The big picture
Jacob's household settles in Goshen while famine deepens. Joseph's administration preserves food access but also concentrates money, livestock and land under Pharaoh. The chapter ends with Jacob asking to be buried in Canaan.
Central truth
Joseph's famine administration preserves lives while transferring Egypt's wealth, land, and service to Pharaoh, even as Jacob's household prospers and his burial request points beyond Egypt.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Genesis 47:1: “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…”
Slow down at the turning point
Genesis 47:15: “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…”
Keep this word trail visible
land, Pharaoh, Joseph, Egypt, brethren, cattle
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Genesis 47:1-6
Five brothers before Pharaoh
Begin with Joseph's careful plan from 46:31-34 carried out. He presents five brothers, they say they are shepherds, and they ask to sojourn in Goshen. Explain "sojourn" as staying as foreigners, not claiming ownership. Pharaoh's answer is generous. Teach this first because it establishes the family's protected position, which the rest of the chapter will contrast with what happens to the Egyptians. Notice that honesty about their trade, not concealment, wins them the land.
Genesis 47:7-12
The pilgrim blesses the king
Read 47:7-10. Jacob blesses Pharaoh twice. Pharaoh asks his age, and Jacob answers with the word "pilgrimage": "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years" (47:9). Explain "few and evil" as short and hard, not morally wicked; he is thinking of his grief, exile and losses. Then Joseph settles and feeds the family (47:11-12). Place this step here because it shows Jacob, at the court of the world's greatest power, describing himself as a traveller.
Genesis 47:13-21
Money, livestock, land
Draw a ledger on the board with two columns, what the people receive and what Pharaoh acquires. Fill it year by year from 47:14-21. Explain that the famine leaves people no bargaining power: they say "why should we die in thy presence?" (47:15) and "there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands" (47:18). Then 47:21: the people are moved to cities. Do not decide for the class whether this is wise or harsh; make sure they see every entry.
Genesis 47:22-26
The fifth part and the priests
Read the exemption of the priests and their reason. Then the terms of 47:23-24: seed now, a fifth to Pharaoh at harvest, four parts kept for seed, food and households. Explain that a fifth was moderate by ancient standards, and that the people themselves call Joseph their saviour in 47:25. Then 47:26 makes the arrangement permanent. This step comes here to let the class weigh rescue and the concentration of land in the king's hands together, as the text does without commenting.
Genesis 47:27-31
Prosperity is not home
Close with the contrast in 47:27: Israel has possessions, grows and multiplies, while the Egyptians have sold everything. Then Jacob's age and his request. Explain the hand under the thigh as an ancient form of solemn oath, as in 24:2. Joseph swears, and "Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head" (47:31), worshipping. End here because this is the chapter's turn of heart: even while blessed in Egypt, Jacob looks to the land of promise.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
"Joseph was a tyrant who enslaved the Egyptians."
The text shows the people losing money, livestock, land and freedom to Pharaoh. It also shows them saying "Thou hast saved our lives" (47:25) and keeping four fifths of their harvest. Readers evaluate Joseph's policy differently, and Genesis records it without praise or blame. Let the class weigh both, citing verses, and avoid a verdict the text does not give.
"Joseph's policy shows how governments should handle a crisis today."
Genesis 47 describes one ancient emergency in Egypt. It does not commend this arrangement to later governments, and modern political programmes should not be read into it, whether to praise or condemn them. Keep the lesson on what the passage shows: God preserving life through Joseph, and the real costs that came with it.
"Jacob was being ungrateful by not wanting to be buried in Egypt."
Jacob blesses Pharaoh twice (47:7,10) and accepts Egypt's provision. His burial request is about faith, not ingratitude: he wants to "lie with my fathers" (47:30) in the land God promised. Hebrews 11:13-16 describes the patriarchs as people who looked for a homeland God had prepared. His request honours God's promise, not a slight on Egypt.
"'Few and evil' means Jacob thought his life had been worthless."
In 47:9 Jacob speaks of his years as short compared with his fathers' and full of hardship: exile, deceit, grief over Rachel and Joseph. "Evil" here means painful, not wicked. Yet he blesses Pharaoh in the same breath and in 48:15-16 speaks of God who fed him and redeemed him all his life. Honest lament and faith sit together in him.
