Genesis47chapter 47

A seam of the reading cycle falls inside this chapter. The portion Vayigash ends at Genesis 47:27 and the portion Vayechi begins at 47:28, so the settling of Jacob's household in Goshen is heard on one Sabbath and the seventeen years of his life in Egypt on the next (src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the entries for portions eleven and twelve). Vayechi is the last portion of Genesis, so a congregation reading the annual cycle hears the close of the book from the middle of this chapter onward.

Rashi reads Joseph's choice of which brothers to present as protection rather than modesty: he brought "Some of the inferior ones amongst them as to strength", so that Pharaoh would not conscript the strong ones into his own service (Rashi on Genesis 47:2:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain). Jacob's blessing of Pharaoh he takes twice as a formality of the court, "this was the greeting of peace, as is usual in the case of all who are granted an interview with kings at long intervals", and the same at the leaving, though he notes that a midrash reads more into it (Rashi on Genesis 47:7:1 and 47:10:1). Jacob's answer about his years he reads as a statement about his whole life: "All my days I have been a stranger in other peoples' lands" (Rashi on Genesis 47:9:1). On the hardest part of the chapter, the transfer of the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, Rashi explains the moving of the population as a legal device rather than a cruelty: "Joseph caused them to pass from one city to another city that they might be reminded that they now had no claim to the land" (Rashi on Genesis 47:21:1). Ramban does not accept the brothers' stated reason at face value and says so: "I wonder about this reason which they told to Pharaoh, for there was also no pasture in Egypt", since the famine lay on that land too (Ramban on Genesis 47:4:1, the Commentary on the Torah by Ramban, translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo Publishing House, New York, 1971 to 1976, CC-BY), and he reads Pharaoh's words to Joseph as an opening formula that leaves the decision with Joseph (Ramban on Genesis 47:5:1). Sforno explains Pharaoh's question about Jacob's age from Egyptian experience, that "Pharaoh was utterly amazed at Yaakov's age" because men of those years were not to be found there (Sforno on Genesis 47:8:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY). Ibn Ezra comments here at 47:1:1 and 47:16:1 and Malbim at 47:3:1, and the corpus holds no English of either under a licence permitting quotation, so they stand as citations.

The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-four of them Midrash and six Talmud. Bereshit Rabbati is the densest work here, cited at Parashat Vayigash 11, 12, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 40 and 41, and its run covers the audience with Pharaoh and the years of the famine. Bamidbar Rabbah is cited at 8:4, 12:2, 14:7 and 19:3, Bereshit Rabbah at 40:6, 86:2, 90:6, 95:4, 96:2, and Midrash Sekhel Tov at Bereshit 47:1:1, 47:1:2, 47:5:1, 47:5:2 and 47:20:1. Aggadat Bereshit is cited at 42:1, 61:2, 62:2 and 81:2, Midrash Lekach Tov at Genesis 47:11:1 and at Genesis 29:9:2 and 41:1:2, and Midrash Aggadah at Numbers 6:25:2. The Ein Yaakov collection is cited four times in the Glick edition, at Bava Kama 8:4, Berakhot 9:20 and Ketubot 13:15. The six Talmud locators fall on the audience and on the famine measures: Bava Kamma 92a:19 at the presenting of the brothers, Berakhot 63b:22 at Pharaoh's offer, Megillah 17a:4 at Jacob's answer about his years, Avot DeRabbi Natan 41:9 at the gathering of the money, Jerusalem Talmud Peah 2:1:1 at the request for seed, and Beitzah 16a:3 at the priests whose land was not bought.