywhere, and the people of Egypt and Canaan became weak with hunger. 14As they bought corn, Joseph collected all the money and took it to the palace. 15When all the money in Egypt and Canaan was spent, the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food! Don't let us die. Do something! Our money is all gone.”

16Joseph answered, “Bring your livestock; I will give you food in exchange for it if your money is all gone.” 17So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. That year he supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock.

18The following year they came to him and said, “We will not hide the fact from you, sir, that our money is all gone and our livestock belongs to you. There is nothing left to give you except our bodies and our lands. 19Don't let us die. Do something! Don't let our fields be deserted. Buy us and our land in exchange for food. We will be the king's slaves, and he will own our land. Give us corn to keep us alive and seed to sow in our fields.”

20Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for the king. Every Egyptian was forced to sell his land, because the famine was so severe; and all the land became the king's property. 21Joseph made slaves of the people from one end of Egypt to the other. 22The only land he did not buy was the land that belonged to the priests. They did not have to sell their lands, because the king gave them an allowance to live on. 23Joseph said to the people, “You see, I have now bought you and your lands for the king. Here is seed for you to sow in your fields. 24At the time of harvest you must give a fifth to the king. You can use the rest for seed and for food for yourselves and your families.”

25They answered, “You have saved our lives; you have been good to us, sir, and we will be the king's slaves.” 26So Joseph made it a law for the land of Egypt that a fifth of the harvest should belong to the king. This law still remains in force today. Only the lands of the priests did not become the king's property.

Jacob's Last Request

27The Israelites lived in Egypt in the region of Goshen, where they became rich and had many children. 28Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen years, until he was 147 years old. 29#Gen 49.29–32; 50.6When the time drew near for him to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “Place your hand between my thighs#47.29 Place… thighs: See 24.2. and make a solemn vow that you will not bury me in Egypt. 30I want to be buried where my fathers are; carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.”

Joseph answered, “I will do as you say.”

31Jacob said, “Make a vow that you will.” Joseph made the vow, and Jacob gave thanks there on his bed.

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Berĕshith (Genesis) 47

1Then Yosĕph went and spoke to Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brothers, their flocks and their herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Kena‛an. And see, they are in the land of Goshen.”

2And he took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh.

3And Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers.”

4And they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to dwell in the land, because there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for the scarcity of food is severe in the land of Kena‛an. And now, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.”

5And Pharaoh spoke to Yosĕph, saying, “Your father and your brothers have come to you.

6The land of Mitsrayim is before you. Settle your father and brothers in the best of the land, let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know of capable men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock.

7And Yosĕph brought in his father Ya‛aqoḇ and set him before Pharaoh. And Ya‛aqoḇ blessed Pharaoh.

8And Pharaoh said to Ya‛aqoḇ, “How old are you?”

9And Ya‛aqoḇ said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojournings are one hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not reached the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojournings.”

10And Ya‛aqoḇ blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

11So Yosĕph settled his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Mitsrayim, in the best of the land, in the land of Ra‛meses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

12And Yosĕph provided his father, and his brothers, and all his father’s household with bread for the mouth of the little ones.

13Now there was no bread in all the land, because the scarcity of food was very severe, and the land of Mitsrayim and all the land of Kena‛an became exhausted from the scarcity of food.

14And Yosĕph gathered up all the silver that was found in the land of Mitsrayim and in the land of Kena‛an, for the grain which they bought. And Yosĕph brought the silver into Pharaoh’s house.

15And when the silver was all spent in the land of Mitsrayim and in the land of Kena‛an, all the Mitsrites came to Yosĕph and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For the silver is gone!”

16And Yosĕph said, “Give your livestock, and I give you bread for your livestock, if the silver is gone.”

17So they brought their livestock to Yosĕph, and Yosĕph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks they owned, and for the herds they owned, and for the donkeys. Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year.

18And when that year had ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We do not hide from my master that our silver is all spent, and my master also has the livestock we owned. There has not been left any before my master but our bodies and our lands.

19Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and let us and our land be servants of Pharaoh. And give us seed, and let us live and not die, and let the land not lie waste.

20And Yosĕph bought the entire land of Mitsrayim for Pharaoh, because every man of the Mitsrites sold his field, because the scarcity of food was severe upon them. And the land came to be Pharaoh’s.

21And as for the people, he moved them into the cities, from one end of the borders of Mitsrayim to the other end.

22Only the ground of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had from what Pharaoh gave them by law, and they ate that which Pharaoh gave them by law. Therefore they did not sell their ground.

23And Yosĕph said to the people, “Look, I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh. Look, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land.

24And it shall be that in the harvest you shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh. And four-fifths is your own, as seed for the field and for your food, for those of your households and as food for your little ones.

25And they said, “You have saved our lives. Let us find favour in the eyes of my master, and we shall become Pharaoh’s servants.”

26And Yosĕph made it a law over the land of Mitsrayim to this day, that Pharaoh should have one-fifth, except for the ground of the priests only, which did not become Pharaoh’s.

27And Yisra’ĕl dwelt in the land of Mitsrayim, in the land of Goshen. And they had possessions there and were fruirful and increased exceedingly.

28And Ya‛aqoḇ lived in the land of Mitsrayim seventeen years. So the length of Ya‛aqoḇ’s life was one hundred and forty-seven years.

29And the time for Yisra’ĕl to die drew near, and he called his son Yosĕph and said to him, “Now if I have found favour in your eyes, please put your hand under my thigh, and show loving-commitment and truth to me. Please do not bury me in Mitsrayim,

30but I shall lie with my fathers, and you shall take me up out of Mitsrayim and bury me in their burial-place.” And he said, “I do as you have said.”

31And he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him, and Yisra’ĕl bowed himself on the head of the bed.

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