Genesis 47 - Outline of Genesis (Book Notes menu page)

47:1 Then 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.
47:2 And he took some of his brethren, [even] five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.
47:3 And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What [is] your occupation? {cf. Gen 46:33,34}
And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants [are] shepherds, both we, [and] also our fathers.
47:4 They 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.
47:5 And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying,
Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee:
47:6 The 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 {ie., ability, skill} among them,
then make them rulers {ie., captains, chiefs, princes} over my cattle.
  to sojourn... are we come (v.4)-
    Israel's stay in Egypt was intended to be temporary. cp. Gen 15:13,14
  Pharaoh approved Joseph's placement of his family in Goshen, in 'the best of the land.'
47:7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh:
and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
47:8 And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old [art] thou?
47:9 And 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.
47:10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.
  Jacob, having become spiritually mature...
  1. blessed Pharaoh. The lesser is blessed of the greater (Heb 7:7).
  2. described his life with humility...
     - as a pilgrimage {HB= magur, sojourn, temporary residence}-
    Jacob saw his earthly life as a transition through a foreign land (the world), for he was en-route to his true possession. cp. Heb 11:9-16
  - as short & evil- cp. Job 14:1; Psa 90:3-12
  - as not attaining the age of his fathers- cp. Gen 25:7,8; 35:28,29 Jacob's humble walk with God contrasts sharply with the fleshly pride and schemes of his early years.
    He blessed Pharaoh, from the strength of God's presence with him. cp. 12:2; 46:4, 48:15,16
47:11 And Joseph placed {ie., settled} 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.
47:12 And Joseph nourished {maintained, made provision for} his father,
and his brethren, and all his father's household,
with bread, according to [their] families.
47:13 And [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.
47:14 And 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.
47:15 And 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.
47:16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.
47:17 And 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.
47:18 When 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 {ie., anything} left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:
47:19 Wherefore 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.
47:20 And 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.
47:21 And as for the people, he removed them to cities
from [one] end of the borders of Egypt even to the [other] end thereof. {cp. Gen 41:48}
47:22 Only 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.
47:23 Then Joseph said unto the people,
Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: {cp. 1Cor 6:20}
lo, [here is] seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. {cp. 2Cor 9:10}
47:24 And 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.
47:25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives:
let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants.
47:26 And 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.
  I have bought you... and your land for Pharaoh.-
    Joseph acted in behalf of Pharaoh, not to enrich himself.
  here is seed... sow the land.- Joseph knew that the famine would last seven years.
    At the appropriate time (cp. Gen 45:6), he provided seed for the next harvest.
  Both Joseph and Jesus...
  34. ''enrich their brethren with the promises which they by their rejection had forfeited, but which now, upon the ground of grace, are restored to them... The Egyptians, themselves representative of all the nations of the earth, are saved from death by Joseph, made by him the willing slaves of the throne, and their future assured to them.'' [GWms] cp. Rom 11:26,27; Isa 2:1-4
47:27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen;
and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.
47:28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years:
so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.
47:29 And 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:
47:30 But 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.
47:31 And he said, Swear unto me.
And he sware unto him.
And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head.
  The name 'Israel' refers to the nation (in v.27), and to the man (in v.29).
  God's Covenant with Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, included His gift of land to Israel:
    ''I will make of thee a great nation... I will give thee this land.'' Gen 12:2,7; 48:3,4
    Jacob insisted on burial in Canaan, in anticipation of the fulfillment of God's Covenant promises.
    By faith, he was looking forward to resurrection in the promised land, in the millennial Kingdom of the Messiah. cp. Eze 28:25,26; Mat 8:11
  put thy hand under my thigh... swear unto me...-
    By this procedure, Joseph acknowledged faith in the Lord's Covenant with Israel (his father and the nation which would come from him), and bound himself as accountable to the One who made that Covenant, that he would be faithful to his father's command. (See the Note about 'the oath' at Gen 24:2,3.)

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