Chapter 47
Drafted by Grok 4.7 on 8 October 2026. First draft. Not independently reviewed. Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
1Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and their herds and all that they have, have come from the land of Canaan, and they are now in the land of Goshen.”
2From among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh.
3Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your work?” They said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds of flocks, both we and our fathers.”
4They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, because the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now please let your servants live in the land of Goshen.”
5Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you.
6The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them live in the land of Goshen, and if you know that there are capable men among them, put them in charge of my own livestock.”
7Joseph brought Jacob his father in and presented him to Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
8Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the years of your life?”
9Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been the years of my life, and they have not reached the years of the lives of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.”
10Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from Pharaoh’s presence.
11Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a holding in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
12Joseph provided bread for his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household, according to the little ones.
13There was no bread in all the land, for the famine was very severe, and the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.
14Joseph collected all the silver to be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, in payment for the grain they were buying, and Joseph brought the silver into Pharaoh’s house.
15When the silver of the land of Egypt and of the land of Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread. Why should we die in front of you? For the silver is gone.”
16Joseph said, “Give your livestock, and I will give you bread in exchange for your livestock, if the silver is gone.”
17They brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, the flocks of sheep, the herds of cattle, and the donkeys. He got them through that year with bread in exchange for all their livestock.
18That year ended, and they came to him the next year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that the silver is gone, and the herds of livestock belong to my lord. Nothing remains before my lord except our bodies and our ground.
19Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our ground? Buy us and our ground for bread, and we and our ground will be slaves to Pharaoh. Give us seed, so that we may live and not die, and so that the ground is not desolate.”
20So Joseph bought all the ground of Egypt for Pharaoh, for every Egyptian sold his field, because the famine was hard on them. The land became Pharaoh’s.
21As for the people, he moved them into the cities, from one end of the border of Egypt to the other.
Notes (1)Hide notes
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Leningrad says he moved the people into the cities. A Samaritan reading says he made the people slaves. The Leningrad wording is printed. The other is not substituted.
22Only the ground of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh, and they ate their allowance that Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not sell their ground.
23Joseph said to the people, “Look, I have bought you and your ground today for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you. Sow the ground.
24At the harvests you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four parts will be yours, as seed for the field and as food for you and for those in your houses, and as food for your little ones.”
25They said, “You have kept us alive. Let us find favor in the eyes of my lord, and we will be slaves to Pharaoh.”
26Joseph made it a statute, to this day, over the ground of Egypt, that Pharaoh should have the fifth. Only the ground of the priests did not become Pharaoh’s.
27Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. They acquired holdings in it, and they were fruitful and multiplied greatly.
28Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. The years of Jacob’s life were one hundred and forty-seven years.
29The time drew near for Israel to die, and he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and deal with me in loyalty and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt.
30When I lie down with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” He said, “I will do as you have said.”
31He said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him. Then Israel bowed on the head of the bed.
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Leningrad points the word as mittah, “bed.” The same consonants can be read matteh, “staff,” and a Greek copy of this line reads “staff.” The pointed Leningrad reading is printed. The staff is not substituted.