Gen 47.1-31 tells us that Jacob meets Pharaoh and he is given the best of the land; Jacob blesses Pharaoh; Joseph deals with the famine; Jacob anticipates his death in Egypt and makes Joseph swear that he will bury him in Canaan. At the time Egypt had what was called “nomes” which were like counties, and each was ruled by a warlord. THey might support Pharaoh or maybe not. All the nomes will come under one ruling authority under Pharaoh, but how did this happen? They were in ear during the famine and in order to receive food from the royal treasuries they had to swear allegiance to Pharaoh, who is Amenemhat III. Keep this in mind as we read through this chapter.
v 1…Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh (Amenemhat III) and said, “My father and my brothers and their flocks and their herds and all that they have have come out of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen (the Faiyum).
v 2…And he took five men from among his brothers (who they were is not known), and presented them to Pharoah (to meet and converse with him).
v 3…Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” So they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers.”
v 4…And they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land; for there is no pasture for your servant’s flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, please let your servants live in the land of Goshen where they already were).”
v 5…Then Pharaoh said to Joseph (who was present), “Your father and your brothers have come to you.
v 6…The land of Egypt is at your disposal; settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land, let them live in the land of Goshen; and if you know any capable men among them, then put them in charge of my livestock (the Torah does not say whether they accepted this proposal or not; Pharaoh had royal herds).”
v 7…Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh (a greeting of peace and welfare which was customary).
v 8…And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many years have you lived (perhaps because of his gray hair and beard)?”
v 9…So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning (Jacob had “baggage” and he was to settle in Canaan and build a nation; he knew his life was not going the way he thought it should).”
v 10…And Jacob blessed Pharaoh (as he departed) and went out from his presence.
v 11…So Joseph settled his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession (Hebrew “achuzah” meaning ancestral holdings; same word used in Num 32.22) in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses (same as Goshen), as Pharaoh had ordered.
v 12…And Joseph provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with bread (“lechem” or food) according to their little ones (the individual needs of the household).
v 13…Now there was no food in all the land (in the markets, but the granaries were full), because the famine was so severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of famine.
v 14…And Joseph gathered all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the grain which they bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house (a treasury; little money was left by then; no other countries are mentioned because the distance was too far to go to Egypt, or the famine was not as severe in other places; God is at work because egypt was to have great wealth because later this wealth is what Israel will take with them when they depart Egypt).
v 15…And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, “Give us food (don’t sell it to us), for why should we die in your presence? For our money is gone.”
v 16…Then Joseph said, “Give up your livestock, and I will give you food (in exchange) for your livestock, since your money is gone (this was also part of Joseph’s plan to make the Egyptians totally dependant on Pharaoh).
v 17…So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for their horses and the flocks and the herds and the donkeys, and he fed them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year.
v 18…And when that year was ended (probably year six), they came to him the next year (year seven) and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent, and the cattle are my lord’s. There is nothing left for my lord except our bodies and our lands.
v 19…Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. So give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate (through lack of cultivation).”
v 20…So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh for every Egyptian sold his field because the famine was severe upon them. Thus the land became Pharaoh’s (thus the nomes, or counties, were not ruled by warlords anymore, and all the land was under one authority as a united nation).
v 21…And as for the people, he removed them to the cities from one end of Egypt’s border to the other (all part of God’s plan to not reproach the Israelites later when they were removed from their homeland and were exiles and strangers).
v 22…Only the land of the priests he did not buy (not because Joseph had any real respect for them, but Joseph was going to treat this situation with tact), for the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they lived off the allotment which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not sell their land (and didn’t have to do it).
v 23…Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have today bought you and your land for Pharaoh; now here is seed for you, and you may sow the land (remain in the land and cultivate it as agreed).
v 24…And at the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own for seeding the field (to plant for future crops) and for your food and for those in your households and food for your little ones (this was a lenient proposal; work the land and eighty percent is yours, and twenty percent goes to Pharaoh; this is similar to Gen 41.34; usually eithy percent went to the landowner and twenty percent went to the tenant).
v 25…So they said, “You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s slaves (serfs, tenants).”
v 26…And Joseph made it a statute (a law with the consent of Pharaoh, the nobles and the people) concerning the land of Egypt to this day (time of Moses), that Pharaoh should have the fifth; only the land of the priests did not become Pharaoh’s.
v 27…Now Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in Goshen (draw near), and they acquired property in it (probably rented from Pharaoh as the people did) and were fruitful (in children) and became very numerous (as promised to Abraham; Jacob is still building a nation).
v 28…And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; so the length of Jacob’s life was one hundred and forty seven years.
v 29…When the time for Israel to die drew near (by the decline of his natural strength and God’s warning) he called his son Joseph and said to him, “Please, if I have found favor in your sight, place now your hand under my thigh (to take an oath; the thigh was an inoffensive term substituted for one considered offensively explicit; the circumcised organ) and deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Please do not bury me in Egypt (to be among the idolaters there);
v 30…but when I lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place (Machpelah).” And he said, “I will do as you have said.”
v 31…And he said, “Swear to me (because to not be buried in Egypt would look like an insult because Egypt had been so hospitable, and Pharaoh might not permit it, so Jacob put it in the form of an oath, and it would be improper for Pharaoh to force Joseph to violate it).” So he swore to him. Then Israel bowed at the head of the bed (he was siting up, and now he lays back down down and thanks God that Joseph will fulfill his request and his legacy is complete).
