Genesischapter 47
31 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
When 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,
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
This chapter sets two accounts side by side, and the reader is meant to compare them. A family of shepherds is given the best ground in Egypt while the Egyptians around them give up everything they own to stay alive. Israel heard it knowing what later became of them under another Pharaoh. Listen for the old patriarch's words before the king, and for what he asks of his son as his own end comes near. Ask what kind of rule Joseph exercises over a starving country. The chapter keeps its eyes on the land of promise even from Goshen.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, being taught what happens to a people who sell everything for bread
- What
- A narrative of Israel's settlement in Goshen, Jacob's audience with Pharaoh, and Joseph's handling of the rest of the famine.
- Where
- Pharaoh's audience chamber, the pastures of Goshen, and the famine-struck land of Egypt.
- When
- About 1875 to 1859 BC on the traditional chronology, from the settlement in Goshen to Jacob's last days.
- Why
- To show God keeping Israel safe in Egypt while the land of Egypt passes into Pharaoh's hands, and Jacob still looking to Canaan.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Joseph as the administrator of Egypt and to Jacob as a guest of the crown. The time runs from the settlement in Goshen to Jacob's death seventeen years later, which 47:28 counts. The places are the audience chamber, the delta pasture and the whole country under famine.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The occasion is protocol handled well and then a famine carried to its end. Five brothers are presented as a delegation, state their trade, ask for Goshen and are granted it, and Pharaoh adds that any capable men among them should oversee the royal livestock.
The second half is a change in land tenure recorded step by step. Egyptians pay with silver, then with livestock, then with their land and finally with their persons. The crown ends by owning the soil, and the people work it as tenants at a fixed fifth of the harvest.
The priests kept their estates because they drew a fixed allowance from Pharaoh, and John D. Currid records that priestly land exemption is well attested in Egypt. The fifth is reported as still in force when Genesis was written, which is the kind of note a writer makes about an institution he can see.
Significance
Israel had lived under that system. The nation that later worked Egyptian brick quotas knew from the inside what state ownership of a people's labour felt like.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The chapter ends with an oath sworn under the thigh, bury me with my fathers. Jacob had land, security and the best of Egypt, and what he asked for was a cave in Canaan.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
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.
How it is read
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.
What the rabbis say
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.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 47:2:1, 47:6:1, 47:7:1, 47:9:1, 47:10:1, 47:11:1, 47:12:1, 47:13:1, 47:14:1, 47:15:1, 47:17:1, 47:18:1, 47:19:1, 47:20:1, 47:21:1, 47:22:1, 47:23:1 and 47:24:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Ramban, Ramban on Genesis 47:4:1 and 47:5:1, the Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides), translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo Publishing House, New York, 1971 to 1976, CC-BY; Sforno, Sforno on Genesis 47:8:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Genesis 47:1:1 and 47:16:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation; Malbim, Malbim on Genesis 47:3:1, cited only; Midrash, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayigash 11, 12, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 40 and 41; Bamidbar Rabbah 8:4, 12:2, 14:7 and 19:3; Bereshit Rabbah 40:6, 86:2, 90:6, 95:4 and 96:2; Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 47:1:1, 47:1:2, 47:5:1, 47:5:2 and 47:20:1; Aggadat Bereshit 42:1, 61:2, 62:2 and 81:2; Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 47:11:1, 29:9:2 and 41:1:2; Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 6:25:2; Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Kama 8:4, Berakhot 9:20 and Ketubot 13:15; Babylonian Talmud, Bava Kamma 92a:19, Berakhot 63b:22, Megillah 17a:4, Beitzah 16a:3; Jerusalem Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud Peah 2:1:1; Avot DeRabbi Natan, Avot DeRabbi Natan 41:9; MannaFest, the annual cycle table, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Jacob Blesses Pharaoh
Genesis 47:1-4
So Joseph went and told Pharaoh: Joseph brings five of his brothers before Pharaoh, and they ask leave to stay in the land for a time. The Hebrew behind it is the word Abraham used of himself at Genesis 23:4, a man living among people who own the ground. They name their trade as shepherds, as Joseph told them to at Genesis 46:34, where every shepherd is detestable to the Egyptians. That contempt keeps Israel in Goshen and apart.
