Genesis 47

A Possession in Egypt

Joseph presents his family to Pharaoh, who gives them the best of the land. Jacob blesses the king, Egypt sells itself to Pharaoh for bread, Israel grows in Goshen, and the dying Jacob makes Joseph swear to bury him in Canaan.

Genesis chaptersChapter 47 of 50

From Jacob’s arrival in Egypt at 130, early in the famine (verse 9; Gen. 45:6), to the approach of his death seventeen years later (verse 28). The text gives no year. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

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Background

Chapter 46 ended with Jacob’s household arriving in Goshen and Joseph telling his brothers what to say to Pharaoh (Gen. 46:28–34).

Chapter 46 ended with Jacob’s household arriving in Goshen and Joseph telling his brothers what to say to Pharaoh (Gen. 46:28–34). Chapter 47 begins with Joseph doing it. Pharaoh has told him, “only in the throne will I be greater than thou” (Gen. 41:40), and he presents five of his brothers, then his father. The famine he foretold has run two years, with five to come (Gen. 45:6). Jacob is 130 when he meets Pharaoh (verse 9) and dies at 147 (verse 28). He gives his blessings in chapters 48 and 49, and in chapter 50 he is buried in Canaan (Gen. 49:28; Gen. 50:13).

Later scripture comes back to the chapter in three ways. Hebrews counts the patriarchs among those who “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” and “desire a better country” (Heb. 11:13–16), and its picture of Jacob worshipping at his death follows the Greek form of verse 31 (Heb. 11:21). Exodus picks up where verse 27 stops: the children of Israel “were fruitful, and increased abundantly,” and then “there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph” (Ex. 1:7–8). And Moroni, reporting Ether’s prophecy, calls Joseph’s bringing his father down to Egypt a type (Ether 13:6–8).

The chapter has five parts: the brothers before Pharaoh (1–6), Jacob before Pharaoh (7–10), the settlement (11–12), what the famine did to Egypt (13–26), and Israel’s last request (27–31).

The thread through the chapter

Genesis 47 is about what Israel holds in Egypt, and two Hebrew words carry it.

Genesis 47 is about what Israel holds in Egypt, and two Hebrew words carry it. The brothers say they have come “to sojourn” (verse 4). Jacob calls his whole life “my pilgrimage,” in Hebrew megurai, “my sojournings” (verse 9). The family is given “a possession” (achuzzah) in the best of the land (verse 11) and at the end “had possessions therein” and “multiplied exceedingly” (verse 27). Meanwhile the Egyptians hand Pharaoh everything: money, cattle, land, and themselves (verses 14–20).

God had used those same two words together when He promised Abraham Canaan. In the Hebrew of Gen. 17:8, “the land wherein thou art a stranger” is eretz megurekha, “the land of thy sojournings,” and “an everlasting possession” is la’achuzzat olam. Jacob’s megurim is the first of those words: he and his fathers lived as sojourners “because they had not come into actual possession of the promised land.” Israel’s achuzzah in Egypt is the second, a real holding, but not the one promised. The blessing of fruitfulness comes true in Egypt (verse 27); the land does not. And Jacob, when he comes to die, asks to be buried in the cave Abraham bought “for a possession of a buryingplace” (Gen. 49:29–30).

Along the way the chapter shows Joseph doing what he said God sent him to do. When Egypt says, “Thou hast saved our lives” (verse 25), it uses the verb Joseph used of his own mission (Gen. 45:7; Gen. 50:20).

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–6

The brothers before Pharaoh

In plain words

Joseph went to Pharaoh and told him that his father and brothers had come from Canaan with their flocks, herds, and everything they owned, and were in Goshen. He took five of his brothers and presented them. Pharaoh asked, “What is your work?” They answered, “Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were.” They had come to stay for a time, they said, because the famine was so severe that there was no pasture for their flocks in Canaan, and they asked leave to live in Goshen. Pharaoh told Joseph, “The land of Egypt is open to you. Settle your father and brothers in the best of it, in Goshen. If you know any capable men among them, put them in charge of my own livestock.”

1 Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen.

2 And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.

3 And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers.

4 They said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

5 And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee:

6 The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle.

Context #

Goshen, the best of the land

Pharaoh grants what the brothers ask and adds to it. Joseph had told them to say that their trade was cattle, “that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen” (Gen. 46:31–34).

Pharaoh grants what the brothers ask and adds to it. Joseph had told them to say that their trade was cattle, “that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen” (Gen. 46:31–34). Here they answer as he told them (verse 3) and ask for Goshen (verse 4). Pharaoh gives them “the best of the land” and tells Joseph to put any “men of activity” among them over his own cattle (verse 6). The Hebrew is anshei chayil, men of “ability, efficiency”: capable men.

