Day 16, Genesis 45-47

Today Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and couldn’t help but weep. He wept aloud so that everyone in the household of Pharaoh could hear him.

“So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”

-Genesis 45:4-8

Joseph told them to go and tell their father to come to him, and that they should all live near him in the land of Goshen. When the Pharaoh heard that Joseph’s brothers had come, he told them to come down and they would receive the best of the land. The brothers departed and Joseph told them, “Do not quarrel on the way.”

When they returned to the land of Canaan they told Jacob that “Joseph is still alive. and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” At first Jacob did not believe them, but they told him the words that Joseph had said.

“And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

-Genesis 45:28

All members of the family set out on the journey to Egypt. They stopped in Beersheba to offer sacrifices to the God of Israel’s father Isaac. There God spoke to Israel in a dream.

“And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here am I.” Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”

-Genesis 46:2-4

Jacob and all of his offspring came with him: “his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters.” Then it listed out all the descendants of Israel who came into Egypt.

“All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy.”

-Genesis 46:27

Jacob and Joseph were reunited and Jacob said to him, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.” Jacob’s family settled in Goshen and would continue to be shepherds.

Joseph brought his father to Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed him. Then they settled on their land, and Joseph provided his father and brother’s households with food according to their dependents.

The famine was still on them, and there was no food in the land. People would come from all over to buy food from Joseph. When their money ran out to pay for it, they would offer their livestock as payment. When their livestock ran out, and they had nothing left to offer, they offered themselves and their land.

“So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh’s. As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other.”

-Genesis 47:20-21

Israel had settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, for seventeen years. “So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years.” And when the time drew near for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph to him. He made him promise to carry him out of Egypt when he died, and to bury him in the land of his fathers.