Genesis 47:25-31

25 And they said, Thou hast saved us alive. Let us find favour in the eyes of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's bondmen.

26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, [that] the fifth should be for Pharaoh, except the land of the priests: theirs alone did not become Pharaoh's.

27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they had possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly.

28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; and the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were a hundred and forty-seven years.

29 And the days of Israel approached that he should die. And he called his son Joseph, and said to him, If now I have found favour in thine eyes, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me: bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt;

30 but when I shall lie with my fathers, thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their sepulchre. And he said, I will do according to thy word.

31 And he said, Swear to me; and he swore to him. And Israel worshipped on the bed's head.

Genesis 47:25-31 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Heb. 11.21 is according to the LXX: 'the top of his staff.'