Genesis 47 Study Notes

Joseph accepted their offer. Members of the Egyptian priesthood were exempted from the land contract since the land was an allowance from Pharaoh. The Hebrew text, unlike the Septuagint, suggests that Joseph took the additional step of relocating the people to the cities during the famine; if the Hebrew text represents the accurate reading, perhaps Joseph adopted this policy in order to make the food distribution program more efficient.

47:23-26 Though the citizens gave up ownership of their land, Joseph permitted them to continue working their old fields. The requirement to give a fifth of their produce to Pharaoh was far less than the two-thirds to one-half rate that eighteenth-century bc Iraqi farmers paid Hammurabi after expenses. Egypt’s citizens gratefully accepted Joseph’s program. Joseph’s policies produced such a stable society that they remained in effect hundreds of years later in the days of the biblical writer.

47:27 While the Egyptians were losing their possessions, land, and freedom because of the famine, the clan of Israel/Jacob prospered. The contrast at this point between Egypt and Israel could hardly be more striking, though the situation would be reversed later (Ex 1:8-11).

47:28-31 As Jacob’s death approached, he called for his son Joseph (cp. 46:4) and made him swear a solemn oath while his hand was under Jacob’s thigh, an act that expressed great trust and accompanied only the most serious requests (cp. 24:2-4). Jacob asked that his son not bury him in Egypt, but rather that he be buried in the promised land with his fathers . . . in their burial place near Hebron in the cave at Machpelah (23:19; 25:9; 35:27-29; 50:13).

Parah means be fruitful (Gn 1:22) or sprout (Is 45:8). In some verses the sense is to have plenty of fruit (Is 17:6; 32:12). Parah refers to many offspring or descendants, appearing as become numerous (Ex 23:30) or increase (Jr 3:16). This sense was applied to a mother with numerous children (Ps 128:3). It regularly stands alongside other verbs with similar meanings. Exodus 1:7 lists four in a row to emphasize that God blessed Israel as he originally intended to bless creation (Gn 1:22,28). In 15 verses parah occurs together with rabah meaning fruitful and multiply. Israelites linked the two verbs (Gn 28:3) in imitation of the Lord’s repeatedly stressed intention for his creation (e.g., Gn 8:17; Lv 26:9; Ezk 36:11). Participles denote fruitful or bearing fruit (Dt 29:18). Causative verbs indicate make fruitful (Ps 105:24).