Genesis 47

1Joseph went to report to Pharaoh and told him, “My father and brothers, along with their flocks and herds and all their possessions, have arrived from the land of Canaan and now they're here in Goshen.” 2Joseph took five of his brothers to go with him and introduced them to Pharaoh.

3Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What work do you do?”

“Your servants are shepherds, just like our fathers before us,” they replied.

4“We have come to live in Egypt because there's no grass left in Canaan for our flocks to eat,” they explained. “The famine is really bad in Canaan. So we would like to please ask permission to live in Goshen.”

5Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now that your father and brothers have arrived to join you, 6you can choose wherever you like in Egypt, the best place, for them to live. Let them live in Goshen. If you know any of them who are good at what they do, put them in charge of my livestock as well.”

7Then Joseph went with his father Jacob and introduced him to Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, 8Pharaoh asked him, “So how long have you lived?”

9“I have been wandering for 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My life has been short and difficult—I have not lived as long as my forefathers who also wandered from place to place.” 10Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh again before leaving him.

11So Joseph arranged for his father and brothers to live in Egypt and gave them land in the best part near Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered. 12He also provided food for all of them—his father, his brothers, and his father's whole household—depending on family size.

13No food was left in the whole country because the famine had become so bad. Throughout Egypt and Canaan people were starving. 14By selling grain Joseph collected all the money in Egypt and Canaan, and placed it in Pharaoh's treasury. 15Once the money from Egypt and Canaan had run out, the Egyptians all came to Joseph and demanded, “Give us food! Do you want us to die right in front of you? All our money is gone!”

16“Bring me your livestock,” Joseph told them. “I'll give you grain in exchange for your livestock if you've run out of money.”

17So they brought Joseph their livestock, and he provided them with grain in exchange for their horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. He gave them grain in return for their livestock during that year.

18But when that year was over, they came to him the next year and said, “My lord, we can't hide from you the fact that our money is gone and that you now own our livestock. All we have left to give you are our bodies and our land. 19Do you want us to die right in front of you? So buy us and our land in return for food. Then our land will belong to Pharaoh, and we'll be his slaves. Just give us grain so we can live and won't die, and so the land won't be abandoned.”

20So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. Each and every Egyptian sold their fields, because the famine was hurting them so badly. The land ended up being owned by Pharaoh, 21and all the people became his slaves,#47:21. “The people became his slaves”: Septuagint and other ancient translations. The Hebrew has “he moved them to the cities.” from one end of Egypt to the other. 22The only land he didn't buy belonged to the priests because they had a food allowance provided to them by Pharaoh, so they didn't have to sell their land.

23Then Joseph told the people, “Listen to me! Now that I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh, I'm giving you some seed for you to sow the fields. 24However, when it's harvested, you have to give one-fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you can keep as seed for the fields and as food for you, your households, and your children.”

25“You've saved our lives,” they declared. “May you continue to treat us well, my lord, and we'll be Pharaoh's slaves.”

26So Joseph made it a law for Egypt which is still is in effect today that one-fifth of all produce from the land belongs to Pharaoh. Only the priests' land was exempt since it did not belong to Pharaoh.

27The Israelites settled in Goshen in Egypt where they became prosperous landowners and rapidly increased in number. 28Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen years, so he lived in total 147 years.

29When the time came for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If you think well of me, place your hand under my thigh and promise to treat me with trustworthy love and faithfulness. Don't bury me here in Egypt. 30When I die, bury me with my forefathers. You must take my body from Egypt to the family tomb and bury me with them.”

“I will do as you say,” Joseph promised.

31“Swear to me that you will,” he said. Joseph swore that he would. Israel bowed in worship at the head of his bed.