Genesis 47:1
“Christ, our Joseph, disposes of his followers in his kingdom as it is prepared of his Father, saying, It is not mine to give, Matt. xx. The respect which Joseph, as a brother, showed to his brethren, notwithstanding all the unkindness he had formerly received from them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Genesis 47:1
“That Joseph "brought five from the extreme limits of his brethren," is commonly thus explained, that they who were of least stature were brought into the presence of the king: because it was to be feared lest he might take the stronger into his army.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
he chose five of his brothers: The text leaves the five unnamed. Joseph brings a few of the eleven, enough to answer for the family before the throne. The number five runs through his dealings, five sets of clothes for Benjamin at 45:22 and a fifth of the harvest at 41:34.
Genesis 47:2
“He took some of his brethren - There is something very strange in the original; literally translated it signifies “from the end or extremity (מקצה miktseh) of his brethren he took five men.” This has been understood six different ways. 1. Joseph took five of his brethren that came first to hand - at random, without design or choice. 2. Joseph took five of the meanest-looking of his brethren to present before Pharaoh, fearing if he had taken the sightliest that Pharaoh would detain them for his service, whereby their religion and morals might be corrupted.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The brothers call themselves your servants before Pharaoh, the title Judah used before Joseph at 44:18. Their answer sets the trade in the line of Abraham, whose wealth at 13:2 was counted first in livestock. Shepherding is their inheritance.
Genesis 47:3
“Thy servants are shepherds. This confession was humiliating to the sons of Jacob, and especially to Joseph himself, whose high, and almost regal dignity, was thus marked with a spot of disgrace: for among the Egyptians (as we have said) this kind of life was disgraceful and infamous.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
there is no pasture for the flocks of your servants: The brothers give pasture as the reason for the move, and the famine in Canaan as its cause. Grain could travel home on donkeys, while grazing for the flocks had to be found where it grew. Goshen is a request for grass.
Genesis 47:4
“For to sojourn . . . are we come--The royal conversation took the course which Joseph had anticipated (Ge 46:33), and they answered according to previous instructions--manifesting, however, in their determination to return to Canaan, a faith and piety which affords a hopeful symptom of their having become all, or most of them, religious men.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 47:5-6
your father and brothers have come to you: Pharaoh grants more than the brothers asked for. They asked for pasture in Goshen, and he settles them in the best part of the land of Egypt. He also offers to put any talented man among them in charge of his own livestock. Jacob's family enters Egypt as guests of the crown.
Genesis 47:5
“And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph,.... Who was present at the conversation that passed between him and his brethren: saying, thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee; which is observed, not for Joseph's information, but to lead on to what he had to say further.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 47:5
“This was an instance of Pharaoh's gratitude to Joseph; because he had been such a blessing to him and his kingdom, he would be kind to his relations, purely for his sake. He offered them preferment as shepherds over his cattle, provided they were men of activity; for it is the man who is diligent in his business that shall stand before kings.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the land of Egypt is before you: Abimelech made the same kind of offer to Abraham at 20:15. Talented men translates men of chayil, the phrase Jethro uses at Exodus 18:21 for the capable men who would judge Israel. Pharaoh offers Joseph's brothers charge of the royal livestock along with the best part of the land.
Genesis 47:6
“In the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell - So it appears that the land of Goshen was the best of the land of Egypt. Men of activity - אנשי חיל anshey chayil, stout or robust men - such as were capable of bearing fatigue, and of rendering their authority respectable.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 47:7-8
Jacob blessed Pharaoh: Joseph presents his father before Pharaoh, and Jacob blesses him. Hebrews 7:7 gives the rule, that the lesser is blessed by the greater. Pharaoh asks Jacob one thing, how many years he has lived. Matthew Henry set the two men side by side, Pharaoh richer and Jacob nearer to God.
