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Genesis 47

KJV · Chapter 47/50

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

2And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.

3And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers.

4They said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

5And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee:

6The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle.

7And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

8And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?

9And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

10And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

11And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

12And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.

13And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.

14And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.

15And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth.

16And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.

17And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.

18When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:

19Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.

20And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s.

21And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof.

22Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands.

23Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.

24And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.

25And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.

26And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s.

27And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.

28And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.

29And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt:

30But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said.

31And he said, Swear unto me. And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Joseph presents his father and brothers to Pharaoh, who grants them the land of Goshen; during the ongoing famine, Joseph manages the crisis by acquiring land and livestock in exchange for food for Pharaoh, and Jacob lives out his final years in Egypt.

Explanation

This chapter shows Joseph continuing to carry out his administrative duties with remarkable competence, a skill that, combined with his faith, had been developed over years of trials. The economic policy he implements during the famine — trading food for livestock, land, and finally service to Pharaoh — may seem harsh by modern standards, but within the text itself it is presented as a necessary solution that the Egyptian people themselves accepted with gratitude ('thou hast saved our lives,' v. 25), preventing an even more catastrophic famine. Meanwhile, Jacob's family settles and prospers in the land of Goshen, fulfilling the promise of provision Joseph had made. The simple and touching meeting between the now-elderly Jacob and Pharaoh shows a humble patriarch acknowledging that his life, though long, had been full of hardship ('few and evil have the days... been,' v. 9), yet still lived under God's blessing.

Fun facts

  • The land-reform policy Joseph implemented, in which all the land of Egypt (except that of the priests) came to belong to Pharaoh in exchange for food during the famine, is consistent with historical Egyptian records about the centralization of land under the State during periods of crisis in ancient Egypt.
  • The exemption of the priests' land from Joseph's purchase (v. 22) reflects the well-documented historical reality that the Egyptian priesthood owned its own land and held significant economic privileges, protected even during national crises.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Genesis 47:1Joseph formally announces to Pharaoh that his father, his brothers, and their flocks have arrived from Canaan and are already settled in Goshen.
  2. Genesis 47:2Joseph presents five of the brothers to Pharaoh — not the whole family at once, but a representative sample to formalize the meeting.
  3. Genesis 47:3Pharaoh asks the brothers’ occupation, and they answer honestly: they are shepherds, just as their fathers were before them.
  4. Genesis 47:4They explain they came to live there temporarily because of the severe famine in Canaan, specifically asking to settle in Goshen, a region suited to their kind of work.
  5. Genesis 47:5Pharaoh directly confirms to Joseph that he acknowledges the arrival of his father and brothers.
  6. Genesis 47:6Pharaoh authorizes them to settle in the best part of the land, in Goshen, and even suggests the most capable among them look after his own livestock too — a generous offer of trust.
  7. Genesis 47:7Joseph personally brings Jacob to be presented to Pharaoh, and Jacob, even as the guest, blesses the king — a gesture that reverses the expected hierarchy.
  8. Genesis 47:8Pharaoh directly asks Jacob’s age, curious about the old man’s appearance before him.
  9. Genesis 47:9Jacob describes his entire life as a pilgrimage, even after so many years lived. It’s a way of saying he never really had a fixed, permanent land, always living as a foreigner in someone else’s country.
  10. Genesis 47:10Jacob blesses Pharaoh a second time before leaving the meeting.
  11. Genesis 47:11Joseph formally settles his father and brothers in the region of Rameses, within Goshen, carrying out exactly the order Pharaoh had given.
  12. Genesis 47:12Joseph provides for his father’s entire household, adjusting the amount of bread according to the number of children in each family.
  13. Genesis 47:13The famine grows so severe that both Egypt and Canaan suffer terribly from the scarcity of food.
  14. Genesis 47:14Joseph collects all the money paid for the grain, from both Egypt and Canaan, and turns it all over to Pharaoh’s treasury.
  15. Genesis 47:15When the people’s money runs out, the Egyptians turn to Joseph, fearing they will starve with nothing left to pay.
  16. Genesis 47:16Joseph proposes a solution: trade livestock for bread, since the money had run out.
  17. Genesis 47:17The Egyptians hand over horses, sheep, cattle, and donkeys in exchange for food, managing to sustain themselves for one more full year.
  18. Genesis 47:18The following year, they come back to Joseph admitting all they have left to offer in exchange for food is their own bodies and their land.
  19. Genesis 47:19With no money, livestock, or food left, the Egyptians offer to become Pharaoh’s servants just to survive the famine. What sounds shocking today was, in ancient practice, a kind of contract: they gave up their land and freedom in exchange for food and protection, continuing to work the land as a sort of tenant farmers.
  20. Genesis 47:20Joseph ends up buying all the land of Egypt in Pharaoh’s name, since the Egyptians themselves sold their properties to survive the famine.
  21. Genesis 47:21Joseph reorganizes the people, moving them into cities from one end of Egypt to the other — a mass relocation that further consolidates central control over the land.
  22. Genesis 47:22The Egyptian priests are the only class that doesn’t lose their land during the famine, because they already received a fixed allowance from Pharaoh himself and didn’t depend on buying food from Joseph. The detail shows the political and religious weight the priestly class held in Egypt.
  23. Genesis 47:23Joseph distributes seed to the people, now servants of Pharaoh, so they can go back to planting the land that has come to belong to the king.
  24. Genesis 47:24“The fifth part” means 20 percent of the harvest. After buying up land and people for Pharaoh, Joseph establishes this permanent tax on Egyptian agricultural production, which, according to the text, was still in force long afterward.
  25. Genesis 47:25The people give thanks, openly acknowledging that Joseph saved their lives, and accept their new status as Pharaoh’s servants without resistance.
  26. Genesis 47:26Joseph establishes as permanent law that one-fifth of all Egypt’s harvest belongs to Pharaoh — a policy that, according to the text, was still in effect at the time this was written, except for the priests’ land.
  27. Genesis 47:27Meanwhile, the family of Israel prospers in Goshen, settles in, and multiplies rapidly — a contrast with the crisis gripping the rest of Egypt.
  28. Genesis 47:28Jacob lives seventeen more years in Egypt, reaching a total of one hundred forty-seven years of life.
  29. Genesis 47:29Placing a hand under someone’s thigh was an ancient gesture for sealing a serious oath — the same gesture Abraham asked of his servant at another point in Genesis. Jacob uses this gesture to make sure Joseph will truly keep his promise not to bury him in Egypt.
  30. Genesis 47:30Jacob asks not to be buried in Egypt, but carried back to rest with his own fathers — Joseph promises to fulfill this last request.
  31. Genesis 47:31Joseph confirms the commitment under formal oath, and Jacob bows over the head of the bed, relieved to have secured this last wish.

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