Genesis 47.1-6-Joseph's Brothers Meet Pharaoh
Wednesday March 28, 2007
Genesis: Genesis 47:1-6-Joseph’s Brothers Meet Pharaoh
Tape # 304
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 47:1.
This evening we will begin a study of Genesis 47, which is divided into five sections: (1) Joseph’s brothers meet Pharaoh (47:1-6). (2) Jacob meets Pharaoh (47:7-10). (3) Joseph settles family in Goshen (47:11-12). (4) Joseph enslaves the Egyptians to Pharaoh (47:13-26). (5) Joseph swears to bury Jacob in Canaan (47:27-31).
This evening we will note the first section contained in Genesis 47:1-6, which presents to us the record of Joseph’s brothers meeting Pharaoh.
Genesis 47:1, “Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, ‘My father and my brothers and their flocks and their herds and all that they have, have come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.’”
“My father” refers of course to Israel/Jacob and “my brothers” refers to Joseph’s eleven brothers: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Gad, Asher, Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali.
As we noted in Genesis 46:31-34, not only did Joseph’s father and brothers migrate to Egypt but also their wives and children and grandchildren of Israel/Jacob’s sons, not to mention the women and children of Shechem who were absorbed into Jacob’s family according to Genesis 34:29 as well servants.
Therefore, there could have been as many as 300 people belonging to Israel/Jacob’s household.
Remember, the purpose of the genealogy of Genesis 46:8-27 was not to record the name of every person who migrated from Canaan to Egypt but to name those who will become tribe and family heads.
“Flocks” is the feminine singular noun tso’n (/ax)) (tsone), which refers to sheep and goats.
“Herds” is the noun baqar (rqb) (baw-kawr), which refers to not only the cattle and oxen that God blessed Israel/Jacob with while in Paddan Aram with Laban (See Genesis 30-31) but it also refers to the offspring of these animals, which were born in Canaan.
The phrase “all that they have” refers to the material possessions of Joseph’s family.
“Canaan” is the more ancient name of Palestine, apparently derived from Hurrian, meaning, “belonging to the land of red purple,” the dye the early Canaanites or Phoenician traders peddled far and wide.
The natural boundaries of Canaan as expressed in the Bible extend from the Negev in the South to the northern reaches of the Lebanon Range in Syria and the land west of the range and of the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea.
As we noted last evening, in Genesis 45:10, we saw that Joseph sent an invitation to his father through his brothers to settle in the land of Goshen.
Genesis 45:10, “You shall live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have.”
Then, we saw in Genesis 45:16-20, Pharaoh extended an invitation to Israel and his family to settle in Egypt.
Genesis 45:17-18, “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and go to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you will eat the fat of the land.’”
Notice that unlike Joseph, Pharaoh does not specify the pasturelands of Goshen, which indicates that Pharaoh is unaware that Joseph’s family are shepherds in need specifically of pastureland and so we see that Joseph needs to obtain authorization from Pharaoh to settle his father and his family in Goshen.
Therefore, Joseph needed to be very diplomatic with Pharaoh and so we saw in Genesis 46:31-34, that Joseph wisely prepared his brothers for an audience with Pharaoh and coached them as to what to say to him on that occasion in order to receive the desired result of living in Goshen.
So Joseph informs his brothers in advance that he intends to request the land of Goshen for them and then in Genesis 47:1, we see him doing just as promised.
“Goshen” is the proper noun Goshen (/v#G) (go-shen), which was located in the eastern part of the Nile Delta, northeast of the Egyptian capital, Memphis and approximately 900 hundred square miles, well suited for grazing and for certain types of agriculture and sparsely occupied allowing room for Hebrew expansion.
This area was also called the “land of Rameses” in Genesis 47:11 and according to the Exodus narrative, which records that the Israelites left Goshen under Moses and went from Rameses through the Wadi Tumilat (a valley connecting the Nile and the Bitter Lakes region, now a part of the Suez Canal system) to Succoth (Compare Exodus 8:18; 12:37; 13:17f).
This situation is very delicate since the Egyptians considered shepherds an abomination and Joseph’s family were just that.
Therefore, Joseph did not want to offend his family by making them feel that he had adopted the Egyptian attitude in order to please the Egyptians and was treating them as socially inferior.
He needed to be perfectly honest in the matter and secure for his family a position of comparative isolation geographically, which would segregate them from the Egyptians who held their occupation with such contempt.
