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True Words Baptist Church — Revelation 21:5
BOOK 1 OF 66 · LAW · KING JAMES BIBLE

Genesis 47

Genesis book home•Chapter 47 of 50•31 verses
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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Genesis 47 Overview

Genesis 47 records Jacob’s family settling in Goshen and Jacob blessing Pharaoh. The famine grows severe, and Joseph administers Egypt’s grain economy: money, livestock, land, and labor are progressively exchanged for food, while priestly land is exempt. Jacob’s family prospers in Goshen. Near death, Jacob makes Joseph swear not to bury him in Egypt but in the ancestral burial place in Canaan.

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47Chapter
31Verses
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Before you read Genesis 47

Coming from

Genesis 46 brings Jacob’s household into Egypt under God’s reassurance and reunites Jacob with Joseph.

In this chapter

Egypt preserves Jacob’s family during famine, but Jacob’s burial request shows that his ultimate covenant hope remains tied to the promised land.

Leads into

Genesis 48 records Jacob blessing Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh and deliberately placing the younger Ephraim before Manasseh.

Key understanding

Genesis 47 records Jacob’s family settling in Goshen and Jacob blessing Pharaoh. The famine grows severe, and Joseph administers Egypt’s grain economy: money, livestock, land, and labor are progressively exchanged for food, while priestly land is exempt. Jacob’s family prospers in Goshen. Near death, Jacob makes Joseph swear not to bury him in Egypt but in the ancestral burial place in Canaan.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Jacob, the migrant shepherd, blesses powerful Pharaoh.

Truth 2

Goshen gives Israel both provision and relative separation.

Truth 3

Joseph’s famine policy centralizes Egyptian property and labor under Pharaoh.

Truth 4

Israel multiplies while Egypt undergoes economic transformation.

Truth 5

Jacob’s burial oath points back to covenant land despite present comfort.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Hebrews 11:21 highlights Jacob blessing Joseph’s sons near death and worshipping.

Connection 2

Genesis 23 established Machpelah as the ancestral burial possession.

Connection 3

Exodus 1 later shows a new Pharaoh reversing the favorable conditions.

Connection 4

Genesis 15 keeps the foreign-sojourn period within God’s covenant timeline.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Joseph’s famine administration is described historically; the text does not command all governments to copy the policy.

Keep this clear 2

The Egyptians explicitly express gratitude for preserved life, while the increasing centralization should still be read in its ancient context.

Keep this clear 3

Jacob’s blessing of Pharaoh is significant: covenant blessing flows from the seemingly weaker patriarch.

Keep this clear 4

The family’s prosperity in Goshen should not obscure that Egypt is not the promised land.

Read Genesis 47 watching for…Explore deeper

Jacob’s age before Pharaoh.

The contrast between Israel’s settlement and Egypt’s famine desperation.

Each stage of Joseph’s economic policy.

The special status of priestly land.

Jacob’s insistence on burial outside Egypt.

TWBC REVIEW STANDARD

Plain language. Scripture first. Fact distinguished from inference. No filler. No fake certainty. Designed to help you read the Bible itself.

Chapter outline4 sections
1-6Joseph settles his brothers in Goshen7-12Jacob blesses Pharaoh and the family is provided for13-26Joseph administers Egypt during the famine27-31Jacob makes Joseph swear to bury him with his fathers
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.

7

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

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.

10

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

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.

12

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

27

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

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:

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.

31

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

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Genesis 47:20

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