1And Joseph came and told Pharaoh and said, “My father and my brothers and their flock and their oxen and all that they own have come from the land of Canaan, and here they are in the land of Goshen.”
2And he took several of his brothers, five men, and set them before Pharaoh.
3And Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your work?”
And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers,”
47:3. Your servants are shepherds. Joseph had just told them not to answer Pharaoh that they are shepherds (46:33–34), yet they go ahead and say it! Some might surmise that this seeming contradiction is the result of the combination of two sources into one story. But that is not correct. This has nothing to do with the sources that are identified in critical biblical scholarship. This is one continuous passage (all from the source known in scholarship as J). The difficulty in the brothers’ words must therefore be understood as being a part of the story itself. The brothers simply do not follow Joseph’s instructions. He has told them to say that they are cowherds, not shepherds, because Egyptians disdain shepherds; but they are not willing to misrepresent themselves in this way. Are they right? On one hand, Pharaoh does permit them to settle and offers them the best of Egypt’s land. But, on the other hand, Pharaoh stops speaking directly to them. He switches to speaking about them in the third person to Joseph. And he offers to have some of them serve as officers over his cattle even though they have just said they are shepherds, not cattlemen.
4and they said to Pharaoh, “We came to reside in the land because there’s no pasture for your servants’ flock because the famine is heavy in the land of Canaan. And now may your servants live in the land of Goshen.”
5And Pharaoh said to Joseph, saying, “Your father and your brothers have come to you.
6The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them live in the land of Goshen. And if you know—and if there are among them—worthy men, then you shall make them livestock officers over those that I have.”
7And Joseph brought Jacob, his father, and stood him in front of Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
8And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?”
9And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my residences are a hundred thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and bad, and they haven’t attained the days of the years of my fathers’ lives, in the days of their residences.”
47:9. few and bad, and … haven’t attained. Jacob is critical of his life, in itself and in comparison with Abraham’s and Isaac’s lives. This is consistent with the telling of the story until now, which has not excused or sanitized Jacob the way some Sunday schools, early commentaries, and modern interpreters do. The biblical writers seem to have been quite content to leave their heroes imperfect. Why? Why even conceive of such a story? Perhaps the author thus pointed to deception in the world and said, “It comes back.” Or perhaps the author conceived it in literary protest against the ancient Near Eastern practice of glorifying national heroes. As has frequently been observed, to read the ancient reports one would think that no Near Eastern king ever lost a battle. A clear majority of the biblical authors, however, show their heroes with weaknesses and imperfections, making errors and committing offenses. For whatever purpose the author of the Jacob cycle conceived this story, the fact is that this author exhibited an historical, realistic impulse, a sense of the psychological complexity of families: sibling rivalry, fathers and sons in conflict, mothers finding channels of influence in male family structures, women torn between fathers and husbands. Further, it may be said that by not glorifying its human heroes the text glorifies its other central figure, the deity. The message here may well be that God can work through anyone: through an all-obedient man, a passive, dim-eyed patriarch, or a deceiver.
10And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from in front of Pharaoh.
11And Joseph settled 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.
12And Joseph supported his father and his brothers and all of his father’s household, bread by the number of infants.
13And there was no bread in all the land of Egypt, because the famine was very heavy, and the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.
14And Joseph collected all the silver that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the grain that they were buying, and Joseph brought the silver to Pharaoh’s house.
15And the silver came to an end from the land of Egypt and from the land of Canaan. And all of Egypt came to Joseph, saying, “Give us bread! And why should we die in front of you? Because there’s no more silver!”
16And Joseph said, “Give your livestock, and I’ll give it to you for your livestock if there’s no more silver.”
17And they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread for the horses and for the livestock of the flocks and for the livestock of the oxen and for the asses, and he sustained them with bread for all their livestock in that year.
18And that year came to an end, and they came to him in the second year and said to him, “We won’t conceal from my lord that the silver has come to an end and the cattle livestock have gone to my lord. Nothing is left in front of my lord except our body and our land.
19Why 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 to Pharaoh; and give seed so we’ll live and not die, and the land won’t be devastated.”
20And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, because Egypt, each man, sold his field, because the famine was strong on them. And the land became Pharaoh’s.
21And the people: he moved them to cities, from one edge of Egypt’s border to its other edge.
22Only the priests’ land he did not buy, because it was a law for the priests from Pharaoh, and they ate their statutory share that Pharaoh had given them. On account of this they did not sell their land.
23And Joseph said to the people, “Here, I’ve bought you and your land for Pharaoh today. Look: seed for you. And you’ll sow the land;
24and it will be, at the harvests, that you’ll give a fifth to Pharaoh, and the four parts will be yours for field seed and for you to eat and for whoever is in your households and for your infants to eat.”
25And they said, “You’ve kept us alive! Let us find favor in my lord’s eyes, and we’ll be servants to Pharaoh.”
26And Joseph set it as a law to this day on Egypt’s land: to Pharaoh the fifth. Only the land of the priests alone was not Pharaoh’s.
27And Israel lived in Egypt in the land of Goshen, and they held property in it. And they were fruitful and multiplied very much.
28And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. And Jacob’s days, the years of his life, were seven years and a hundred forty years.
29And Israel’s days to die drew close. And he called his son, Joseph, and said to him, “If I’ve found favor in your eyes, place your hand under my thigh and practice kindness and faithfulness with me: don’t bury me in Egypt.
30And I’ll lie with my fathers, and you’ll carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.”
And he said, “I’ll do according to your word.”
And he said, “Swear to me.”
And he swore to him. And Israel bowed at the head of the bed.