Gen 48.1-22 tells us that Joseph is told his father is sick and he takes his two sons; Jacob remembers God’s promise; he adopts Joseph’s two sons and contemplates his soon death; Jacob blesses Manasseh and Ephraim, with Ephraim gaining the higher blessing to the younger, a type of Yeshua; Jacob’s personal request to Joseph.
v 1…Now it came about after these things that Joseph was told, “Behold (take note), your father is sick.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him ( so that Jacob could bless them before he died).
v 2…When it was told to Jacob, “Behold (see), your son Joseph has come to you.” Israel collected his strength and sat up in bed (there are two names here; Jacob is his fleshly, earthly name, and Israel is his spiritual, heavenly name; when he saw that Joseph had come, he went from the flesh to the spirit and will begin to prophesy).
v 3…Then Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty (El Shaddai) appeared to me at Luz (Bethel) in the land of Canaan and blessed me,
v 4…and he said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a company (Kahal) of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession (even with Israel out of the land they have an unalienable right to it as their ancestral possession).’
v 5…And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh (it is quite intentional that he mentions the younger before the older-v 19) shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are (the birthright is going to be transferred to Joseph when he formally makes Ephraim and Manasseh equal to his other sons by adoption, and in doing this, Joseph has a double inheritance when the other sons only have one).
v 6…But your offspring that have been born after them shall be yours (not considered mine); they shall be called by the names of their brothers in their inheritance (included in the tribe of Ephraim or Manasseh).
v 7…Now as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow (his mother died too soon and he could not have any more children with her as his only lawful wife; so Joseph, his first-born and due the double portion, took the two grandsons of Rachel as his own put them on the same level as tribes, and that was the reason he took Joseph’s sons as his own), in the land of Canaan on the journey, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem (she could not be kept so long as to carry her to Machpelah and burying her there with the others, but she was buried in the land of Canaan).
v 8…When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Whose are these (he couldn’t see well-v 10)?”
v 9…And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons whom God has given me here.” So he said, “Bring them to me, please that I may bless them now that he knew who they were for sure).”
v 10…Now the eyes of Israel were dim from age that he could not see. Then Joseph brought them close to him, and kissed them and embraced them.
v 11…And Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face and behold, God has let me see your children as well.”
v 12…Then Joseph took them from his knees (from between the knees of Jacob when he embraced them, putting them in position for his blessing), and bowed with his face to the ground (before his father in respect).
v 13…And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand towards Israel’s left, and Manasseh with his left hand towards Israel’s right, and brought them close to him (Jacob).
v 14…But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim (knowing who was who now, he was not going to do what his father Isaac, who also could not see well, by placing his hand on Jacob when Jacob stood in Esau’s place; signifying the greater blessing because the right hand was seen as the strongest), who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, crossing his hands, though Manasseh was the first-born (this formed an “X” which was the letter “Tav” in Hebrew. This letter means “sign of the covenant” and it alludes to the cross of Yeshua; Adam was the first-born, and Yeshua is the second, or younger Adam, and the covenant will rest on Yeshua).
v 15…And he blessed Joseph (although the blessing is not personally to Joseph, but to his children) and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked (believed in), the God who has been my shepherd (king) all my life to this day,
v 16…the angel who has redeemed me from all evil (Esau, Laban, others), bless the lads (Ephraim and Manasseh, both about twenty years old; the same angel that has helped Jacob, so may he help them), and may my name live on (be coupled with) in them; and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth (land of Canaan; Moses numbered 85,200 of them fit for war-Num 26.34).”
v 17…When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him (to see the younger preferred over the older) and he grasped his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.
v 18…And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the first-born. Place your right hand on his head.”
v 19…But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know (that he is the first-born); he also shall, become a people and he also shall be great. However, his younger brother shall become greater (in prestige and spiritual greatness; Joshua will come from Ephraim; when the Mishkan was started, Ephraim’s offering came before Manasseh’s; when the tribes were divided into their formations, Manasseh was assigned to the camp led by Ephraim; the entire ten northern tribes were called Ephraim) than he, and his descendants shall become the fullness of the nations (Hebrew “m’lo ha goyim” and this concept is seen in Rom 9.24-26 and 11. 25-26).”
v 20…And he blessed them that day saying, “By you Israel shall pronounce a blessing, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh!” Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.
v 21…Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold (see), I am about to die, but God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers (to be buried, etc).
v 22…And I give you one shoulder (Hebrew “shechem”) more than your brothers (the double portion and father of two tribes), which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and bow (this refers to the plot of ground purchased by Jacob from Hamor at Shehem in Gen 33.19; evidently, this piece of ground had fallen into the hands of the Amorites and had been retaken from them by force; Jacob’s military prowess is not mentioned anywhere else; Joseph will be taken to the land and buried in Shechem).”
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