Genesis 47
1So Joseph went and told Pharaoh: “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.”
2And he chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh.
3“What is your occupation?” Pharaoh asked Joseph’s brothers. “Your servants are shepherds,” they replied, “both we and our fathers.”
4Then they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live in the land for a time, because there is no pasture for the flocks of your servants, since the famine in the land of Canaan has been severe. So now, please allow your servants to settle in the land of Goshen.”
5Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now that your father and brothers have come to you, 6the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and brothers in the best part of the land. They may dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know of any talented men among them, put them in charge of my own livestock.”
7Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and presented him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
Genesis 47:7 Commentary
The Greater Throne Blessed by the Lesser Man:
Jacob stretches his hands out and blesses Pharaoh — a jaw-dropping scene where the undisputed sovereign of an ancient world superpower receives a blessing from a bedraggled, famine-stricken nomad. Nearly two millennia later, the author of Hebrews in the New Testament articulates the unbending spiritual principle governing this moment: “And indisputably, the lesser is blessed by the greater” (Hebrews 7:7). Secular empire bows before divine authority; real blessing didn't flow down from the golden throne of Egypt, but from the pilgrim who carried the covenant of Abraham.
8“How many years have you lived?” Pharaoh asked.
9“My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”
10Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and departed from his presence.
11So Joseph settled his father and brothers in the land of Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
12Joseph also provided his father and brothers and all his father’s household with food for their families.
Genesis 47:8–12 Commentary
Jacob Calls His Years 'Few and Hard,' and Means It:
Jacob stands before Pharaoh at one hundred and thirty years old, summarizing his pilgrimage in Genesis 47:9: “My travels have lasted 130 years... My years have been few and hard.” He meant every word: fleeing Esau, enduring twenty years of exploitation under Laban, mourning Rachel’s death, grieving the defilement of Dinah, and mourning Joseph for twenty-two years. His journey was a lifelong crucible of faith.
Jacob’s Years Compared to Abraham and Isaac:
Jacob will live another seventeen years, dying at one hundred and forty-seven (Genesis 47:28). Compared back to Abraham’s lifespan of one hundred and seventy-five years twenty-two chapters earlier (Genesis 25:7–8) and Isaac’s one hundred and eighty twelve chapters back (Genesis 35:28–29), Jacob’s reflection reads as a weary man measuring his own unending trials against his fathers’ relative peace.
Joseph’s Quiet Faith Outshines Jacob’s Grief:
Joseph endured the exact same category of intense suffering — betrayed by brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused of rape, and abandoned in an Egyptian dungeon for years — yet Scripture never once records Joseph complaining about his years being "hard." Jacob laments his hardships in the presence of the very son whose steadfast faith made his father’s complaint look overstated, entirely unaware of the contrast.
Rameses and Goshen — The Same Fertile Region:
Joseph settles his household in “the land of Rameses,” which is another designation for the fertile delta sector known as Goshen — the name Moses used two chapters earlier in Genesis 45:10 and will consistently employ over four centuries later throughout the Exodus account (Exodus 1:11; 12:37). Joseph provides bread — food, in the comprehensive idiomatic sense already established sixteen chapters earlier in Genesis 31:54 and reaffirmed in chapter 43 (Genesis 43:25, 31)—sustaining his father, his brothers, and even the smallest children through the peak of the famine.
13There was no food, however, in all that region, because the famine was so severe; the lands of Egypt and Canaan had been exhausted by the famine. 14Joseph collected all the money to be found in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain they were buying, and he brought it into Pharaoh’s palace. 15When the money from the lands of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our funds have run out!”
Genesis 47:14–15 Commentary
The Famine Drains Every Coin in Egypt and Canaan:
The famine proved so protracted and severe — exactly as Joseph had forewarned Pharaoh six chapters earlier in Genesis 41:30–31—that Joseph gathered all the money in Egypt and Canaan into Pharaoh’s treasury before currency itself was exhausted. Every private silver reserve was drained to buy life-saving grain.
16“Then bring me your livestock,” said Joseph. “Since the money is gone, I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock.” 17So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their flocks and herds, and their donkeys. Throughout that year he provided them with food in exchange for all their livestock.
18When that year was over, they came to him the second year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord that our money is gone and all our livestock belongs to you. There is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. 19Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Purchase us and our land in exchange for food. Then we, along with our land, will be slaves to Pharaoh. Give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”
20So Joseph acquired for Pharaoh all the land in Egypt; the Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields because the famine was so severe upon them. The land became Pharaoh’s, 21and Joseph reduced the people to servitude from one end of Egypt to the other.
Genesis 47:17–21 Commentary
Silver, Livestock, Land, and Then Themselves:
What followed was a methodical, desperate progression. The populace exhausted their silver first. Next, they traded their livestock for grain. Once their herds were depleted, they deeded their ancestral land to Pharaoh. Finally, possessing nothing left of value, they offered their own bodies into royal service in exchange for food. None of this was coerced by state violence.
