Jacob in Egypt
Jacob in Egypt
Before the Pharaoh
Then Joseph went and told the pharaoh, “My father and brothers have arrived from the land of Canaan with their flocks, their herds, and everything they own. They’re in the land of Goshen.”
He chose five of his brothers and presented them before the pharaoh. The pharaoh asked them, “What’s your occupation?”
“Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were. We’ve come to stay in this land a while because the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. There’s no pasture for your servant’s flocks. So please allow your servants to live in the land of Goshen.”
The pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and brothers have come to you. Now, the land of Egypt lies before you. Settle your father and brothers in the best of the land. They may settle in Goshen. And if you know of any who are particularly capable, put them in charge of my livestock.”
Image by Sandeep Kr Yadav from Unsplash
The pharaoh had invited Joseph’s family to Egypt, and courtesy required Joseph to inform him his guests had arrived.1 Joseph chose five of his brothers to represent Jacob’s household before the pharaoh. Their role included requesting to remain in Goshen. They had received permission to move to Egypt, but they still needed permission on where to settle.
As Joseph predicted, the pharaoh asked his brothers about their occupation.2 They affirmed they were shepherds, a trade they inherited from their ancestors. They had brought their flocks and herds with them and needed only land suitable for pasture. This served as the basis for their request to settle in Goshen in the Nile delta.
The pharaoh responded with a royal decree addressed to his servant Joseph. He commanded Joseph to settle his family “in the best of the land.” After his interview with Joseph’s brothers, the pharaoh agreed Goshen would best meet their needs. Finally, if any of Joseph’s relatives showed notable talent, the pharaoh commanded Joseph to promote them to oversee the royal livestock.
Jacob’s Blessing
Then Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and presented him to the pharaoh. And Jacob blessed the pharaoh. The pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”
“My pilgrimage has lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My life has been short and miserable, and I haven’t reached the ages my fathers attained during their pilgrimages.”
Then Jacob blessed the pharaoh and left his presence.
After securing permission for his family to reside in Goshen, Joseph brought in his father and presented him to the pharaoh. Joseph’s brothers appeared as refugees petitioning for clemency, referring to themselves as “your servants.” Jacob dispensed with all such formalities. God’s chosen representative stood on equal footing with the worldly ruler.
Surprised by the elderly patriarch, the pharaoh asked Jacob’s age. Joseph was only about forty, so the pharaoh certainly wouldn’t have expected Jacob to be 130! Yet Jacob called his life “short and miserable,” characterized by conflict with his brother, father, uncle, wives, and most of his sons. He had spent over twenty years in mourning for his favorite son. His long lifespan in relation to most of humanity didn’t compare to Isaac’s 180 years, Abraham’s 175 years, or Terah’s 205 years.3
Yet surrounding this bleak description of Jacob’s life, twice “Jacob blessed the pharaoh.” Jacob had lived in pursuit of God’s blessing for his own benefit. Though he had obtained it, his misunderstanding of its purpose made his life miserable. That didn’t lessen God’s determination to bless others through Jacob and his descendants.
The repetition of this blessing marks it as the main theme.4 In the next three chapters, Jacob blesses the pharaoh, Ephraim and Manasseh, and all twelve of his sons. With Jacob’s family reunited, the fulfillment of God’s covenant blessing takes center stage. At the end of his life, Jacob finally understood his God-given purpose.5
Wasting Away
As the pharaoh commanded, Joseph gave his father and brothers a possession in the best of the land of Egypt, the land of Rameses, and settled them there. He provided food for his father, brothers, and everyone in his father’s household, down to the smallest child.
But in all the land the people had no food because the famine was so severe. In the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan, they wasted away because of the famine.
Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay
Joseph obeyed the pharaoh’s command and settled his family in “the land of Rameses.” Rameses may refer to the same area as Goshen, but more likely it refers to a smaller area within Goshen where the later Israelites built the city of Rameses.6Exodus 1:11.[/efn_note[ Joseph’s high position allowed him to provide for both his own household and his father’s.
While God had protected those associated with his covenant people, most of the people in Egypt and Canaan suffered greatly. Over two years of famine had decimated the food supply, and practically nothing remained outside of the reserves Joseph had stored. But that grain belonged to the pharaoh. Joseph couldn’t just give it away.
With the length and severity of the famine, the people exhausted their normal resources. The pharaoh had charged Joseph with distributing the grain, but doing so fairly became a greater and greater challenge.
Sustained
Joseph gathered all the money that could be found in Egypt and Canaan in exchange for the grain the people bought. He brought the money to the pharaoh’s palace.
When the people in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan ran out of money, all the Egyptians came to Joseph. “Give us food. Why should we die in front of you just because our money is gone?”
“Then bring your livestock,” Joseph responded. “If your money is gone, I’ll give you food in exchange for your livestock.”
So they brought Joseph their livestock, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for their horses, flocks, herds, and donkeys. For that year, he sustained them with food in exchange for all their livestock.
Image by Soledad Lorieto from Unsplash
As the famine reached its halfway point, the people of Egypt and Canaan ran out of money to buy grain. They had scraped together every piece of silver they could find and brought it to Joseph, who placed it in the palace treasury. Joseph faithfully served the pharaoh and didn’t keep any of the profit from the grain for himself.
Desperate, the people approached Joseph and complained they would die if he made them pay money for the grain. But Joseph had a plan ready for when that time came. He told the people to bring their livestock as payment instead. By buying the livestock on the pharaoh’s behalf, Joseph sustained the people for another year.
