47
Jacob asked God to bless Pharaoh and do good things for him
1 Joseph went to see Pharaoh and said to him, “My father, my brothers and all their families are now living in Goshen. And they have taken everything they own from Canaan and carried it here to Egypt. All of their animals are here too.”
2 Then Joseph took 5 of his brothers to meet Pharaoh, the king.
3 Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What work do you do?”
And the brothers answered, “Sir we work for you now. We look after farm animals, just like our father and grandfather before us. 4 We have all come to live in your country for a while. You see our country hasn't got any food to feed our animals and nothing will grow. Everyone is really hungry, and so we ask you, can we live in that part of Egypt called Goshen?”
5 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “It is really good that your father and brothers have come to live with you. 6 And as you are the boss over all of Egypt, you can let them live wherever you like. But give them the best land. Let them live in Goshen, and if any of them are really good at looking after animals, you can let them look after my sheep and cattle too.”
7 Then Joseph took his father Jacob to meet the king. Jacob blessed the king, he prayed and asked God to do good things for the king and make the king strong.
8 Pharaoh asked Jacob, “How old are you?”
9 And Jacob answered, “Sir, all my life I have moved from place to place, and I have had a lot of troubles in my short life. You see, I am only 130 years old but my father and grandfather lived much longer than that.”
10 Then, before leaving, Jacob said goodbye to the king and blessed him again.
11 Joseph did what the king said. He gave his father and his brothers the best land in Egypt near a town called Rameses in Goshen. 12 Joseph always made sure that his father, his brothers and everyone in their camp had all the food they needed.
Joseph got a lot of land for the king.
13 People in Egypt and Canaan started to have a very bad time. Everyone was hungry and nothing grew for people to eat. 14-15 Joseph took all the money he got from selling the food and put it into the king's bank. But there came a time when the people had no more money to buy food. And so, the people in Egypt went to Joseph and said, “All our money is gone. Please give us some food. If we do not eat soon, we will die right here in front of you.”
16 Joseph answered and said, “Ok. You have run out of money, so now if you give me your farm animals, I will give you food. 17 So the people took all their farm animals to Joseph. All that year the people gave their horses, cows, sheep, goats and donkeys to Joseph and he gave the people food so that they could stay alive.”
18 The next year, the people came to Joseph and said, “You know that we do not have any money and you have all our animals. We have nothing more to sell. All we have is our land and ourselves. 19 Our land cannot grow anything and it looks like it is dead. Might be, the King can own our farms and we will work for him. We will be his slaves. Just give us seeds that we can plant and seeds for food. That way we can stay alive and our farms will not become dry and useless. Please do not let us die.”
20 In the end, the people sold their farms to Joseph who was working for the king of Egypt. The hard times forced all the people to sell their land and become the King's slaves. 21 Everyone in the whole country of Egypt worked for Joseph and the king for no pay. They were slaves.
22 The only people that did not have to sell their land were the Egyptian ceremony men. The king paid them for their work and so they had money to buy food.
23 At the end of the bad years, Joseph said to the Egyptian farmers, “You and all your land belongs to the king, and so I will give you seeds so that you can grow plants for food. 24 When the growing time is finished you have to pick up all the seeds and put them into 5 heaps that are all the same size. Then you have to take one of those heaps and give it to the king's workers. The other 4 heaps are for you to keep so that you and your families have seeds to grow food next year.”
25 And all the people said, “You have been good to us and saved our lives and so we will work for the king.”
26 Joseph made a new law for the country of Egypt, and it is still there today. That new law was, “Anything that grows on the king's farms has to be put into 5 heaps and one of those heaps belongs to the king.”
The only land in all of Egypt that the king did not own was the land that belonged to the Egyptian ceremony men.
Jacob said, “Please do not bury me in Egypt”
27 When the Israelites moved to the part of Egypt called Goshen, they bought land and had a lot of children.
28 Jacob lived in Egypt for 17 years and lived until he was 147 years old. 29 When Jacob knew that it was nearly time for him to die, he sent someone to get Joseph. He said to him, “If you really love me, then put your hand on my leg and make a promise to me. Promise that you will not bury me here in Egypt. 30 Promise me that after I die, you will take my body out of Egypt and bury it where my father and grandfather are buried.”+
Joseph said, “Yes I will do what you ask.”
31 Jacob said, “Make your promise right now.”
And after Joseph made that promise to his father, Jacob bowed down on his bed and prayed to God.
+ 47:30 Genesis 23:1-20; 25:9; 49:29-31; 50:5-14