Genesis 47:7
“Joseph brought in Jacob his father--There is a pathetic and most affecting interest attending this interview with royalty; and when, with all the simplicity and dignified solemnity of a man of God, Jacob signalized his entrance by imploring the divine blessing on the royal head, it may easily be imagined what a striking impression the scene would produce (compare Heb 7:7).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 47:7
“Jacob blessed Pharaoh - Saluted him on his entrance with Peace be unto thee, or some such expression of respect and good will. For the meaning of the term to bless, as applied to God and man, See Clarke on Gen 2:3 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The Hebrew reads, how many are the days of the years of your life. Egyptian texts held up one hundred ten years as the ideal span of life, and Joseph dies at exactly that age at 50:26. Jacob stood well past it.
Genesis 47:8
“And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, how old art thou? Or, "how many are the days of the years of thy life?" which way of speaking Jacob takes up, and very pertinently makes use of in his answer that follows: Dr. Lightfoot (m) thinks Pharaoh had never seen so old a man before, so grave a head, and so grey a beard, and in admiration asked this question. (m) Works, vol. 1. p. 667.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 47:8
Jacob's countenance, no doubt, showed him to be very old, for he had been a man of labour and sorrow; in Egypt people were not so long-lived as in Canaan, and therefore Pharaoh looks upon Jacob with wonder; he was as a show in his court. When we are reflecting upon ourselves, this should come into the account, "How old are we?"
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 47:9-10
Jacob gives his age as 130 years and calls them few and hard. The Hebrew word behind travels is the word for living as a foreigner, and Hebrews 11:13 takes it up for these men, strangers and exiles on the earth. He measures himself short of Abraham at 175 years and Isaac at 180. He blesses Pharaoh again on the way out.
Genesis 47:9
“The days of the years of my pilgrimage - מגורי megurai, of my sojourning or wandering. Jacob had always lived a migratory or wandering life, in different parts of Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, scarcely ever at rest; and in the places where he lived longest, always exposed to the fatigues of the field and the desert. Our word pilgrim comes from the French pelerin and pelegrin, which are corrupted from the Latin peregrinus, an alien, stranger, or foreigner, from the adverb peregre, abroad, not at home.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 47:9
“The days of the years of my pilgrimage, &c.--Though a hundred thirty years, he reckons by days (compare Ps 90:12), which he calls few, as they appeared in retrospect, and evil, because his life had been one almost unbroken series of trouble. The answer is remarkable, considering the comparative darkness of the patriarchal age (compare 2Ti 1:10).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jacob blessed Pharaoh: God told Abraham at 12:3 that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. The house of Pharaoh gave Jacob's family land, and it receives the blessing in return. Jacob blesses the king twice.
Genesis 47:10
“Though in worldly wealth Pharaoh was the greater, yet, in interest with God, Jacob was the greater; he was God's anointed, Ps. cv. And a patriarch's blessing was not a thing to be despised, no, not by a potent prince. Darius valued the prayers of the church for himself and for his sons, Ezra vi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 47:11-12
gave them property: The Hebrew for this property is the word used of Machpelah at Genesis 23:20, the one field Abraham ever owned in Canaan. Abraham paid four hundred shekels of silver for it. The family's first secure holding is Egyptian ground, better land than anything their fathers held in Canaan. Jacob answers that at the end of the chapter by making Joseph swear to carry him back to Canaan.
Genesis 47:11
“And to that we also add that Joseph together with Benjamin was recognized by his brothers who had arrived, and he admitted them to his dining table, as I have just said. However, he did not give them any gift but ordered them to leave again in order that they bring to him the father, I mean, Jacob. After he came down and Joseph saw him there together with his children and family, he gave them the best parts of his land.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · GLAPHYRA ON GENESIS, 6patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 47:11
“It included a part of the district of Heliopolis, or "On," the capital, and on the east stretched out a considerable length into the desert.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Joseph also provided his father and brothers: The Hebrew closes the verse with according to the little ones, food measured out by the number of children in each house. Joseph keeps his promise of 45:11 to provide for them through the famine. The rest of Egypt pays for bread from verse 13 on.
