Genesis 47
47
Jacob [Israel] Meets Pharaoh
1Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father and my brothers have arrived from Canaan with their flocks, herds, and everything they have. Now they are in Goshen.” 2Since he had taken five of his brothers with him, he presented them to Pharaoh.
3Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What kind of work do you do?”
They answered Pharaoh, “We are shepherds, as were our ancestors. 4We have come to live in this land for a while. The famine is so severe in Canaan that there’s no pasture for our flocks. So please let us live in Goshen.”
5Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. 6All of Egypt is available to you. Have your father and your brothers live in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. If they are qualified, put them in charge of my livestock.”
7Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and had him stand in front of Pharaoh. Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”
9Jacob answered Pharaoh, “The length of my stay on earth has been 130 years. The years of my life have been few and difficult, fewer than my ancestors’ years.” 10Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and left.
11As Pharaoh had ordered, Joseph had his father and his brothers live in the best part of Egypt, the region of Rameses. He gave them property there. 12Joseph also provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s family with food based on the number of children they had.
Joseph Acquires All the Land in Egypt for Pharaoh
13The famine was so severe that there was no food anywhere. Neither Egypt nor Canaan were producing crops because of the famine. 14Joseph collected all the money that could be found in Egypt and in Canaan as payment for the grain people bought. Then he took it to Pharaoh’s palace. 15When the money in Egypt and Canaan was gone, all the Egyptians came to Joseph. “Give us food,” they said. “Do you want us to die right in front of you? We don’t have any more money!”
16Joseph replied, “If you don’t have any more money, give me your livestock, and I’ll give you food #47:16 Samaritan Pentateuch, Greek, Targum; Masoretic Text “I’ll give to you.” in exchange.” 17So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. During that year he supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock.
18When that year was over, they came to him the next year. “Sir,” they said to him, “you know that our money is gone, and you have all our livestock. There’s nothing left to bring you except our bodies and our land. 19Do you want us to die right in front of you? Do you want the land to be ruined? Take us and our land in exchange for food. Then we will be Pharaoh’s slaves and our land will be his property. But give us seed so that we won’t starve to death and the ground won’t become a desert.”
20Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. Every Egyptian sold his fields because the famine was so severe. The land became Pharaoh’s. 21All over Egypt Joseph moved the people to the cities. 22But he didn’t buy the priests’ land because the priests received an income from Pharaoh, and they lived on that income. That’s why they didn’t sell their land.
23Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh, here is seed for you. Plant crops in the land. 24Every time you harvest, give one-fifth of the produce to Pharaoh. Four-fifths will be yours to use as seed for your fields and as food for your households.”
25“You have saved our lives,” they said. “Please, sir, we are willing to be Pharaoh’s slaves.”
26Joseph made a law concerning the land in Egypt which is still in force today: One-fifth ⌞of the produce⌟ belongs to Pharaoh. Only the land of the priests didn’t belong to Pharaoh.
Jacob’s [Israel’s] Last Days in Egypt
27So the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and had many children.
28Jacob lived in Egypt 17 years, so he lived a total of 147 years. 29Israel was about to die. He called for his son Joseph and said to him, “I want you to swear that you love me and are faithful to me. Please don’t bury me here. 30I want to rest with my ancestors. Take me out of Egypt, and bury me in their tomb.”
“I will do as you say,” Joseph answered.
31“Swear to me,” he said. So Joseph swore to him. Then Israel bowed down in prayer with his face at the head of his bed.
GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
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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