Genesis 47
47
Jacob [Israel] Meets Pharaoh
1Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father and my brothers have arrived from Canaan with their flocks, herds, and everything they have. Now they are in Goshen.” 2Since he had taken five of his brothers with him, he presented them to Pharaoh.
3Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What kind of work do you do?”
They answered Pharaoh, “We are shepherds, as were our ancestors. 4We have come to live in this land for a while. The famine is so severe in Canaan that there’s no pasture for our flocks. So please let us live in Goshen.”
5Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. 6All of Egypt is available to you. Have your father and your brothers live in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. If they are qualified, put them in charge of my livestock.”
7Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and had him stand in front of Pharaoh. Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”
9Jacob answered Pharaoh, “The length of my stay on earth has been 130 years. The years of my life have been few and difficult, fewer than my ancestors’ years.” 10Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and left.
11As Pharaoh had ordered, Joseph had his father and his brothers live in the best part of Egypt, the region of Rameses. He gave them property there. 12Joseph also provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s family with food based on the number of children they had.
Joseph Acquires All the Land in Egypt for Pharaoh
13The famine was so severe that there was no food anywhere. Neither Egypt nor Canaan were producing crops because of the famine. 14Joseph collected all the money that could be found in Egypt and in Canaan as payment for the grain people bought. Then he took it to Pharaoh’s palace. 15When the money in Egypt and Canaan was gone, all the Egyptians came to Joseph. “Give us food,” they said. “Do you want us to die right in front of you? We don’t have any more money!”
16Joseph replied, “If you don’t have any more money, give me your livestock, and I’ll give you food #47:16 Samaritan Pentateuch, Greek, Targum; Masoretic Text “I’ll give to you.” in exchange.” 17So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. During that year he supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock.
18When that year was over, they came to him the next year. “Sir,” they said to him, “you know that our money is gone, and you have all our livestock. There’s nothing left to bring you except our bodies and our land. 19Do you want us to die right in front of you? Do you want the land to be ruined? Take us and our land in exchange for food. Then we will be Pharaoh’s slaves and our land will be his property. But give us seed so that we won’t starve to death and the ground won’t become a desert.”
20Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. Every Egyptian sold his fields because the famine was so severe. The land became Pharaoh’s. 21All over Egypt Joseph moved the people to the cities. 22But he didn’t buy the priests’ land because the priests received an income from Pharaoh, and they lived on that income. That’s why they didn’t sell their land.
23Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh, here is seed for you. Plant crops in the land. 24Every time you harvest, give one-fifth of the produce to Pharaoh. Four-fifths will be yours to use as seed for your fields and as food for your households.”
25“You have saved our lives,” they said. “Please, sir, we are willing to be Pharaoh’s slaves.”
26Joseph made a law concerning the land in Egypt which is still in force today: One-fifth ⌞of the produce⌟ belongs to Pharaoh. Only the land of the priests didn’t belong to Pharaoh.
Jacob’s [Israel’s] Last Days in Egypt
27So the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and had many children.
28Jacob lived in Egypt 17 years, so he lived a total of 147 years. 29Israel was about to die. He called for his son Joseph and said to him, “I want you to swear that you love me and are faithful to me. Please don’t bury me here. 30I want to rest with my ancestors. Take me out of Egypt, and bury me in their tomb.”
“I will do as you say,” Joseph answered.
31“Swear to me,” he said. So Joseph swore to him. Then Israel bowed down in prayer with his face at the head of his bed.
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Genesis 47
47
CHAPTER 47
1Therefore Joseph entered, and told to Pharaoh, and said, My father and brethren, the sheep and the great beasts of them, and all things that they wield, have come from the land of Canaan; and lo! they stand in the land of Goshen.
2And Joseph ordained five, the least, or meekest, men of his brethren, to come before the king,
3whom he asked, What work have ye? They answered, We thy servants be keepers of sheep, both we and our fathers;
4we came into thy land to be pilgrims, that is, to dwell for a time, for no grass is to the flocks of thy servants; for hunger waxeth grievous in the land of Canaan, and we ask that thou command us thy servants to be in the land of Goshen.
5And so the king said to Joseph, Thy father and thy brethren have come to thee;
6the land of Egypt is in thy sight; make thou them to dwell in the best place, and give thou to them the land of Goshen; that if thou knowest that witting men be in them, ordain them masters of my beasts.
7After these things Joseph brought in his father to the king, and set him before the king, and he blessed the king;
8and he was asked of the king, How many be the days of the years of thy life?
9And he answered, The days of [the] pilgrimage of my life be few and evil, of an hundred and thirty years, and those [or they] have not come to the days of my fathers, in which they were pilgrims.
10And when Jacob had blessed the king again, he went out.
11Forsooth Joseph gave to his father and [his] brethren a possession in Egypt, in Rameses, the best soil of [the] earth, as Pharaoh commanded;
12and he fed them, and all the household of his father, and gave meats to them all.
13For bread failed in all the world, and hunger oppressed the land, mostly of Egypt and of Canaan;
14of which lands Joseph gathered all the money for the selling of wheat, and brought it into the king’s treasury.
15And when price failed to the buyers, all Egypt came to Joseph, and said, Give thou loaves to us; why shall we die before thee, while money faileth?
16To whom he answered, Bring ye your beasts, and I shall give you meats for those [or them], if ye have not price.
17And when they had brought those, he gave them meats for horses, and sheep, and oxen, and asses; and he sustained them in that year for the exchange of beasts.
18And they came in the second year, and said to him, We cover not from our lord, that the while money faileth, also our beasts failed altogether, neither it is hid from thee, that without bodies and land, we have nothing;
19why therefore shall we die, while thou seest this? both we and our land shall be thine; buy thou us into the king’s servage, and give thou us seeds to sow, lest while the tiller perisheth, the land be turned into wilderness.
20Therefore Joseph bought all the land of Egypt, while all men sold him their possessions, for the greatness of hunger; and he made it and all the peoples thereof subject to Pharaoh,
21from the last terms of Egypt till to the last ends thereof,
22except the land of priests, that was given of the king to them, to which priests also meats were given of the common barns, and therefore they were not compelled to sell their possessions.
23Therefore Joseph said to the peoples, Lo! as ye see, Pharaoh wieldeth both you and your land; now take ye seeds, and sow ye fields,
24that ye may have fruits; ye shall give the fifth part to the king; I suffer to you the four residue parts into seed, and into meats, to you, and to your free children.
25Which answered, Our health is in thine hands; only our God behold us, and we shall joyfully serve the king.
26From that time till to this present day, in all the land of Egypt, the fifth part is paid to the kings, and it is made as into a law, without the land of priests, that was free from this condition.
27Therefore Israel dwelled in Egypt, that is, in the land of Goshen, and wielded it; and he was increased, and multiplied full much.
28And he lived therein sixteen [or seventeen] years; and all the days of his life were made an hundred and seven and forty years.
29And when he saw the day of his death [to] nigh, he called his son Joseph to his bed, and said to him, If I have found grace in thy sight, put thine hand under mine hip, and swear that thou shalt do mercy and truth to me, that thou bury not me in Egypt;
30but I shall sleep with my fathers, and take thou away me from this land, and bury me in the sepulchre of my greaters. To whom Joseph answered, I shall do that that thou commandest.
31And Israel said, Therefore swear thou to me; and when Joseph swore, Israel turned to the head of the bed, and worshipped God.
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Wycliffe’s Bible with Modern Spelling ©2017
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