Goshen “contained pasture land” and lay “probably in the eastern part of the delta of the Nile.” The notes at Gen. 46:28 and Gen. 46:34 say more about the place, about why a family of shepherds was settled apart, and about Egyptian evidence for foreigners settled together in the delta.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Goshen”, Bible Dictionary. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.

Verses 7–10

Jacob before Pharaoh

In plain words

Joseph brought his father Jacob in and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh asked, “How old are you?” Jacob said, “The years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty. They have been few and hard, and they have not reached the years of my fathers’ sojourning.” Jacob blessed Pharaoh again and left his presence.

7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

Language #

Why Jacob blesses Pharaoh

Jacob blesses Pharaoh when he comes in and again when he leaves (verses 7, 10), and Genesis does not record his words.

Jacob blesses Pharaoh when he comes in and again when he leaves (verses 7, 10), and Genesis does not record his words. The Hebrew verb is barak, the ordinary word for “bless,” which is also the word for a greeting or a farewell: to “salute, greet, with an invocation of blessing,” whether “in meeting,” as in verse 7, or “in departing,” as in verse 10. On that reading Jacob greets the king, and parts from him, with a prayer for his good.

Some see more in it. In one reading, “more must be meant by this than the usual salutation,” and Pharaoh bowed “before Jacob as a saintly personage” and received “a formal benediction.” Genesis itself says only that Jacob blessed him, twice.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers: Genesis, Read on Bible Hub.

8 And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?

9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

Language #

“Pilgrimage” means sojourning

“Pilgrimage” is the KJV’s word for Hebrew megurim, “sojournings,” the word Genesis uses for the patriarchs’ stay in Canaan.

“Pilgrimage” is the KJV’s word for Hebrew megurim, “sojournings,” the word Genesis uses for the patriarchs’ stay in Canaan. It is always plural, and everywhere else in Genesis it comes with “land.” “The land wherein thou art a stranger” in Gen. 17:8 is literally “the land of thy sojournings,” and so is “the land wherein his father was a stranger” (Gen. 37:1; see also Gen. 28:4; Gen. 36:7). The KJV’s different renderings hide the link. Here the word is used of a lifetime. Jacob calls his life, and his fathers’ lives, by the word for living in a land that was promised but not yet theirs: in one reading, “because they had not come into actual possession of the promised land.”

The brothers had already used the verb. They said they came “to sojourn” (lagur, verse 4), to “dwell as a new-comer… without original rights,” the verb used of the patriarchs in Canaan (Gen. 26:3; Gen. 35:27). Hebrews reads the family the same way: they “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth,” seeking “a better country, that is, an heavenly” (Heb. 11:13–16).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Language #

What “few and evil” means

“Evil” here means hardship, not wrongdoing. The Hebrew phrase is “evil days (of trial and hardship),” with ra‘ in its sense of “bad, unpleasant, giving pain, unhappiness, misery”;…

“Evil” here means hardship, not wrongdoing. The Hebrew phrase is “evil days (of trial and hardship),” with ra‘ in its sense of “bad, unpleasant, giving pain, unhappiness, misery”; the word “actually means ‘sorrowful’ or ‘full of toil and trouble.’”

“Few” is a comparison with his fathers, as Jacob says: Abraham lived 175 years and Isaac 180 (Gen. 25:7; Gen. 35:28), and Jacob’s 130, as he speaks, have “not attained” to theirs. (He will live to 147, verse 28.) The trouble is easy to list: “Jacob’s flight to Haran to escape Esau’s wrath, his years of labor for Laban, his wives and their contentions, his pilgrimage in the land of Canaan, the death of Rachel, and his years of sorrowing for the loss of Joseph.” Jacob does not praise his years to the king. He measures them against his fathers’.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Genesis 37–50: Joseph: The Power of Preparation, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

Verses 11–12

Settled in the best of the land

In plain words

Joseph settled his father and brothers and gave them property in the best part of Egypt, in the region of Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered. He supplied his father, his brothers, and the whole household with bread, family by family.

11 And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, 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.

Language #

The same word as the promised land

“Possession” is achuzzah, the word God used when He promised Canaan. Here it means landed property.

“Possession” is achuzzah, the word God used when He promised Canaan. Here it means landed property. It is the noun in “an everlasting possession” (Gen. 17:8; Gen. 48:4) and in “a possession of a buryingplace,” the field Abraham bought as a burial place for Sarah (Gen. 23:4; Gen. 23:9; Gen. 23:20) and where Jacob will be laid (Gen. 49:30; Gen. 50:13). Verse 27’s “had possessions therein” is the verb from the same root.

