Context & Key Themes
Genesis 47 has two distinct movements: the formal presentation of Jacob and his family to Pharaoh, and the account of Joseph’s administration of Egypt through the remaining years of famine. Jacob blesses Pharaoh twice — a remarkable detail given the respective positions of the two men. The themes are the alien dwelling in the land of promise, the blessing that flows through the covenant line even into foreign courts, and Jacob’s final years lived in the knowledge that Joseph is alive.
Key Verses
“By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.” — Hebrews 11:21 (anticipating what begins here)
“Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.” — Genesis 47:10
Summary
Joseph goes to Pharaoh and tells him his father and brothers have come from Canaan with their flocks and herds and all they have. He presents five of his brothers before Pharaoh, who asks their occupation. They answer: your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were. They ask to dwell in Goshen. Pharaoh tells Joseph: the land of Egypt is before you — settle your father and brothers in the best of the land, in Goshen. If you know any capable men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.
Joseph brings his father Jacob in and presents him before Pharaoh. Pharaoh asks Jacob: how many are the days of the years of your life? Jacob answers: the days of the years of my sojourning are 130 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 sojourning. Then Jacob blesses Pharaoh and goes out.
Joseph settles his father and brothers in Egypt in the best of the land — in Goshen — as Pharaoh commanded. He provides them with food according to the number of their dependents.
The famine is very severe. The land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languish because of it. Joseph gathers up all the money in Egypt and Canaan in exchange for grain and brings it into Pharaoh’s house. When the money is gone the Egyptians come and ask for food. Joseph gives them grain in exchange for their livestock — horses, flocks, herds, donkeys. When that year ends they come again: our money is spent, our livestock are yours. Nothing is left but our bodies and our land. They offer themselves and their land in exchange for seed and food. Joseph buys all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. He moves the population to the cities. Only the land of the priests he does not buy. He gives the people seed and establishes a law: a fifth of the harvest shall belong to Pharaoh. The people say: you have saved our lives. We will be servants to Pharaoh.
Israel lives in Egypt in the land of Goshen. They gain possessions and are fruitful and multiply greatly. Jacob lives in Egypt seventeen years, until he is 147. When his time to die draws near he calls Joseph and asks him to swear he will not bury him in Egypt but carry him back to be buried with his fathers. Joseph swears. Jacob bows in worship over the head of his staff.
Reflection
Jacob blessing Pharaoh is quietly extraordinary. Pharaoh is the most powerful man in the ancient world. Jacob is a 130-year-old shepherd refugee asking permission to graze his flocks on someone else’s land. And yet Jacob blesses Pharaoh — twice, at the opening and closing of the audience. The lesser is blessed by the greater, Hebrews will say, when discussing Melchizedek and Abraham. Here the greater blesses the lesser, because the covenant blessing that flows through Jacob is larger than any earthly throne. Jacob knows what he carries even when he has no earthly power left.
Jacob’s summary of his life — few and evil have been the days of my years — is honest to the point of being stark. One hundred and thirty years of sojourning, loss, deception given and received, grief for Joseph, exile. He does not romanticize it. But the man standing in Pharaoh’s court blessing a king is also the man who wrestled with God and held on until daybreak and came away with a new name. The years were hard. So was the man. And he is still standing.
Joseph’s administration of the famine is efficient and comprehensive — money, then livestock, then land, then labor. Modern readers sometimes read it critically as the consolidation of Pharaoh’s power at the population’s expense. But in the ancient context it is presented as salvation — Joseph gives them seed, he feeds them through the famine, the people themselves say: you have saved our lives. The same man who was sold into Egypt as a slave ends up administering the salvation of Egypt and Canaan from within its center of power. God’s sense of irony is not subtle.