Voluntary Tenant Farming, Not Brutal Slavery:
Joseph did not enslave an unwilling population; the Egyptians themselves initiated each transaction because the only alternative was outright starvation. The resulting arrangement was a structured tenant-farming system under royal patronage, entirely distinct from the brutal chattel bondage that a later dynasty centuries down the road, which “did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8), would impose upon the Israelites.
22However, he did not acquire the priests’ portion of the land (for it had been given to them by Pharaoh. They ate the rations that Pharaoh supplied; so they did not sell their land).
23Then Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh this day, here is seed for you to sow in the land. 24At harvest time, you are to give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, and four-fifths will be for all of you as seed for the field and food for yourselves and your households and children.”
25“You have saved our lives,” they said. “We have found favor in our lord’s eyes, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.” 26So Joseph established a law that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh (and it is in effect in the land of Egypt to this day). Only the priests’ land does not belong to Pharaoh.
Genesis 47:22–26 Commentary
Exempt Priests — A Pattern Later Given to Levi:
The Egyptian priesthood remained exempt throughout the crisis because Pharaoh provided them a fixed ration regardless of agricultural yields. This arrangement mirrors the statutory provision YAHWEH instituted over four centuries later in the wilderness for the tribe of Levi, who received no territorial land inheritance but were sustained by the tithes of the twelve tribes (Numbers 18:20–24; Deuteronomy 18:1–2).
An 80-20 Agrarian Tax That Saved the Nation:
Joseph distributes seed to the Egyptian populace under an eighty-twenty agrarian arrangement: eighty percent of the harvest remained with the people for food and planting, with a modest twenty percent going to the crown (Genesis 47:24). The people responded with overwhelming gratitude in Genesis 47:25: “You have saved our lives. We have found favor in our lord’s eyes, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants” Joseph established a stable agrarian economy that preserved the nation.
27Now the Israelites settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and became fruitful and increased greatly in number.
Genesis 47:27 Commentary
Prosperity Today Seeds Persecution Tomorrow:
While the Egyptian population became royal tenants, Israel flourished in Goshen — acquiring property, becoming fruitful, and multiplying exponentially. Yet this rapid demographic explosion would centuries later terrify an insecure Egyptian dynasty that owed Joseph no loyalty (Exodus 1:7–12). The blessings of one generation planted the seeds of both persecution and national deliverance in the next.
28And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, and the length of his life was 147 years.
29When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise to show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, 30but when I lie down with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me with them.” Joseph answered, “I will do as you have requested.”
31“Swear to me,” Jacob said. So Joseph swore to him, and Israel bowed in worship at the head of his bed.
Genesis 47:29–31 Commentary
Egypt Is Comfortable, but Egypt Is Not Home:
As his death approaches, Jacob summons Joseph and instructs him to place his hand under his thigh — the same solemn covenant oath Abraham had required of his chief servant twenty-three chapters earlier (Genesis 24:2–3)—demanding that Joseph swear not to bury him in Egypt. He insists on resting with his fathers in the Cave of Machpelah, the family tomb purchased twenty-four chapters earlier by Abraham from the Hittites (Genesis 23:19–20; Genesis 25:9–10 compare Genesis 49:29–31; Genesis 50:13. Egypt was comfortable, but Egypt was not home. Jacob’s refusal of an Egyptian burial was his final confession of faith that the promises given to Abraham still governed where the covenant family belonged. Joseph swore the solemn oath, and Jacob bowed in reverent worship to YAHWEH at the head of his bed, praising God for securing his resting place in the Promised Land.
Bed or Staff — Hebrew Vowels and Hebrews 11:21:
When Genesis 47:31 states that Israel bowed in worship at the head of his bed (mittah), Scripture depicts Jacob worshiping YAHWEH God in profound gratitude — not bowing to his son Joseph. Looking back nearly two millennia later from the New Testament, Hebrews 11:21 confirms this sacred act of covenant devotion, recording that by faith Jacob worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff (matteh). The difference arises from the unpointed Hebrew consonants M-T-H. The Masoretic vowel points read mittah (“bed”), whereas the Greek Septuagint translators read the same consonants as matteh (“staff”), a reading the author of Hebrews adopted. Both convey the identical picture of reverent devotion: whether prostrating across his pillow or leaning upon his pilgrim staff, Jacob worshiped YAHWEH with his dying breath.
Genesis 47:1 Commentary
Goshen Prepared for Future Deliverance:
Joseph settles his family in Goshen — prime pastureland uniquely suited for their flocks, and the very region YAHWEH will shield over four centuries later from the devastating plagues during the Exodus (Exodus 8:22; 9:4, 26; 10:23). Over four centuries before Moses raised his staff, God was already preparing the geographic sanctuary where His people would be preserved.