54 S Genesis 47:21
became Pharaoh’s, 21 and Joseph reduced the people to servitude, a from one
end of Egypt to the other. 22 However, he did not buy the land of the priests,
because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food e
nough
from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their
land.
23 Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land to
day for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can p
lant the g
round. 24 But when
the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may
keep as seed for the f ields and as food for yourselves and your households
and your children.”
25 “You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of
our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”
26 So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in E
gypt — still in force
today — that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of
the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.
27 Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired
property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.
28 Jacob lived in E
gypt seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hun
dred and forty-seven. 29 When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for
his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your
hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faith
fulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, 30 but when I rest with my fathers, carry me
out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.”
“I will do as you say,” he said.
31 “Swear to me,” he said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped
as he leaned on the top of his staff. b
Manasseh and Ephraim
48
Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took his two
sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. 2 When Jacob was told,
“Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up on
the bed.
3 Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty c appeared to me at Luz in the land
of Canaan, and there he blessed me 4 and said to me, ‘I am going to make you
fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples,
and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants af
ter you.’
5 “Now then, your two sons born to you in E
gypt before I came to you here
will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reu
ben and Simeon are mine. 6 Any children born to you after them will be yours;
in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the n
ames of t heir
brothers. 7 As I was returning from Paddan, d to my sorrow Rachel died in the
land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath.
So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).
8 When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, “Who are these?”
9 “They are the sons God has given me here,” Joseph said to his father.
Then Israel said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.”
10 Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly
see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and
embraced them.
11 Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face a
gain, and now
God has allowed me to see your children too.”
12 Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his
face to the ground. 13 And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right to
ward Israel’s left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Israel’s r ight hand, and
brought them c lose to him. 14 But Israel reached out his r ight hand and put it
a 21
Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint (see also Vulgate); Masoretic Text and he
moved the people into the cities b 31 Or Israel bowed down at the head of his bed
c 3 Hebrew El-Shaddai d 7 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia