Genesis 47 Summary

Joseph presents five of his brothers and then his father Jacob before Pharaoh; the brothers identify themselves as shepherds and request to dwell in Goshen, which Pharaoh grants, even offering them charge over his livestock. Jacob, aged 130, blesses Pharaoh twice, and Joseph settles his family in the best of the land, in the region of Rameses, providing them with bread. As the famine intensifies, Joseph systematically acquires all the money, livestock, and finally all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh in exchange for grain, instituting a law that the people render one-fifth of their produce to Pharaoh—exempting only the priests' lands. The chapter closes with Israel multiplying greatly in Goshen over seventeen years, after which a dying Jacob solemnly charges Joseph under oath to carry his bones out of Egypt and bury him with his fathers in Canaan.