Genesis 47:7

7 After these things Joseph brought in his father to the king, and set him before the king, and he blessed the king;

Genesis 47:7 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 47:7

And Joseph brought in Jacob his father
That is, some time after he had introduced his five brethren, and had gotten the grant of Goshen for them, when he sent, for his father from thence, or he came quickly after to Tanis or Memphis, where Pharaoh's court was: and set him before Pharaoh;
presented Jacob to him, and placed his father right before Pharaoh, perhaps in a chair, or on a seat, by Pharaoh's order, because of his age, and in honour to him: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh;
wished him health and happiness, prayed for his welfare, and gave him thanks for all his kindness to him and his; and he blessed him not only in a way of civility, as was usual when men came into the presence of princes, but in an authoritative way, as a prophet and patriarch, a man divinely inspired of God, and who had great power in prayer with him: the Targum of Jonathan gives us his prayer thus,

``may it be the pleasure (i.e. of God) that the waters of the Nile may be filled, and that the famine may remove from the world in thy days.''

Genesis 47:7 In-Context

5 And so the king said to Joseph, Thy father and thy brethren have come to thee;

6 the land of Egypt is in thy sight; make thou them to dwell in the best place, and give thou to them the land of Goshen; that if thou knowest that witting men be in them, ordain them masters of my beasts. (the land of Egypt is before thee; have them live in the best place, and so give them the land of Goshen; and if thou knowest that knowledgeable men be among them, ordain them to be masters of my beasts.)

7 After these things Joseph brought in his father to the king, and set him before the king, and he blessed the king;

8 and he was asked of the king (and the king asked him), How many be the days of the years of thy life?

9 And he answered, The days of [the] pilgrimage of my life be few and evil, of an hundred and thirty years, and those have not come to the days of my fathers, in which they were pilgrims. (And he answered, The days of my life's wanderings be but few and far between, yea, only a hundred and thirty years, and they have not even come close to the number of days that my fathers had.)