So Genesis uses one word for what Israel holds in Egypt and for what was promised in Canaan. Both are real holdings. They are not the same land. The covenant promise was “this land… for an everlasting possession” (Gen. 48:4), and it is in that land that Jacob asks to be buried (verses 29–30).

Context #

The land of Rameses

Rameses is the name of both a city and the district around it: “An Egyptian treasure-city, and also name of the district surrounding it,” spelled Raamses in Exodus, where the…

Rameses is the name of both a city and the district around it: “An Egyptian treasure-city, and also name of the district surrounding it,” spelled Raamses in Exodus, where the Israelites “built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses” (Ex. 1:11). The Hebrew letters are the same in both places; only the vowels differ.

A reader may ask how a name from a pharaoh Ramses can stand in a story about Joseph. Ramses II founded a new capital in the eastern delta, which was “named after himself, Pi(Per)-Ramesse, ‘Domain of Ramses.’” The first element was often dropped, “so that the city was known simply as ‘Ramses’ (Raamses),” and he “built his capital in the very area of Israelite settlement.” If the district took its name from that king, then verse 11 calls it by “a name which it came to bear” later, which “is a very natural thing for the Israelite writer to do; and can hardly be regarded in the light of a literary error.” That is an inference. Genesis does not say when Joseph lived or which pharaoh he served.

Sources: “Rameses”, Bible Dictionary. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Nahum M. Sarna, “Who Was the Pharaoh Who “Knew Not Joseph”?”, Ensign, Dec. 1987 (Research and Perspectives). Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

12 And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.

Related Scriptures #

Preserved in Egypt, and a type

The Book of Mormon reads Jacob’s going down to Egypt as a pattern for something later.

The Book of Mormon reads Jacob’s going down to Egypt as a pattern for something later. Moroni, reporting Ether’s prophecy, says a New Jerusalem would be built for “the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type.” The type: “as Joseph brought his father down into the land of Egypt, even so he died there; wherefore, the Lord brought a remnant of the seed of Joseph out of the land of Jerusalem, that he might be merciful unto the seed of Joseph that they should perish not, even as he was merciful unto the father of Joseph that he should perish not” (Ether 13:6–7).

This verse shows the mercy the prophecy names: in the famine “Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread.” The likeness is that the Lord preserved Joseph’s seed as He had preserved Joseph’s father, “that they should perish not.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 13–26

The famine and the land of Egypt

In plain words

There was no food anywhere, and Egypt and Canaan alike were worn out by the famine. Joseph collected all the money in both lands as payment for grain and brought it into Pharaoh’s house. When the money was gone, the Egyptians came to him: “Give us bread. Why should we die in front of you? Our money is spent.” Joseph said, “Bring your livestock, and I will give you bread for it.” They did, and that year he fed them in exchange for their horses, flocks, herds, and donkeys.

The next year they came back: “We cannot hide from my lord that the money is gone and the herds are yours. Nothing is left but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before your eyes, we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread. We and our land will be Pharaoh’s servants. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and the land not become desolate.” So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, because every Egyptian sold his field; the famine was too strong for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, and Joseph moved the people to the cities from one end of Egypt to the other. Only the priests’ land he did not buy, because the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on it, and so did not have to sell.

Joseph said to the people, “I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh. Here is seed; sow the land. At the harvest give a fifth to Pharaoh. The other four parts are yours, for seed and for food for you, your households, and your children.” They said, “You have saved our lives. May we find favor with my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.” Joseph made it a law for the land of Egypt, still in force when this was written, that Pharaoh should have a fifth, except for the priests’ land, which never became Pharaoh’s.

13 And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason 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 corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.

15 And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth.

16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.

17 And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.

18 When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:

19 Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.

20 And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s.

Context #

How Egypt came to belong to Pharaoh

Joseph’s purchase happens in stages, each after the people’s last resource was gone: their money (verses 14–15), their cattle (16–17), “our bodies, and our lands” (18–20), and…

Joseph’s purchase happens in stages, each after the people’s last resource was gone: their money (verses 14–15), their cattle (16–17), “our bodies, and our lands” (18–20), and then a standing law of a fifth (24–26). The people propose the third step themselves: “buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh” (verse 19). Joseph gives them seed and sets the share at a fifth, and they answer, “Thou hast saved our lives” (verse 25).