On the other hand, this situation was also difficult for Pharaoh since he was the king of Egypt who was bound by Egyptian customs and prejudices.
However, he did not want to offend Joseph and his family either and so Pharaoh needed to have a solution, which would not offend his countrymen or Joseph’s family.
Therefore, Joseph’s proposal to Pharaoh to settle his family in Goshen would solve the problem since it would segregate Joseph’s family from the bulk of the Egyptian population, isolating them from the majority of the population.
H. C. Leupold gives the following excellent comment, he writes, “Joseph knew the exact situation in reference to all things Egyptian and had coached his brethren how to meet this particular occasion. Yet much would depend on his own approach to Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s attitude had been very generous (45:17ff). But royalty has been known to speak generously and afterward to forget what it had promised. Besides, though Joseph was overlord over the whole land, he would have laid himself open to criticism had he provided for his own family in so liberal a manner as Pharaoh had suggested. It was the part of wisdom to have Pharaoh confirm publicly what he had originally suggested, and so to let it appear that the settlement of Israel was Pharaoh’s work.” (Exposition of Genesis, volume 2, page 1124; Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan).
Even though shepherds were detestable to the Egyptians, we saw in Genesis 46:31-34 Joseph instructed his brothers that they are to be honest with Pharaoh and tell him that they have been shepherds from their youth as were their ancestors so that he will give them the land of Goshen.
This in turn would segregate their family from the rest of the Egyptian population and would meet their needs as shepherds.
The racial bigotry of the Egyptians towards Hebrew shepherds would serve to maintain the Israelites as a separate people.
Even though the Israelites exile in Egypt was in many respects a bitter experience for them, it was a gracious act on the part of God since it protected them from the corrupt Canaanite influence.
Therefore, the divine rationale for the Lord permitting Joseph to be sold into slavery in Egypt was to relocate his family so as to protect them from the corrupting Canaanite influence.
Unlike the Canaanites, the Egyptians would be unwilling to integrate with the Israelites and absorb them into their culture since they considered their worship of God repulsive as well as the profession of shepherding.
The segregated culture of the Egyptians guaranteed that the embryonic nation of Israel could develop into a great nation within the Egyptian borders.
Therefore, the phrase “with their flocks and herds” emphasizes that Joseph’s family are shepherds, which in turn would assure Pharaoh that they did not have any social or political ambitions and would also preserve his family from the Egyptian way of life and intermarriage with the Egyptians.
Also, Joseph’s statement to Pharaoh, “behold, they are in the land of Goshen” is designed to plant in Pharaoh’s mind the idea of settling his family in Goshen.
Genesis 47:2, “He took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh.”
Although, the Scriptures do not record the names of the five brothers that Joseph selected to meet Pharaoh we can infer from Joseph’s wise and discerning actions in the past that he selected five brothers who would be most presentable at the Egyptian court to present their request to settle in the land of Goshen.
Genesis 47:3, “Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, ‘What is your occupation?’ So they said to Pharaoh, ‘Your servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers.’”
“Pharaoh” is the proper noun par`oh (hu)r+P^) (par-o), which means, “great house” and meant something like “his honor, his majesty” and was synonymous with the title “the king of Egypt.”
Sesostris III (1878-1853 B.C) would have been the Pharaoh that invited Jacob and his family to settle in the land of Goshen according to the chronology accepted by the Cambridge Ancient History and cited by Eugene H. Merrill (Kingdom of Priests, page 50, Baker Book House).
Pharaoh asks Joseph’s brothers their occupation since Joseph informed Pharaoh before he met his brothers that they were shepherds (See Genesis 46:31-34) while on the other hand, Joseph’s brothers follow his instructions, telling Pharaoh that they are shepherds even though shepherds were despised by the Egyptians.
“Shepherds” is composed of: (1) Masculine singular qal participle form of the verb ra`ah (hur) (raw-aw), which means, “shepherd” (2) Feminine singular noun tso’n (/ax)) (tsone), which refers to sheep and goats.
The verb ra`ah, “shepherd” is used as a transitive verb meaning that the noun tso’n, “sheep” functions as its direct object in order to describe the activities of Joseph’s family members who care for sheep.
Therefore, the word “shepherds” in the Hebrew text literally reads, “shepherd sheep” emphasizing the “activities” related to the occupation of a shepherd.