But Joseph’s brilliant plan didn’t just save the people’s lives. It saved the lives of the livestock as well.7 Once the animals belonged to the pharaoh, it became his responsibility to feed them. And he had the grain to do so. Had all the animals died of starvation or been killed as food by their starving owners, Egypt would have struggled to recover even after the famine. But because the animals survived, the Egyptians could eventually buy them back, easing the recovery.
Buying the Land
That year ended, and they came to Joseph the next year. “We can’t hide from my lord that our money is gone. The livestock belong to my lord. Nothing remains except ourselves and our land. Why watch us die? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we will serve the pharaoh. Give us seed so we’ll live, not die, and the land won’t become desolate.”
So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for the pharaoh. All the Egyptians sold their fields because the famine was so severe. Then the land belonged to the pharaoh. Joseph made the people servants from one end of Egypt to the other. The only land he didn’t buy belonged to the priests because they received an allotment from the pharaoh. They ate from the allotment the pharaoh gave them, so they didn’t have to sell their land.
Joseph told the people, “Look! Today I have bought you and your land for the pharaoh. Here is seed for you. Go plant the fields! When the harvest comes in, you must give a fifth to the pharaoh. Four-fifths will belong to you as seed for the field and as food for yourselves, your households, and your little ones.”
“You’ve saved our lives!” the people said. “Favor us, my lord, and we’ll serve the pharaoh!”
Joseph established a law that stands to this day in the land of Egypt: a fifth belongs to the pharaoh. Only the land of the priests didn’t belong to the pharaoh.
The year after Joseph bought the Egyptians’ livestock, the Egyptians again ran out of grain. The crops still refused to grow, and the relentless famine continued. So the Egyptians returned to Joseph to beg for mercy. But this time, they came with a proposal of their own.
All the Egyptians had left to sell was their land. Yet without land, they would have no way to support themselves in the future. And with no one to irrigate the land, it would revert to desert. So they offered to sell themselves as well. They would serve the pharaoh by continuing to work the fields. The pharaoh would receive the produce but would in turn take responsibility for feeding the people, just as he provided for Joseph and his other servants.
Joseph agreed. On behalf of the pharaoh, he bought all the land in Egypt except the land belonging to the priests. The priests didn’t serve the pharaoh. They served the gods. Yet because of their important position, the pharaoh gave them a regular allotment of food. This allotment sustained them through the famine, so they didn’t have to sell their land.
Having bought the rest of the land, Joseph announced the conditions under which the people would serve. Though their service is often misconstrued as slavery, the agreement between Joseph and the people explicitly limited it to working the fields. The pharaoh didn’t otherwise own them and didn’t have the right to sell them or separate them from their homes and families. On the contrary, Joseph sent them home with grain for food and seed and told them to keep 80 percent of their harvest. The pharaoh, the rightful landowner, would receive only 20 percent!
The Egyptians couldn’t have expected such a generous reply to their initial offer. No wonder they cried “You’ve saved our lives!” The 20 percent they sent to the pharaoh would safeguard them against future famines. So Joseph set up a law that still existed when Moses wrote Genesis. The law required everyone except the priests to give 20 percent of the harvest to the pharaoh.
Joseph’s Oath
Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in Goshen. They had possessions there and were fruitful and increased greatly. Jacob lived in the land of Egypt for seventeen years. So Jacob lived 147 years.
When the time for Israel to die drew near, he called for his son Joseph. “Please favor me by taking a solemn oath that you’ll treat me with true faithfulness. Please don’t bury me in Egypt! When I lie with my fathers, carry me from Egypt to bury me in their tomb.”
“I will do as you say,” Joseph replied.
“Swear an oath to me!”
So Joseph swore an oath. Then Israel bowed down at the head of his bed.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Because of Joseph’s efforts, the Egyptians and Joseph’s family survived the seven-year famine. Jacob and his household continued to live in Goshen with their livestock and other possessions. They prospered and quickly grew in number. With the end of the famine, Genesis transitions to its conclusion by recording events at the end of Jacob’s life. Yet even in its conclusion, Genesis is a book of beginnings looking constantly to the future.
Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen years, until he died at the age of 147. As he felt his time draw near, he called his children to him for a series of blessings and final instructions. First, he summoned Joseph to assign him a special task. Jacob didn’t want his sons to bury him in Egypt. He instructed Joseph to return him to Canaan to bury him with Abraham and Isaac in the cave in Machpelah.8 Jacob considered this a solemn issue of great importance, so he made Joseph swear an oath.
Though Jacob’s sons had reconciled and his family lived in peace and safety, one major problem remained. They lived outside the promised land. God had warned Abraham his descendants would suffer oppression in a foreign land for four hundred years. But God promised to rescue them and return them to Canaan to take possession of it.9 Jacob trusted God’s promise. He focused on the future and insisted on being buried in the land that would one day belong to his descendants. Having secured Joseph’s oath, Jacob worshiped God by bowing down on his bed.10
- See The Pharaoh’s Gratitude.
- See Goshen.
- Genesis 11:32; 25:7; 35:28.
- See Inclusio.
- Genesis 22:18.
- See Saving Creation.
- See A Burial Site; Abraham’s Burial; Isaac’s Death.
- See The Exodus Foretold.
- In referring to this event, Hebrews 11:21 follows the translation of the Greek Septuagint, which reads the Hebrew word mittah (“bed”) as matteh (“staff”).