Genesis 47:12
“Care being taken of Jacob and his family, the preservation of which was especially designed by Providence in Joseph's advancement, an account is now given of the saving of the kingdom of Egypt too from ruin; for God is King of nations as well as King of saints, and provideth food for all flesh.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 47:12
"He gave everybody rations individually," the text says. What is meant by "everybody individually"? Enough for everyone. You see, it is customary with Scripture to refer to every person sometimes as a soul and sometimes as a body. As it said previously, "Jacob's company traveling to Egypt numbered seventy-five souls" so as to describe seventy-five men and women, so here too "everybody individually," that is, each person. Even though the whole of Egypt and Canaan was laid waste with famine, these people were comfortable through having a supply of grain flowing as if from a spring.
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 65.11patristic
Land and People Sold for Bread
Genesis 47:13-15
the famine was so severe: The seven lean years arrive as the dreams said. Genesis 41:32 had given the reason for the doubling, that God had determined the matter and would carry it out shortly. Joseph collects all the money in Egypt and Canaan into Pharaoh's palace, and then the money runs out. Everything the chapter does next follows from a currency that has stopped working.
Genesis 47:13
“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. 2 And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh. 3 And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
he brought it into Pharaoh’s palace: Money translates keseph, silver weighed out by the piece, for coins came centuries later. Joseph brings every shekel of it into the palace. The famine makes the crown the owner of the country's silver first.
Genesis 47:14
“Gathered up all the money - i. e., by selling corn out of the public stores to the people; and this he did till the money failed, Gen 47:15, till all the money was exchanged for corn, and brought into Pharaoh’s treasury.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 47:14
“Silver and gold would not feed them, they must have corn. All the money of the kingdom was by this means brought into the exchequer.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jacob sent his sons to Egypt at 42:2 so the family would live and not die. The Egyptians now bring the same plea to the same man. Their silver is gone, and they have nothing left to trade.
Genesis 47:15
“If its usual favours are suspended but for a while, we die, we perish, we all perish. All our wealth would not keep us from starving if the rain of heaven were but withheld for two or three years. See how much we lie at God's mercy, and let us keep ourselves always in his love.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 47:16-19
Joseph takes the money first, then the livestock, then the land and the people themselves. Adam Clarke read the second stage as a mercy to both, the herds fed and the people fed with them. The last stage comes from the Egyptians themselves, who say purchase us and our land. Each stage is asked for by the people who pay it.
Genesis 47:16
“Give your cattle - This was the wisest measure that could be adopted, both for the preservation of the people and of the cattle also. As the people had not grain for their own sustenance, consequently they could have none for their cattle; hence the cattle were in the most imminent danger of starving; and the people also were in equal danger, as they must have divided a portion of that bought for themselves with the cattle, which for the sake of tillage, etc., they wished of course to preserve till the seven years of famine should end.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
their horses: Horses appear here for the first time in Scripture. They were costly animals in Egypt, and Deuteronomy 17:16 later forbids Israel's king to send to Egypt for more of them. One year of livestock feeds a nation.
Genesis 47:17
“Note, Skin for skin, and all that a man hath, even liberty and property (those darling twins), will he give for his life; for life is sweet. There are few (though perhaps there are some) who would even dare to die rather than live in slavery, and dependence on an arbitrary power.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
they came to him the second year: The second year here is the year after the livestock was sold, the next year of the famine. The Egyptians speak plainly, with nothing left to bargain with. Bodies and land are all a farmer has.
Genesis 47:18
“When that year was ended - The sixth year of the famine, they came unto him the second year, which was the last or seventh year of the famine, in which it was necessary to sow the land that there might be a crop the succeeding year; for Joseph, on whose prediction they relied, had foretold that the famine should continue only seven years, and consequently they expected the eighth year to be a fruitful year provided the land was sowed, without which, though the inundation of the land by the Nile might amount to the sixteen requisite cubits, there…”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Give us seed that we may live: The request for seed looks past the famine. A farmer who asks for seed expects the river to rise again, and Joseph's reading at 41:30 had set a term of seven years. Unsown land turns desolate, so the people ask for grain to plant as well as grain to eat.
