Then Joseph went to see Pharaoh and told him, “My father and my brothers have arrived from the land of Canaan. They have come with all their flocks and herds and possessions, and they are now in the region of Goshen.”
Joseph took five of his brothers with
him and presented them to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What
is your occupation?”
They replied, “We, your servants, are shepherds, just like
our ancestors. We have come to live here in Egypt for a while, for there
is no pasture for our flocks in Canaan. The famine is very severe there. So
please, we request permission to live in the region of Goshen.”
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now
that your father and brothers have joined you here, choose any place in
the entire land of Egypt for them to live. Give them the best land of Egypt.
Let them live in the region of Goshen. And if any of them have special skills,
put them in charge of my livestock, too.”
Then Joseph brought in his father,
Jacob, and presented him to Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
“How old are you?” Pharaoh asked him.
Jacob replied, “I have traveled this
earth for 130 hard years. But my life has been short compared to the lives of my
ancestors.” Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh again before leaving his court.
So Joseph assigned the best land of
Egypt—the region of Rameses—to his father and his brothers, and he settled them
there, just as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph provided food for his
father and his brothers in amounts appropriate to the number of their
dependents, including the smallest children.
Meanwhile, the famine
became so severe that all the food was used up, and people were starving
throughout the lands of Egypt and Canaan. By selling grain to the people,
Joseph eventually collected all the money in Egypt and Canaan, and he put the
money in Pharaoh’s treasury. When the people of Egypt and Canaan ran out
of money, all the Egyptians came to Joseph. “Our money is gone!” they cried.
“But please give us food, or we will die before your very eyes!”
Joseph replied, “Since your money is
gone, bring me your livestock. I will give you food in exchange for your
livestock.” So they brought their livestock to Joseph in exchange for
food. In exchange for their horses, flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle,
and donkeys, Joseph provided them with food for another year.
But that year ended, and the next
year they came again and said, “We cannot hide the truth from you, my lord. Our
money is gone, and all our livestock and cattle are yours. We have nothing left
to give but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before your very
eyes? Buy us and our land in exchange for food; we offer our land and ourselves
as slaves for Pharaoh. Just give us grain so we may live and not die, and so
the land does not become empty and desolate.”
So Joseph bought all the land of
Egypt for Pharaoh. All the Egyptians sold him their fields because the famine
was so severe, and soon all the land belonged to Pharaoh. As for the
people, he made them all slaves, from one end of Egypt to the other. The
only land he did not buy was the land belonging to the priests. They received
an allotment of food directly from Pharaoh, so they didn’t need to sell their
land.
Then Joseph said to the people,
“Look, today I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh. I will provide you
with seed so you can plant the fields. Then when you harvest it, one-fifth
of your crop will belong to Pharaoh. You may keep the remaining four-fifths as
seed for your fields and as food for you, your households, and your little
ones.”
“You have saved our lives!” they
exclaimed. “May it please you, my lord, to let us be Pharaoh’s servants.” Joseph
then issued a decree still in effect in the land of Egypt, that Pharaoh should
receive one-fifth of all the crops grown on his land. Only the land belonging
to the priests was not given to Pharaoh.
Meanwhile, the people of Israel
settled in the region of Goshen in Egypt. There they acquired property, and
they were fruitful, and their population grew rapidly. Jacob lived for
seventeen years after his arrival in Egypt, so he lived 147 years in all.
As the time of his death drew near,
Jacob called for his son Joseph and said to him, “Please do me this favor.
Put your hand under my thigh and swear that you will treat me with unfailing
love by honoring this last request: Do not bury me in Egypt. When I die,
please take my body out of Egypt and bury me with my ancestors.”
So Joseph promised, “I will do as you ask.”
“Swear that you will do it,” Jacob
insisted. So Joseph gave his oath, and Jacob bowed humbly at the head of his
bed.
~ Source : Genesis 47:1-31
[Holy Bible -NLT] taken from https://www.biblegateway.com
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