The fifth was Joseph’s own plan. Before the famine he advised Pharaoh to “take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years” (Gen. 41:34), and verse 26 makes it a permanent share, a law “unto this day.” The priests are the exception. The text says why: they “had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion,” so they did not need to sell (verse 22).

The text does not say whether the terms were just. It reports the Egyptians’ gratitude and no rebuke. Joseph “wisely administered the affairs of Egypt during the famine, saving the lives of the people and gathering great wealth for Pharaoh.” Both halves are in the chapter: lives saved, and a king enriched.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lesson 39: Genesis 47–49, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual (2014).

21 And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof.

Language #

Moved to cities, or made servants?

The ancient texts differ on this verse. The Hebrew text says Joseph “removed” the people (he’evir) “to cities” (le’arim), and the KJV follows it.

The ancient texts differ on this verse. The Hebrew text says Joseph “removed” the people (he’evir) “to cities” (le’arim), and the KJV follows it. The Septuagint reads, “he brought the people into bondage to him, for servants,” and the footnote in the Latter-day Saint edition gives the same reading for the Samaritan Pentateuch: “he made them slaves, or serfs.” In Hebrew that is הֶעֱבִיד לַעֲבָדִים (he’evid la’avadim), which differs from the Hebrew text by only a few letters and is the reading the standard Hebrew lexicon adopts.

Either reading can be fitted to the context. The people have just offered to be Pharaoh’s servants (verses 19, 25), which suits the Greek and the Samaritan. Joseph’s own plan had kept food in the cities (Gen. 41:35), which suits the Hebrew: in one reading, Joseph distributed the people “according to the cities in which the corn was housed,” so that they lived near the grain.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

22 Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands.

23 Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.

24 And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.

25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.

Witness of Christ #

Joseph’s words in the Egyptians’ mouths

The Egyptians describe Joseph with the verb Joseph used of his own mission, and that mission is a likeness of Christ’s.

The Egyptians describe Joseph with the verb Joseph used of his own mission, and that mission is a likeness of Christ’s. “Thou hast saved our lives” is one Hebrew verb, hechayitanu, “thou hast preserved us alive.” It is the verb, “preserve alive, let live,” of Joseph’s own words: “to save your lives by a great deliverance” (Gen. 45:7) and “to save much people alive” (Gen. 50:20). The Egyptians say of Joseph what Joseph said of God’s purpose.

Saving the hungry with bread is one of the likenesses between Joseph’s life and the Savior’s: “Joseph provided bread for Israel and saved them from death, all without cost. Jesus, the Bread of Life, did the same for all men.” Jesus said of Himself, “I am that bread of life” (John 6:48).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Genesis 37–50: Joseph: The Power of Preparation, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s.

Verses 27–31

Israel’s last request

In plain words

Israel lived in Egypt, in Goshen. They acquired property there, were fruitful, and multiplied greatly. Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, and his whole life was a hundred forty-seven years. When the time came near for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said, “If I have found favor with you, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal with me in kindness and faithfulness: do not bury me in Egypt. I want to lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” Joseph said, “I will do as you say.” Jacob said, “Swear to me.” Joseph swore to him, and Israel bowed down at the head of the bed.

27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.

Related Scriptures #

The blessing of fruitfulness comes true in Egypt

“Grew, and multiplied” is in Hebrew “were fruitful and multiplied,” the two verbs of God’s blessing from the beginning.

“Grew, and multiplied” is in Hebrew “were fruitful and multiplied,” the two verbs of God’s blessing from the beginning. Verse 27’s vayyiperu vayyirbu me’od, “they were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly,” has the verbs of “Be fruitful, and multiply” (Gen. 1:28; Gen. 9:1). They run through the promises to Abraham and Jacob: “I will make thee exceeding fruitful” (Gen. 17:6), “make thee fruitful, and multiply thee” (Gen. 28:3; Gen. 48:4). God had told Jacob before he left Canaan, “I will there make of thee a great nation” (Gen. 46:3), and the there is Egypt.

The promises to Abraham included that his “posterity would receive certain lands as an eternal inheritance,” and the covenant was renewed with Jacob (Gen. 48:3–4). Here the promise of descendants begins to be fulfilled while the land is still ahead. Exodus repeats the same verbs (Ex. 1:7), and the next verses show what a king who “knew not Joseph” made of it: “the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we” (Ex. 1:8–10).

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Abraham, covenant of”, Bible Dictionary.

28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.