Genesis 47:19
“Buy us and our land for bread - In times of famine in Hindostan, thousands of children have been sold to prevent their perishing. In the Burman empire the sale of whole families to discharge debts is very common - Ward’s Customs.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 47:20-21
The land became Pharaoh’s: Joseph acquires for Pharaoh all the land in Egypt, and the Egyptians sell their fields to eat. The people themselves are reduced to servitude across the whole country. The Hebrew as pointed reads that he moved them into the cities, and the Samaritan and Greek copies read servitude. Joseph buys a country for his king, while the sons promised Canaan hold one field and one burial cave.
Genesis 47:20
“It seems to me that censure of the Egyptians is contained also in this statement. For you would not easily find it written of the Hebrews that "the famine prevailed over them." For although it is written that "the famine prevailed over the land," nevertheless it is not written that famine prevailed over Jacob or his sons, as it is said of the Egyptians, that "the famine prevailed over them." For although famine should come also to the just, nevertheless it does not prevail over them.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.3patristic
reduced the people to servitude: Egypt becomes a land where every farmer serves the king. Exodus 20:2 calls it the house of slavery, and Israel will learn that name from inside it. Leviticus 25:23 answers with a law that no field in Israel is sold for ever, for the land belongs to the LORD.
Genesis 47:21
“And as for the people, he removed them to cities - It is very likely that Joseph was influenced by no political motive in removing the people to the cities, but merely by a motive of humanity and prudence. As the corn was laid up in the cities he found it more convenient to bring them to the place where they might be conveniently fed; each being within the reach of an easy distribution.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 47:22-24
the priests’ portion of the land: Pharaoh feeds his priests from the royal stores, and their land stays theirs. Adam Clarke calls this the earliest state-supported religion on record. Origen set it beside Israel, where the LORD gives the priests no land and tells them He is their portion. Egypt renders a fifth to the throne, and Israel will render a tenth to God.
Genesis 47:22
“The land of the priests bought he not - From this verse it is natural to infer that whatever the religion of Egypt was, it was established by law and supported by the state. Hence when Joseph bought all the lands of the Egyptians for Pharaoh, he bought not the land of the priests, for that was a portion assigned them by Pharaoh; and they did eat - did live on, that portion. This is the earliest account we have of an established religion supported by the state.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
here is seed for you to sow in the land: The seed comes as soon as the sale is spoken. The people asked for it at verse 19, and Joseph grants it in the same breath as the purchase. Pharaoh gains land that is farmed, and the farmers gain a harvest.
Genesis 47:23
“I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh - It fully appears that the kingdom of Egypt was previously to the time of Joseph a very limited monarchy. The king had his estates; the priests had their lands; and the common people their patrimony independently of both.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
you are to give a fifth of it to Pharaoh: A fifth is the same share Joseph set aside in the years of plenty at 41:34. The rate that stored grain for the famine becomes the rent after it. The farmer keeps four parts in five.
Genesis 47:24
“Ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh - This is precisely the case in Hindostan; the king has the fifth part of all the crops.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 47:24
“Now, if you please, let us compare also the Egyptian people with the Israelite people.For it is said subsequently that after the famine and bondage the Egyptian people should offer a fifth part to Pharaoh. But on the contrary the Israelite people offer tithes to the priests. Behold also in this that the divine Scripture is supported by remarkable reasonableness. See the Egyptian people weighing out contributions with the number five; for the five senses in the body are designated, which carnal people serve; for the Egyptians always submit to things visible and corporal.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.6patristic
Genesis 47:25-26
The people who have just sold themselves call Joseph their deliverer. They say he has saved their lives, and they ask for favor in his eyes. Origen and Matthew Henry read Joseph here as a figure of Christ, the one man holding bread, buying a people for his lord and giving them back seed for the field. The New Testament never names Joseph a type, so the reading is theirs.
Genesis 47:25
“And they said, thou hast saved our lives,.... Preserved them from death through famine, by laying up stores of corn, which he had sold out to them for their money, cattle, and land, or otherwise they must have perished, they and theirs, and this favour they thankfully acknowledge: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants; signifying, that they esteemed it a great favour to be so on the foot of the bargain made with them, and they desired a continuance in it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 47:25
“Note, There is good reason that the Saviour of our lives should be the Master of our lives. "Thou hast saved us; do what thou wilt with us." IV. The reservation he made in favour of the priests.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
it is in effect in the land of Egypt to this day: To this day marks the writer's own time, when the law still stood in Egypt. The exemption for the priests' land repeats verse 22 as the closing term of the statute. Joseph's law outlived Joseph.
