Genesis 47 Footnotes

47:6-7,11 Goshen was “the best part of the land” of Egypt for shepherding flocks. Located in the wider Nile River delta, it was well-watered during the remaining years of the famine.

47:8-9,28 Jacob’s words should not be taken to mean that his lifespan of 130 years to that point was shorter than average. In Ps 90:10, Moses observed: “Our lives last seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty years.” Jacob was comparing his lifetime, which would end at 147 years, with those of his father, Isaac (180 years; Gn 35:28), and his grandfather, Abraham (175 years; 25:7).

47:29-31 To put your hand under another’s thigh and make a promise was, in ancient cultures, a most solemn way of committing yourself to carry out your promise. Over time, Jacob had begun to take more seriously the Lord’s promises at Bethel to give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants and to bring Jacob back to that land permanently (28:13,15; 48:4). When he first received those promises from God, he had been content to remain away from Canaan for twenty years (31:41). As he neared the end of his life, Jacob came to view things much differently.