The phrase “our fathers” refers to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Genesis 47:4, “They said to Pharaoh, ‘We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, please let your servants live in the land of Goshen.’”
The word “sojourned” is the Hebrew verb gur (rWG) (goor), which refers to a specific legal status of a person who lives as a resident alien and is in a dependent legal status and is not a native.
The verb gur, “sojourned” signifies Jacob and his family’s status as “resident aliens” meaning that although they would live in Egypt they would possess neither land nor clan ties with the Egyptians and would be without legal support and protection and would be vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by the Egyptians.
Such a people, like Jacob and his family, would have been dependent upon a native to recognize and protect him while they were in Egypt, which of course, Joseph did while he was alive.
Furthermore, in Genesis 46:3-4, although after Joseph’s death the Egyptians exploited the Israelites, God gave Israel assurance that He would bless his descendants while they resided in Egypt and would make them a great nation there.
Therefore, the use of the verb gur in this statement “We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan” would clearly suggest to Pharaoh that Joseph’s family was requesting to live temporarily in his country as immigrants in order to find relief from the famine in Canaan.
The use of this verb gur, “sojourned” would also connect the Israelites migration to Egypt with the divine prophecy to Abraham recorded in Genesis 15:12-16.
Genesis 15:13, “God said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.’”
When Israel left Egypt under Moses, the Lord reminded the citizens of Israel that they were strangers and oppressed in Egypt and were therefore obligated to treat foreigners well when they lived in the land of Canaan.
Exodus 22:21, “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Exodus 23:9, “You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Leviticus 19:34, “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.”
Deuteronomy 10:19, “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”
The explanatory clause “the famine is severe in the land of Canaan,” was proper for Joseph’s brothers to communicate to Pharaoh even though Joseph did not tell them to say this to Pharaoh.
Therefore, they were saying in effect to Pharaoh that they had left their native land as a matter of necessity and survival.
Joseph’s brothers’ request of Pharaoh “please let your servants live in the land of Goshen” was not wrong on their part or in disobedience to Joseph’s instructions but was according to Joseph’s plan and in agreement with what he told Pharaoh.
This is confirmed in that Joseph informed his brothers that before they speak to Pharaoh he would let him know that they were already in Goshen as indicated by the statement in Genesis 47:1, “behold they are in the land of Goshen,” which was designed to plant in Pharaoh’s mind the idea of settling his family in Goshen.
Furthermore, the brothers’ request was also in line with Pharaoh’s offer in Genesis 45:18 “I will give you the best of the land of Egypt” which Goshen would be for Joseph’s family.
Genesis 47:5, “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Your father and your brothers have come to you.’”
Pharaoh’s statement “your father and your brothers have come to you” is official acknowledgement and legitimization of their presence” (Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis, pages 586, Zondervan).
In this statement, Pharaoh is in effect saying “so I see your father and your brothers have arrived.”
Pharaoh’s acknowledgement of the arrival of Joseph’s father and brothers reminds him of what he promised Joseph before their arrival, namely, “I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you will eat the fat of the land” (Genesis 45:18).
Genesis 47:6, “The land of Egypt is at your disposal; settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land, let them live in the land of Goshen; and if you know any capable men among them, then put them in charge of my livestock.”
Pharaoh agrees with Joseph’s suggestion to settle his family in the land of Goshen since it would not offend Joseph and his family or his Egyptian countrymen who disliked shepherds.
After Joseph’s brothers have their audience with Pharaoh, Pharaoh turns to Joseph and speaks to him granting his request as a special favor to Joseph for his delivering the nation of Egypt from famine.
By addressing himself to Joseph, Pharaoh implicitly authorizes him to be responsible for implementing his royal decree, which he did according to Genesis 47:11.
The manner in which this authorization is given expresses Pharaoh’s absolute authority, even over Joseph.
However, in Genesis 47:7-10, Israel blesses Pharaoh expressing his spiritual superiority over Pharaoh since God elected Jacob to inherit the promises, privileges, blessings, and responsibilities of the Abrahamic covenant.
Pharaoh’s offer “if you know any capable men among them, then put them in charge of my livestock” would further express his good will towards Joseph’s family.
This offer was not without precedence since Egyptian inscriptions frequently mention that foreigners were put in charge Pharaoh’s cattle.
It would provide Joseph’s family an opportunity to advance themselves in Pharaoh’s administration and enjoy privileges and protection not often extended to resident aliens as themselves.