Genesis 47:26
“And Joseph made it a law - That the people should hold their land from the king, and give him the fifth part of the produce as a yearly tax. Beyond this it appears the king had no farther demands. The whole of this conduct of Joseph has been as strongly censured by some as applauded by others. It is natural for men to run into extremes in attacking or defending any position.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 47:26
Indeed, do you wish to know what the difference is between the priests of God and the priests of Pharaoh? Pharaoh grants lands to his priests. The Lord, on the other hand, does not grant his priests a portion in the land but says to them: "I am your portion."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.5patristic
Genesis 47:26
“If afterwards the Egyptians thought it hard to pay so great a duty to the king out of their lands, they must remember, not only how just, but how kind, the first imposing of it was. They might thankfully pay a fifth where all was due. It is observable how faithful Joseph was to him that appointed him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Do Not Bury Me in Egypt
They acquired property there: Egypt has just sold its fields and its freedom. Israel acquires property in Goshen and becomes fruitful and numerous, the blessing of Genesis 1:28 falling on one family. Exodus 1:7 opens on this same sentence, and by Exodus 1:11 the positions have reversed. God had told Abraham at Genesis 15:13 that his offspring would be strangers in a land not their own.
Genesis 47:27
Let us see what Moses says after these words: "And Israel dwelt," the text says, "in Egypt, in the land of Goshen." Now "Goshen" means "proximity" or "nearness."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.7patristic
Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: Jacob lives seventeen years in Egypt. Joseph was seventeen when his father sent him out to his brothers at Genesis 37:2. John Wesley set the two numbers together, seventeen years Jacob nourished Joseph, and now seventeen years Joseph nourished Jacob. The whole 147 is counted out here, the way Genesis closes an account.
Genesis 47:28
“Jacob lived seventeen years after he came into Egypt, far beyond his own expectation: seventeen years he had nourished Joseph, for so old he was when he was sold from him, and now, seventeen years Joseph nourished him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 47:29-30
the time drew near for Israel to die: Jacob asks for the oath in the form Abraham used at Genesis 24:2, a hand under the thigh. Abraham used it to send for a wife from his own kindred, and Jacob uses it over his grave. His burial is to be in Canaan with his fathers. John Wesley read the request as faith, a hold kept on the land of promise until his descendants should own it.
Genesis 47:29
“He would be buried in Canaan, not because Canaan was the land of his nativity, but in faith, because it was the land of promise, which he desired thus, as it were to keep possession of 'till the time should come when his posterity should be masters of it: and because it was a type of heaven, that better country, which he was in expectation of.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
when I lie down with my fathers: Lying down with the fathers means death and burial among a man's own people. Joseph gives his word at once, and Jacob still asks for the oath in the next verse. The promise is kept at 50:13, in the cave of Machpelah.
Genesis 47:30
“I will lie with my fathers - As God had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his posterity, Jacob considered it as a consecrated place, under the particular superintendence and blessing of God: and as Sarah, Abraham, and Isaac were interred near to Hebron, he in all probability wished to lie, not only in the same place, but in the same grave; and it is not likely that he would have been solicitous about this, had he not considered that promised land as being a type of the rest that remains for the people of God, and a…”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Israel bowed in worship: Jacob asks Joseph to swear, Joseph swears, and Israel worships at the head of his bed. The Hebrew here turns on three consonants pointed as either bed or staff. Jerome read a bed, with Jacob worshipping God at its head, and the Greek Old Testament read a staff, which Hebrews 11:21 follows. Israel worships as soon as the oath is sworn.
