Genesis 47–48

47Then Joseph ^awent 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 ^bthe land of Goshen.” ²And he took five men from among his brothers and ^cpresented them to Pharaoh. ³Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, ^d“What is your occupation?”

And they said to Pharaoh, ^e“Your servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers.” ⁴And they said to Pharaoh, ^f“We have come to dwell in the land, because your servants have no pasture for their flocks, ^gfor the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants ^hdwell in the land of Goshen.”

⁵Then Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. ⁶ⁱThe land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land; let them dwell ^jin the land of Goshen. And if you know any competent men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock.”

⁷Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob ^kblessed Pharaoh. ⁸Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?”

⁹And Jacob said to Pharaoh, ^l“The days of the years of my ¹pilgrimage are ^mone hundred and thirty years; ⁿfew and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and ^othey have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” ¹⁰So Jacob ^pblessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

¹¹And 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 ^qRameses, ^ras Pharaoh had commanded. ¹²Then Joseph provided ^shis father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with bread, according to the number in their families.

Joseph Deals with the Famine

¹³Now there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, ^tso that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. ^14uAnd 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.

¹⁵So 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 ^vwhy should we die in your presence? For the money has failed.”

¹⁶Then Joseph said, “Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your livestock, if the money is gone.” ¹⁷So 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 ²fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year.

¹⁸When 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. 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 of Pharaoh; give us seed, that we may ^wlive and not die, that the land may not be desolate.”

²⁰Then Joseph ^xbought 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. ²¹And as for the people, he ³moved them into the cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end. ^22yOnly the land of the ^zpriests 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.

²³Then 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. ²⁴And 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.”

²⁵So they said, “You have saved ^aour lives; let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.” ²⁶And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have one-fifth, ^bexcept for the land of the priests only, which did not become Pharaoh’s.

Joseph’s Vow to Jacob

²⁷So Israel ^cdwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions there and ^dgrew and multiplied exceedingly. ²⁸And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the length of Jacob’s life was one hundred and forty-seven years. ²⁹When the time ^edrew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “Now if I have found favor in your sight, please ^fput your hand under my thigh, and ^gdeal kindly and truly with me. ^hPlease do not bury me in Egypt, ³⁰but ⁱlet me lie with my fathers; you shall carry me out of Egypt and ^jbury me in their burial place.”

And he said, “I will do as you have said.”

³¹Then he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him. So ^kIsrael bowed himself on the head of the bed.

Jacob Blesses Joseph’s Sons

48Now it came to pass after these things that Joseph was told, “Indeed your father is sick”; and he took with him his two sons, ^aManasseh and Ephraim. ²And Jacob was told, “Look, your son Joseph is coming to you”; and Israel ¹strengthened himself and sat up on the bed. ³Then Jacob said to Joseph: “God ^bAlmighty appeared to me at ^cLuz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, ⁴and said to me, ‘Behold, I will ^dmake you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a multitude of people, and ^egive this land to your descendants after you ^fas an everlasting possession.’ ⁵And now your ^gtwo sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. ⁶Your ²offspring ³whom you beget after them shall be yours; they will be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. ⁷But as for me, when I came from Padan, ^hRachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”

⁸Then Israel saw Joseph’s sons, and said, “Who are these?”

⁹Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me in this place.”

And he said, “Please bring them to me, and ⁱI will bless them.” ¹⁰Now ^jthe eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. Then Joseph brought them near him, and he ^kkissed them and embraced them. ¹¹And Israel said to Joseph, ^l“I had not thought to see your face; but in fact, God has also shown me your offspring!”

¹²So Joseph brought them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth. ¹³And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him. ¹⁴Then Israel stretched out his right hand and ^mlaid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, ⁿguiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the ^ofirstborn. ¹⁵And ^phe blessed Joseph, and said:

“God, ^qbefore whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,

The God who has fed me all my life long to this day,

¹⁶The Angel ^rwho has redeemed me from all evil,

Bless the lads;

Let ^smy name be named upon them,

And the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;

And let them ^tgrow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

¹⁷Now when Joseph saw that his father ^ulaid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. ¹⁸And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”

¹⁹But his father refused and said, ^v“I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly ^whis younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”

²⁰So he blessed them that day, saying, ^x“By you Israel will bless, saying, ‘May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh!’ ” And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

²¹Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am dying, but ^yGod will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. ²²Moreover ^zI have given to you one ⁴portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand ^aof the Amorite with my sword and my bow.”