Genesis 47:1-19

Jacob's Family Settles in Goshen

1 Then ¹Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, "My father and my brothers and their flocks and their herds and all that they have, have come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of ²Goshen."

2 He took five men from among his brothers and ³presented * them to Pharaoh.

3 Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, "⁴What is your occupation?" So they said to Pharaoh, "Your servants are ⁵shepherds, both we and our fathers."

4 They said to Pharaoh, "⁶We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for ⁷the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, please let your servants ⁸live in the land of Goshen."

5 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Your father and your brothers have come to you.

6 "The land of Egypt is at your disposal; settle your father and your brothers in ⁹the best of the land, let them live in the land of Goshen; and if you know any ¹⁰capable men among them, then put them in charge of my livestock."

7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented * him to Pharaoh; and Jacob ¹¹blessed Pharaoh.

8 Pharaoh said to Jacob, "How many years have you lived?"

9 So Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The ¹²years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained ¹³the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning."

10 And Jacob ¹⁴blessed Pharaoh, and went out from his presence.

11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in ¹⁵the best of the land, in the land of ¹⁶Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered.

12 Joseph ¹⁷provided his father and his brothers and all his father's household with food, according to their little ones.

13 Now there was no food in all the land, because the famine was very severe, so that ¹⁸the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because * of the famine.

14 ¹⁹Joseph gathered all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the grain which they bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

15 When the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, "Give us food, for ²⁰why should we die in your presence? For our money is gone."

16 Then Joseph said, "Give up your livestock, and I will give you food for your livestock, since your money is gone."

17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses and the flocks and the herds and the donkeys; and he fed them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year.

18 When that year was ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, "We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent, and the cattle * are my lord's. There is nothing left for my lord except * our bodies and our lands.

19 "Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. So give us seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate."

Genesis 47:1-19 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 47

This chapter gives an account of the presentation of five of Joseph's brethren, and then of his father, to Pharaoh, and of what passed between them, Ge 47:1-10; of Joseph's settlement of them, according to the direction of Pharaoh, in the land of Rameses in Goshen, and of his provision for them there, Ge 47:11,12; of his getting into his hands, for Pharaoh, the money, cattle, and lands, of the Egyptians, excepting the lands belonging to the priests, for corn he had supplied them with, Ge 47:13-22; of his giving them seed to sow with, on condition of Pharaoh's having a fifth part of the produce, Ge 47:23-26, of the increase of Jacob's substance in Egypt, and that of his children; of the time of his living there, and his approaching death, when he called Joseph to him, and obliged him by an oath to bury him in the burying place of his fathers, Ge 47:27-31.

Cross References

• 1. Genesis 46:31
• 2. Genesis 45:10; Genesis 46:28
• 3. Acts 7:13
• 4. Genesis 46:33
• 5. Genesis 46:34
• 6. Genesis 15:13; Deuteronomy 26:5; Psalms 105:23
• 7. Genesis 43:1; Acts 7:11
• 8. Genesis 46:34
• 9. Genesis 45:10, 18; Genesis 47:11
• 10. Exodus 18:21, 25; 1 Kings 11:28; Proverbs 22:29
• 11. Genesis 47:10; 2 Samuel 14:22; 1 Kings 8:66
• 12. Hebrews 11:9, 13
• 13. Genesis 25:7; Genesis 35:28
• 14. Genesis 47:7
• 15. Genesis 47:6, 27
• 16. Exodus 1:11; Exodus 12:37
• 17. Genesis 45:11
• 18. Genesis 41:30; Acts 7:11
• 19. Genesis 41:56
• 20. Genesis 47:19

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "dwell"
• [b]. Lit "Joseph, saying"
• [c]. Lit "before you"
• [d]. Lit "cause them to dwell"
• [e]. Lit "dwell"
• [f]. Lit "appoint them rulers"
• [g]. Lit "set him before"
• [h]. Lit "are the days of the years of your life"
• [i]. Lit "days of the years"
• [j]. Lit "thirty years"
• [k]. Lit "evil"
• [l]. Lit "days of the years"
• [m]. Lit "reached"
• [n]. Lit "days of the years"
• [o]. Lit "of the life of my fathers"
• [p]. Lit "Pharaoh's"
• [q]. Lit "caused to dwell"
• [r]. Or "bread"
• [s]. Or "bread"
• [t]. Lit "saying"
• [u]. Or "bread"
• [v]. Lit "ceases"
• [w]. Lit "ceases"
• [x]. Or "bread"
• [y]. Lit "livestock of the flocks and livestock of the herds"
• [z]. Lit "led them as a shepherd"
• [aa]. Or "bread"
• [ab]. Lit "in that year"
• [ac]. Lit "second"
• [ad]. Lit "livestock of the cattle"
• [ae]. Lit "in the presence of"
• [af]. Or "bread"