Genesis 47:31
“And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head - Jacob was now both old and feeble, and we may suppose him reclined on his couch when Joseph came; that he afterwards sat up erect (see Gen 48:2) while conversing with his son, and receiving his oath and promise; and that when this was finished he bowed himself upon the bed’s head - exhausted with the conversation, he again reclined himself on his bed as before. This seems to be the simple meaning, which the text unconnected with any religious system or prejudice, naturally proposes.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 47:31
“Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head--Oriental beds are mere mats, having no head, and the translation should be "the top of his staff," as the apostle renders it (Heb 11:21).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, an audience at court and then the record of a famine policy carried to its end, as Clarke classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The four stages of the sale | The famine takes the money at verses 14 and 15, the livestock at verses 16 and 17, the land at verses 18 to 20, and the people themselves at verse 21, in that order and one stage per year of failing crops. Adam Clarke reads the second stage as a mercy on both sides, since the herds are fed and the people are fed along with them, and the Egyptians themselves ask at verse 19 to be bought with their land.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 47:16. | Genesis 47:14, Genesis 47:16, Genesis 47:19, Genesis 47:20, Genesis 47:21 |
| A fifth to Pharaoh, and the priests' land untouched | Verse 24 sets the rate at a fifth of the produce for the throne and four parts for the grower, and verse 22 exempts the priests, whose land is not sold because Pharaoh fed them. Adam Clarke calls that arrangement the earliest state-supported religion on record, and Origen set it beside Israel, where the LORD Himself is the priests' portion. Verse 26 says the law was still in force when Genesis was written.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 47:22. | Genesis 47:22, Genesis 47:24, Genesis 47:26 |
| Few and hard | Pharaoh asks the old man his age at verse 8 and Jacob answers at verse 9 with a hundred and thirty years, calls them few and hard, and says they have not reached the years of his fathers. Adam Clarke notes that the Hebrew word behind his travels is the word for living as a foreigner, and Hebrews 11:13 uses the same description of these men, strangers and exiles on the earth.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 47:9. | Genesis 47:8, Genesis 47:9 |
| Seventeen years, and seventeen years | Verse 28 gives Jacob seventeen years in Egypt, and 37:2 had Joseph at seventeen when his father sent him out to his brothers. John Wesley sets the two numbers together, seventeen years in which Jacob nourished Joseph and seventeen in which Joseph nourished Jacob, and the verse adds the whole count of his life, a hundred and forty-seven years.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Genesis 47:28. | Genesis 47:28, Genesis 37:2 |
The debated concept
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
What Joseph did to Egypt has been argued over since the fathers. The text reports that he took the money, the herds, the fields and the persons of the Egyptians for Pharaoh, and that the people themselves asked for it and afterwards called him their deliverer at verse 25. Adam Clarke reads each stage as a mercy in a famine of seven years, with seed given back and four parts of the harvest left to the grower. Others read the chapter as the record of how a free peasantry became tenants of the crown, which is what verses 20 and 21 describe. Genesis gives the policy, the people's own words and the law that outlasted it, and passes no verdict.
Verse 21 carries a textual question of its own. The pointed Hebrew has the people moved into the cities, and the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek read that he made servants of them, which follows the sale of verses 19 and 20. The two readings turn on the same consonants.
Verse 31 carries the other one. The Hebrew consonants can be pointed as bed or as staff, and Jerome read a bed, with Jacob worshipping God at its head. The Greek Old Testament read a staff, and Hebrews 11:21 follows the Greek, saying that Jacob worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. Both readings describe the same act of worship by a dying man.
How the rest of Scripture reads this chapter
Hebrews 7:7 supplies the rule that makes verse 7 remarkable, that the lesser is blessed by the greater. Hebrews 11:13 takes up Jacob's own word at verse 9 and calls these men strangers and exiles on the earth. Hebrews 11:21 quotes the end of the chapter through the Greek reading of verse 31.
The divine connection
Verse 27 is the fulfilment of two promises in one sentence. God had told Jacob at 46:3 that He would make him a great nation in Egypt, and the words used of Israel in Goshen are the words of the blessing given at 1:28 and repeated to Noah. Exodus 1:7 opens on the same sentence and carries it to the multitude that the next king of Egypt fears.
God had also told Abram at 15:13 that his descendants would be strangers in a land not their own. Chapter 47 shows what that looked like in the first generation: welcome, fed, settled on good ground, and holding it by a king's favour rather than by right.
Keep studying
Studies1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 47:7.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Genesis.