Genesis Chapter 47

¹ Then Joseph 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 Canaan; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen.

² And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.

³ And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers.

Joseph has instructed his brothers to tell this to Pharaoh in Genesis 45:33-34. Joseph has been working under Pharaoh long enough to know what to expect and what was expected of him.

⁴ They said morever unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

⁵ And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee:

⁶ The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle.

Pharaoh really liked Joseph. God had given Joseph favor with Pharaoh. There had to be something amazing about Joseph that people recognized. Potiphar made him the head of his household, then when he was put into prison, he became the head of the prison…and now because God had given him the ability to interpret dreams, he was the second most powerful man in all of Egypt. Joseph was directed into this path he was on by God for his purposes and the people who dealt with Joseph recognized the favor of God upon him…they profited from this favor when ever they put Joseph in charge (Genesis 39: 1-6). Pharaoh profited greatly from Joseph interpreting his dream then giving him a plan of action.

⁷ And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

⁸ And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?

⁹ And Jacob 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.

The reason for Pharaoh asking Jacob his age is unknown, but the one thing it does do is advance the storyline. Jacob says his years were hard and less than he thought they should be…and he didn’t feel he had accomplished what his father and grandfather had with his years.

¹⁰ And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

Pharaoh was being a blessing to Jacob and his family, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh as a result. Jacob was a man of God, so his blessings were significant.

• Genesis 12: 1-3 ¹ Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:² And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:³ And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

¹¹ And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

¹² And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.

¹³ And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.

¹⁴ And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.

¹⁵ And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth.

The famine was so bad the people ran out of money to pay for the corn (wheat) to make bread with. Joseph took all the money he collected selling the storehouses of corn and brought it to Pharaoh.

¹⁶ And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.

Joseph then allowed them to pay for food with their livestock.

¹⁷ And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.

¹⁸ When 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 hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:

¹⁹ Wherefore shall we die before thine 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.

²⁰ And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s.

When the people had eaten up all they bought with their livestock, they sold their land to buy more food.

²¹ And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof.

²² Only 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: wherefore they sold not their lands.

²³ Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.

²⁴ And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.

Joseph set up a taxing system of taking 1 fifth of their harvest and they kept the rest to look after their family with.

²⁵ And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.

²⁶ And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s.

²⁷ And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.

²⁸ And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.

²⁹ And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt:

Genesis 24:9 and in this verse we see the hand placed under the thigh to swear an oath. Genesis 24 blog with references on this practice

³⁰ But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place. And he said, I will do as thou hast said.

³¹ And he said, Swear unto me. And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head.