Genesis 46-47    Listen

Jacob's seventy head to Egypt (Genesis 46:1-7)

1 So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
2 Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” ¶ And he said, “Here I am.”
3 ¶ So He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there.
4 I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.”
5 ¶ Then Jacob arose from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little ones, and their wives, in the carts which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
6 So they took their livestock and their goods, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to Egypt, Jacob and all his descendants with him.
7 His sons and his sons’ sons, his daughters and his sons’ daughters, and all his descendants he brought with him to Egypt.

Going to Egypt had a family significance. Abraham got into some trouble when he went there back in Genesis 12 (see notes); he ended up getting kicked out. And back in Genesis 26:2 (see notes) God instructed Isaac NOT to go into Egypt for famine relief. In this passage, however, Jacob receives specific instructions from God to go into Egypt (46:3). Notice the specific promise renewal to Jacob from God in verse 3, "So He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there." Abraham, Jacob's grandfather, saw this day coming when God told him in Genesis 15:13 (see notes), "Then He said to Abram: 'Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.'"

The accounting of those going to Egypt (Genesis 46:8-27)

8 ¶ Now these were the names of the children of Israel, Jacob and his sons, who went to Egypt: Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn.
9 The sons of Reuben were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
10 The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman.
11 The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
12 The sons of Judah were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan). The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
13 The sons of Issachar were Tola, Puvah, Job, and Shimron.
14 The sons of Zebulun were Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.
15 These were the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Padan Aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the persons, his sons and his daughters, were thirty-three.
16 ¶ The sons of Gad were Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.
17 The sons of Asher were Jimnah, Ishuah, Isui, Beriah, and Serah, their sister. And the sons of Beriah were Heber and Malchiel.
18 These were the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and these she bore to Jacob: sixteen persons.
19 ¶ The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife, were Joseph and Benjamin.
20 And to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On, bore to him.
21 The sons of Benjamin were Belah, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.
22 These were the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob: fourteen persons in all.
23 ¶ The son of Dan was Hushim.
24 The sons of Naphtali were Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.
25 These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and she bore these to Jacob: seven persons in all.
26 ¶ All the persons who went with Jacob to Egypt, who came from his body, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, were sixty-six persons in all.
27 And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two persons. All the persons of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy.

Altogether, 70 of Jacob's own descendants were in Egypt; that's counting himself. That number includes 66 (verse 26) who left Canaan with him. Add to that number Jacob himself, Joseph and his two sons; that gives us the total of 70 found in verse 27. However, you will notice from verse 26 that this number did not include "Jacob’s sons’ wives" who also went into Egypt with them. When they arrive, Judah takes the lead into Goshen under the direction of Jacob. Why Judah instead of Reuben, the oldest? A couple of reasons come to mind: (1) Judah was the one who took the leadership role in Genesis 43-44 (see notes). He brokered the deals, first with Jacob regarding Benjamin and then before Joseph. Judah is really the guy who put the deal together. (2) Reuben, Levi and Simeon (the three older brothers to Judah) had disgraced Jacob previously. Reuben had defiled his step mother in Genesis 35:22 (see notes); Simeon and Levi had murdered all the men in Shechem in Genesis 34 (see notes). As we see in Genesis 49:3-7 (see notes), Jacob never really got over those actions. Oh...one more possibility: Perhaps we're being prepared for the fact that the Messiah will arise from the tribe of Judah - King David's tribe too.

Here's a point that I find interesting about Jacob's family who went into Egypt. Two of the 70 descendants of Jacob in Egypt were half Canaanite - Simeon's son, Shaul (verse 10), and Judah's third son, Shelah. You will recall the incident related to us regarding Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38 (see notes); there's a whole chapter dedicated to how Canaanite blood was eradicated from the ancestry of King David, though not completely from the Tribe of Judah. Judah's third son, Shelah, shows up in Numbers 26:20 (see notes) after the exodus from Egypt. So, the Tribes of Israel were not completely Canaanite free at this point.

Jacob's family arrives in Egypt (Genesis 46:28-34)

28 ¶ Then he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to point out before him the way to Goshen. And they came to the land of Goshen.
29 So Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel; and he presented himself to him, and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while.
30 ¶ And Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face, because you are still alive.”
31 ¶ Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘My brothers and those of my father’s house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.
32 And the men are shepherds, for their occupation has been to feed livestock; and they have brought their flocks, their herds, and all that they have.’
33 So it shall be, when Pharaoh calls you and says, “What is your occupation?’
34 that you shall say, “Your servants’ occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

I would love to have had at least three chapters dedicated to the reunion between Jacob and Joseph in verses 29-30, but these two verses will have to do.