Learning objectives
- Describe the household's request and settlement in Goshen.
- Explain Jacob's description of his years as a pilgrimage.
- Trace the progression from money to livestock to land and service.
- Identify the exception granted to the Egyptian priests.
- Explain the continuing one-fifth arrangement and the people's response.
- Connect Jacob's burial request with the promised homeland.
Teacher preparation
- Read Genesis 41:33–36 and 46:31–34; distinguish the earlier accumulation of grain from the later exchanges during famine.
- Explain 'men of activity' as capable men and 'evil' in Jacob's description of his days as adversity, not a claim that every year was morally wicked.
- Prepare a ledger with money, livestock, land, labor, grain, and seed. Track what households receive and what Pharaoh acquires.
- Retain the KJV's relocation 'to cities' in 47:21; do not silently replace that wording with another translation's account of servitude.
- Prepare two evidence columns, lives preserved and power concentrated. Avoid requiring a partisan verdict or treating desperate agreement as an unconstrained market choice.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Identify the sequence of exchanges in Genesis 47:14–20, the priests' exemption in 47:22, and the established fifth in 47:24–26.
Scripture-supported
Compare Genesis 47:29–31 with 49:29–32 and 50:12–13; the burial request is later specified and fulfilled in Canaan.
Strong inference
Infer severely constrained bargaining from Genesis 47:15,18–19: the Egyptians explicitly describe exhausted resources and impending death before proposing sale of themselves and their land.
Possible or traditional reading
Present benevolent emergency administration and troubling concentration of power as readings to evaluate together; Genesis 47:20–26 records both permanent acquisition and the people's gratitude.
Limit
State that Genesis 47:13–26 does not evaluate every alternative relief policy or command later governments to adopt this ownership and revenue arrangement.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. What do the brothers ask Pharaoh for, and on what grounds?
What a good answer contains
They ask to stay as resident foreigners: "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" (47:4), and they request Goshen. Pharaoh grants "the best of the land" and adds an offer: if any are "men of activity", capable men, make them "rulers over my cattle" (47:6). A good answer sees honest need, a modest request and a generous answer.
Show teacher guidance
Read 47:3–6: pasture and permission to sojourn because Canaan lacks feed during famine. Notice the offered roles for capable livestock keepers.
2. Who blesses whom when Jacob meets Pharaoh?
What a good answer contains
"And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh" (47:7), and again as he leaves (47:10). An old shepherd, a famine refugee, blesses the king of Egypt. A good answer notices the reversal: in Scripture the greater blesses the lesser (Hebrews 7:7), and Jacob carries the blessing of Abraham, through whom all families of the earth are to be blessed (12:3). Do not claim Pharaoh was converted.
Show teacher guidance
Read 47:7,10: the aging immigrant blesses the ruler. Let the reversal of apparent status register without claiming Pharaoh's personal conversion.
3. What assets pass to Pharaoh as the famine progresses?
What a good answer contains
In order: money (47:14), then livestock, "horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses" (47:17), then land and the people's own service: "buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh" (47:19). A good answer keeps both columns: each year the people receive food and survive, and each year they give up more. A weak answer tells only one side.
Show teacher guidance
Trace 47:14–20 in order: money, livestock, then land with the people's offered service. Keep relief received beside assets surrendered.
4. Why do the priests not sell their land?
What a good answer contains
Genesis explains: "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" (47:22). They already had a royal food allowance, so they never needed to sell. A good answer gives exactly that reason. A weak answer guesses that they were wiser farmers or that Joseph favoured his father-in-law's class (41:45); the verse gives the allowance as the reason.
Show teacher guidance
Read 47:22: Pharaoh already supplies their portion. Do not explain their exemption as better farming or superior personal foresight.
5. How do Joseph's fifth, the retained four parts, and the Egyptians' gratitude fit together?
What a good answer contains
Joseph gives seed and sets the terms: "ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own" (47:24). The people answer, "Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants" (47:25). Then it becomes "a law over the land of Egypt unto this day" (47:26). A good answer holds rescue, gratitude and permanent dependence together and does not erase any of them.