29 And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt:

Language #

An oath sworn on the thigh

Putting a hand under the thigh was a way of swearing an oath. Genesis records it here and when Abraham made his servant swear to find a wife for Isaac (Gen. 24:2; Gen. 24:9), and…

Putting a hand under the thigh was a way of swearing an oath. Genesis records it here and when Abraham made his servant swear to find a wife for Isaac (Gen. 24:2; Gen. 24:9), and the note there explains the gesture. The Hebrew word for “thigh” also means the “loins, as seat of procreative power,” as when Jacob’s descendants are said to have come “out of his loins” (Gen. 46:26).

Jacob is not satisfied with Joseph’s word. After Joseph says, “I will do as thou hast said” (verse 30), he insists, “Swear unto me” (verse 31).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

30 But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said.

Related Scriptures #

Why Jacob will not be buried in Egypt

Jacob asks to lie in his fathers’ tomb in Canaan, and God had already promised to bring him back.

Jacob asks to lie in his fathers’ tomb in Canaan, and God had already promised to bring him back. At Beer-sheba He told him, “I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again” (Gen. 46:4). The “buryingplace” is the cave of Machpelah, which Abraham bought “for a possession of a buryingplace” (Gen. 23:20), where Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah are buried (Gen. 49:29–31).

The oath is kept. Joseph tells Pharaoh’s house, “My father made me swear,” and Pharaoh says, “Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear” (Gen. 50:5–6); Jacob’s sons bury him in Machpelah (Gen. 50:13). Hebrews says that Joseph too “gave commandment concerning his bones” (Heb. 11:22).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

31 And he said, Swear unto me. And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head.

Language #

The bed’s head, or the top of a staff

The Hebrew letters here can be read “bed” or “staff,” and the Hebrew and Greek Bibles read them differently.

The Hebrew letters here can be read “bed” or “staff,” and the Hebrew and Greek Bibles read them differently. The word is written המטה without vowels, and the vowel marks were added later. As the Hebrew text is pointed it is hammittah, “the bed” (“couch, bed”), which the KJV follows. The Septuagint translators read hammatteh, “the staff” (as in “staff of traveller”): “Israel did reverence, leaning on the top of his staff.” Hebrews quotes the verse in that Greek form: Jacob “worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff” (Heb. 11:21).

So the Bible has both pictures. Those who keep “bed” call it “the most satisfactory” rendering and judge that the Greek “arose from a false reading” of the letters, one “not proved to be correct by the quotation in Hebrews 11:21.” That is a judgment about the text, not a settled fact. The footnote in the Latter-day Saint edition glosses the phrase “at the head of the bed,” and David too “bowed himself upon the bed” (1 Kgs. 1:47). Either way, Jacob bows after Joseph swears, and Hebrews calls it worship.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers: Genesis, Read on Bible Hub. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

Seeing Christ in Genesis 47

Joseph keeps people alive with bread when there is none to be had (Gen. 41:54–57), and the Egyptians’ “Thou hast saved our lives” is the verdict Joseph gave on his own mission (Gen. 45:7). In this he is a likeness of the Savior (see the note on verse 25), who says, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger” (John 6:35).

The second thread is Jacob’s. He calls his life a sojourning and refuses to be buried in Egypt, and Hebrews says that those who so confess “seek a country,” “a better country, that is, an heavenly” (Heb. 11:14–16). The covenant Jacob holds to, renewed with him as it had been with Isaac (Gen. 48:3–4), carried the assurance that “Christ would come through his lineage,” the lineage of Abraham.

Worth exploring next

Joseph’s plan and its end. Gen. 41:34–36 beside verses 20–26.
Jacob’s journey. Gen. 46:1–7, where God promises to bring him up again; Gen. 49:29–33 and Gen. 50:1–14, where he is buried.
Israel in Egypt. Ex. 1:7–14; Heb. 11:13–16; Heb. 11:21–22.
Why the Hebrews could settle in Egypt. KnoWhy #844, “Why Were the Hebrews Allowed to Settle in Egypt?” (Scripture Central).

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers: Genesis, Read on Bible Hub.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Herbert E. Ryle, The Book of Genesis in the Revised Version, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1921); read on Bible Hub.
“Goshen”, Bible Dictionary.
“Rameses”, Bible Dictionary.
“Abraham, covenant of”, Bible Dictionary.
Genesis 37–50: Joseph: The Power of Preparation, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003).
Lesson 39: Genesis 47–49, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual (2014).
Scripture Central, “Why Were the Hebrews Allowed to Settle in Egypt?”, KnoWhy #844, Mar. 17, 2026.
Nahum M. Sarna, “Who Was the Pharaoh Who “Knew Not Joseph”?”, Ensign, Dec. 1987 (Research and Perspectives).

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