The Famine in Egypt Worsens: Genesis 47.13-26
The famine is so bad that there is no food at all, except for what Joseph stored in Egypt. The people of Egypt and Canaan spend all their money on food. After this, Joseph exchanges food for livestock. That food lasts for a year of the famine. After that the people are broke and without livestock, so Joseph buys the land the people live on, making the residents of Egypt slaves to Pharaoh. The priests, who live on a fixed income from Pharaoh, kept their land, but the rest of Egypt is enslaved. In exchange for their enslavement, Joseph gives seed to the Egyptians, who must give one-fifth of the harvest to Pharaoh. “So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth. The land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh’s” (Gen. 47.26).
In this passage Joseph, who is the favorite of his father, the former favorite of Potiphar, the former favorite of the jailer, the current favorite of Pharaoh, is characterized as having even greater power. Now he does not simply exchange food for money, but cattle and land as well. He even enslaves all of Egypt! With control over the people’s food, Joseph is the strongest political figure in Egypt, at least as strong as and perhaps stronger than Pharaoh himself.
Of course, the Joseph’s power is predicated on a supportive Pharaoh who approves his actions. This sets up a bitter irony for the following chapter, Exodus, in which the political situation of the family of Israel is completely reversed.
The Last Days of Jacob: Genesis 47.27-31
“Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the region of Goshen; and they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly” (Gen. 47.27).
Jacob/Israel dies at the age of one hundred forty-seven, having spent seventeen years in Goshen.
But before that happens, Israel has Joseph make a patriarchal pledge to him. The method is similar to Abraham’s command to his servant in Genesis 24: Joseph is to put his hand under Israel’s thigh and swear to him, an act which conveys the power of the patriarch in both a figurative and literal (by proximity) sense. Israel’s request is that he is not buried in Egypt: “When I lie down with my ancestors, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place” (Gen. 47.29-30). Joseph swears it. Then Israel bows himself on the head of the bed.
Jacob Blesses Joseph’s Sons: Genesis 48.1-22
Hinted at in the last verse of Genesis 47, Israel is ill. Joseph is told this, and takes his two sons with him to Jacob. Jacob summons the strength to sit up in his death bed and tell Joseph of the blessing of progeny and land that he received from God at Luz: (In part) “I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your offspring after you for a perpetual holding” (Gen. 48.4).
Jacob then adopts Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph’s sons, as his own. This way they might be tribes of Israel, like Reuben and Simeon. Their offspring, instead, will be Joseph’s. The reasoning for this is a bit strange. Jacob refers to the death of Rachel, so perhaps the children are adopted to compensate for the children that Jacob never had with her. If that is the case, Jacob could have taken Benjamin’s sons instead. After all, Rachel died delivering Benjamin. If that were the case, though, there would be a lot of children being blessed in this scene. And future verses listing Ephraim and Manasseh as members of Israel would not make much sense. Likely the adoption is related to Jacob’s favoritism towards Joseph.
Joseph feigns blindness, but has one last trick up his sleeve. He is a trickster even on the death bed. The scene plays well off of Jacob’s other deathbed blessing trick, in which he tricks his father Isaac, lying on his deathbed, into bestowing the blessing of the firstborn on him instead. Even dying and blind like his father, Jacob has a trick up his sleeve. After Jacob kisses and embraces Joseph’s sons, he (ironically?) tells Joseph, “I did not expect to see your face; and here God has let me see your children also” (Gen. 48.11).
Joseph then places (the younger) Ephraim at Israel’s left hand and (the firstborn) Manasseh at his right. The blessing should favor the firstborn, and therefore be given with the right hand. But Jacob pulls the old switcheroo, crossing his hands to that he places his right hand on Ephraim and his left on Manasseh. Jacob the blesses Joseph:
The God before whom my ancestors Abraham and Isaac walked,the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,the angel who has redeemed me from all harm, bless the boys;
and in them let my name be perpetuated, and the name of my ancestors Abraham and Isaac;and let them grow into a multitude on the earth.(Gen. 48.15-16)
Joseph is displeased by his father’s crisscrossed hands. He grabs Jacob’s right hand to put it on Manasseh’s, correcting him so that he may bless the first born. Jacob refuses, telling his son that Manasseh will have a great nation, but Ephraim will be greater. Jacob knows a bit about the second son being greater than the first; in fact, it is a very common theme in Genesis.
Israel tells Joseph that he is about to die, but that the blessing will be fulfilled. He then gives his favorite son one more portion than his brothers receive, “the portion that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow” (Gen. 48.22).
Tomorrow: More blessings.
No comments:
Post a Comment