Now it's time to manipulate Pharaoh just a bit. We'll see in chapter 47 that the Egyptians end up dwelling in the cities of Egypt before the famine is passed. Joseph sees the need to keep his family separate from the Egyptians, so he devises a plan and shares it with his family. He'll tell Pharaoh that his family are all shepherds, and they will substantiate that claim when they appear before Pharaoh in 47:3. As a result, Pharaoh will allow them to stay intact with their families and possessions in Goshen, apart from the Egyptian populace. We see in verse 34 that keepers of cattle were the despised class of people in Egypt. Other secular Egyptian literature from that age also demonstrates that the Egyptian caste system placed shepherds at the bottom of the socioeconomic structure of Egypt. It works out nicely with the land in Goshen being among the best in Egypt and Jacob's family living there together.

God is good to Israel in Egypt (Genesis 47:1-12)

1 Then Joseph went and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brothers, their flocks and their herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan; and indeed they are in the land of Goshen.”
2 And he took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh.
3 Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” ¶ And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers.”
4 And they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to dwell in the land, because your servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.”
5 ¶ Then Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, “Your father and your brothers have come to you.
6 The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land; let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know any competent men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock.”
7 ¶ Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
8 Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?”
9 ¶ And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”
10 So Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.
11 ¶ And Joseph situated his father and his brothers, 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.
12 Then Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with bread, according to the number in their families.

Well, we see that Joseph's plan works. Pharaoh asks Joseph's family about their occupation, and they say shepherding. Pharaoh awards them the land of Goshen, and ends up letting them have charge of his cattle as well. This land was probably located just east of the Nile River up near the Mediterranean Sea. Pharaoh and Jacob hit it off from the start. Jacob even gives a blessing to Pharaoh. Incidentally, you will notice that Jacob identifies himself as being 130 years old in verse 9.

As a matter of fact, verse 9 is quite helpful in assisting us with several calculations. Here we are told that Jacob is 130 years old at this point in time. From that, we are able to do some interesting calculations regarding the age of Jacob and Isaac back in Genesis 27 (see notes) when Jacob left Isaac and Rebekah for his twenty-year stay in Haran. At that time, Jacob was 77, and Isaac was 137. See the notes on the passage in Genesis 27 to see how those ages are determined.

Now for the implementation of Joseph's plan (Genesis 47:13-31)

13 ¶ Now there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.
14 And Joseph gathered up 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.
15 ¶ So when the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For the money has failed.”
16 ¶ Then Joseph said, “Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your livestock, if the money is gone.”
17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the cattle of the herds, and for the donkeys. Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year.
18 ¶ When that year had ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is gone; my lord also has our herds of livestock. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands.
19 Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants of Pharaoh; give us seed, that we may live and not die, that the land may not be desolate.”
20 ¶ Then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for every man of the Egyptians sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. So the land became Pharaoh’s.
21 And as for the people, he moved them into the cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end.
22 Only the land of the priests he did not buy; for the priests had rations allotted to them by Pharaoh, and they ate their rations which Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their lands.
23 ¶ Then Joseph said to the people, “Indeed I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh. Look, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land.
24 And it shall come to pass in the harvest that you shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh. Four-fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and for your food, for those of your households and as food for your little ones.”
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 servants.”
26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have one-fifth, except for the land of the priests only, which did not become Pharaoh’s.
27 ¶ So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly.
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.
29 When the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “Now if I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt,
30 but let me lie with my fathers; you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” ¶ And he said, “I will do as you have said.”
31 ¶ Then he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him. So Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed.

The famine Joseph had planned for all of these years finally begins to have a very severe impact on the land. By the end of this chapter, Joseph has bought everything the Egyptians own in the name of the Pharaoh using for payment the food supply he had stockpiled. Basically, all Egyptians are slaves of the State, and Joseph moves them to the cities. Everyone in Egypt (except Jacob's family) become state civil servants working off commission. They receive as wages 80% of their profits with 20% going to Egyptian coffers (verse 24), and verse 25 indicates that the people were happy just to be allowed to live. According to verse 26, this 20% flat tax rate remained in effect for quite some time in Egypt - at least several centuries. But verse 27 tells us that Israel retained their possessions, and their possessions multiplied exceedingly. So, let's get the picture here: Virtually no one in Egypt owns anything except Jacob's people.

What is it about Abraham's boys? Isaac thought he was about to die, yet lived another 43 years. Now here's Jacob coming into Egypt...talking like he's about to die; he lives another 17 years. Now he's talking about dying again, but this time he means it. He calls for Joseph and wants a guarantee: "Please let me be buried back in Canaan." Joseph gives him that assurance. He even does so with an unusual ritual, seen in verse 29; that "hand under my thigh" is seen only one other time in scripture - Abraham and his servant in Genesis 24:2,9 (see notes). So, Jacob was 130 years old when they arrived in Egypt according to his statement to Pharaoh in Genesis 47:9 (see above). According to verse 28, Jacob dies at the ripe old age of 147.

Incidentally, you will notice in verses 22 and 26 that the priests in Egypt are supported by the State, having been allocated land and food by the government. Likewise, that became the model in Israel after the Exodus.