Show teacher guidance
Use 47:23–26: seed and household sustenance accompany a continuing fifth for Pharaoh. Preserve the people's gratitude without erasing their dependency.
6. Why does Jacob insist on burial outside the land where his family now prospers?
What a good answer contains
Because Egypt is not the promised land. Jacob asks, "bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt: But I will lie with my fathers" (47:29-30). Israel has possessions in Goshen and multiplies (47:27), yet Jacob wants his body carried to the land God promised Abraham. A good answer connects this to 28:13 and 46:4, and sees it as an act of faith in God's word. Hebrews 11:13 speaks of the patriarchs dying as "strangers and pilgrims on the earth".
Show teacher guidance
Compare 47:27–31 with the ancestral promises. Identify burial with his fathers as an enduring orientation beyond Egyptian possessions.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Ask learners to assess a successful intervention by both immediate benefit and continuing obligations, using the grain-and-property ledger.
Relationships and community
Design a fictional famine-relief proposal that makes access, retained assets, exemptions, and long-term obligations visible for discussion.
Read power alongside rescue
Require each group to cite one verse on lives preserved and one on concentrated ownership before offering an evaluation of Joseph's administration.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
45 minutes
Shepherds before Pharaoh
Read 47:1-6. Ask question one.
The pilgrim blesses the king
Read 47:7-12. Ask question two and take confusion four.
The ledger
Read 47:13-21 and fill the two-column ledger. Ask question three.
The fifth part
Read 47:22-26. Ask questions four and five. Take confusion one.
Not in Egypt
Read 47:27-31. Ask question six.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line, and pray.
90 minutes
A refugee family
Ask what a family arriving in a foreign land might need most. Read 46:31-34 and 47:1-6 and ask question one.
Jacob and Pharaoh
Read 47:7-12. Ask question two and take confusion four. Discuss the word pilgrimage.
Money, livestock, land
Read 47:13-21 and fill the ledger carefully. Ask question three.
The fifth and the priests
Read 47:22-26. Ask questions four and five.
Weighing the policy
Take confusions one and two. Each group cites one verse on lives preserved and one on power concentrated, then states a balanced view.
Bury me with my fathers
Read 47:27-31. Ask question six and take confusion three. Read Hebrews 11:13-16.
Looking ahead
Read Exodus 1:8-11 briefly as a later reversal of Israel's position in Egypt.
Application
In pairs, evaluate a fictional relief plan by both its immediate help and its long-term cost.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line, and pray.
Adapting the lesson
Children
Use grain cards and field cards. Show people trading coins for food, then animals for food, then fields for food. Ask, did they get food? Yes. Did they lose things? Yes. Then explain gently that Jacob, when he was old, asked to be buried with his family in the land God promised.
Youth
Build the ledger together and compare short-term survival with long-term dependence. Let them disagree about Joseph's policy, provided they cite verses. Keep current politics out of the room. Then look at Jacob calling his life a pilgrimage and ask what it means to live as a traveller.
Adults
Examine emergency power, consent under pressure and exemptions. Allow different evaluations supported by the same verses. Discuss Jacob's self-description in 47:9 and his burial request as expressions of faith. Note how Exodus 1 later reverses Israel's position.
One to one
Read 47:7-10 and 47:29-31 together. Ask the person how they would describe their own years if asked as Jacob was. Let honest lament be welcome. Then read his request and ask where the person's true home is.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Genesis 47:1-31
The passage in brief
In Genesis 47 Joseph presents his brothers and father to Pharaoh, who gives them the best land in Goshen. Jacob blesses Pharaoh and calls his life a pilgrimage. As the famine grows worse, the Egyptians give Joseph their money, then their livestock, then their land and themselves, in exchange for food. Joseph gives them seed and sets a fifth of the harvest for Pharaoh, and they say he has saved their lives. Near death, Jacob makes Joseph promise to bury him in Canaan.
A verse to keep
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.
Genesis 47:9 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What did the Egyptians give in exchange for food in 47:14-20?
How does Jacob describe his life in 47:9?
Why does Jacob ask not to be buried in Egypt?
This week
This week, thank God for his provision and remind yourself that your true home is with him.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