Genesis 47

1Then came Ioseph and tolde Pharaoh, and sayde, My father, and my brethren, and their sheepe, and their cattell, and all that they haue, are come out of the land of Canaan, and behold, they are in the land of Goshen. 2And Ioseph tooke part of his brethren, euen fiue men, and presented them vnto Pharaoh. 3Then Pharaoh said vnto his brethren, What is your trade? And they answered Pharaoh, Thy seruants are shepheards, both we and our fathers. 4They sayde moreouer vnto Pharaoh, For to soiourne in ye lande are we come: for thy seruants haue no pasture for their sheepe, so sore is ye famine in the lande of Canaan. Nowe therefore, we pray thee, let thy seruants dwel in the land of Goshen. 5Then spake Pharaoh to Ioseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come vnto thee. 6The lande of Egypt is before thee: in the best place of the land make thy father and thy brethren dwel: let the dwel in the land of Goshen: and if thou knowest that there be men of actiuitie among them, make them rulers ouer my cattell. 7Ioseph also brought Iaakob his father, and set him before Pharaoh. And Iaakob saluted Pharaoh. 8Then Pharaoh sayde vnto Iaakob, Howe olde art thou? 9And Iaakob sayd vnto Pharaoh, The whole time of my pilgrimage is an hundreth and thirty yeeres: fewe and euill haue the dayes of my life bene, and I haue not attayned vnto the yeeres of the life of my fathers, in the dayes of their pilgrimages. 10And Iaakob tooke leaue of Pharaoh, and departed from the presence of Pharaoh. 11And Ioseph placed his father, and his brethren, and gaue them possession in the lande of Egypt, in the best of the land, euen in the lande of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. 12And Ioseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his fathers houshold with bread, euen to the yong children. 13Now there was no bread in all the land: for the famine was exceeding sore: so that the land of Egypt, and the land of Canaan were famished by reason of the famine. 14And Ioseph gathered all the money, that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corne which they bought, and Ioseph layd vp the money in Pharaohs house. 15So when money fayled in the lande of Egypt, and in the lande of Canaan, then all the Egyptians came vnto Ioseph, and sayde, Giue vs bread: for why should we dye before thee? for our money is spent. 16Then saide Ioseph, Bring your cattell, and I will giue you for your cattell, if your money be spent. 17So they brought their cattell vnto Ioseph, and Ioseph gaue them bread for the horses, and for the flockes of sheepe, and for the heards of cattel, and for the asses: so he fed them with bread for all their cattell that yeere. 18But when the yeere was ended, they came vnto him the next yeere, and sayd vnto him, We will not hide from my lord, that since our money is spent, and my lord hath the heards of the cattel, there is nothing left in the sight of my lorde, but our bodies and our ground. 19Why shall we perish in thy sight, both we, and our land? bye vs and our land for bread, and we and our land will be bonde to Pharaoh: therefore giue vs seede, that we may liue and not dye, and that the land go not to waste. 20So Ioseph bought all the lande of Egypt for Pharaoh: for the Egyptians solde euery man his ground because the famine was sore vpon the: so the land became Pharaohs. 21And he remoued the people vnto the cities, from one side of Egypt euen to the other. 22Onely the lande of the Priestes bought he not: for the Priestes had an ordinarie of Pharaoh, and they did eate their ordinarie, which Pharaoh gaue them: wherefore they solde not their grounde. 23Then Ioseph sayd vnto the people, Behold, I haue bought you this daye, and your lande for Pharaoh: lo, here is seede for you: sowe therefore the grounde. 24And of the encrease ye shall giue the fifth part vnto Pharaoh, and foure partes shalbe yours for the seede of the fielde, and for your meate, and for them of your housholdes, and for your children to eate. 25Then they answered, Thou hast saued our liues: let vs finde grace in the sight of my Lord, and we will be Pharaohs seruants. 26Then Ioseph made it a lawe ouer the land of Egypt vnto this day, that Pharaoh should haue the fift part, except the land of the priests only, which was not Pharaohs. 27And Israel dwelt in the lande of Egypt, in the countrey of Goshen: and they had their possessions therein, and grewe and multiplied exceedingly. 28Moreouer, Iaakob liued in the lande of Egypt seuenteene yeeres, so that the whole age of Iaakob was an hundreth fourtie and seuen yeere. 29Now when the time drewe neere that Israel must dye, he called his sonne Ioseph, and sayde vnto him, If I haue nowe founde grace in thy sight, put thine hand nowe vnder my thigh, and deale mercifully and truely with me: burie me not, I pray thee, in Egypt. 30But when I shall sleepe with my fathers, thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury mee in their buryall. And he answered, I will doe as thou hast sayde. 31The he said, Sweare vnto me. And he sware vnto him. And Israel worshipped towardes the beds head.

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Genesis 47

Genesis 47