Genesis 47

¹Joseph therefore going in told Pharao, saying: My father and brethren, their sheep and herds, and all things that they possess, are come out of the Land of Chanaan; and behold they stay in the Land of Gessen.

²The utmost also of his brethren five persons he presented before the king:

³whom he asked: What trade have you? They answered: We thy servants are pastors of sheep, both we, and our fathers.

⁴We are come to sojourn in the land, because there is no grass for thy servant's flocks, the famine being very sore in the land of Chanaan: and we desire thee to command that we thy servants may be in the Land of Gessen.

⁵And the king therefore said to Joseph: Thy father and thy brethren are come to thee.

⁶The Land of Ægypt is in thy sight: make them to dwell in the best place, & deliver them the Land of Gessen. And if so be thou know that there are industrious men among them, appoint them masters of my cattle.

⁷After this Joseph brought in his father to the king, and set him before him: who blessed him,

⁸and being asked of him: How many be the days of the years of thy life?

⁹He answered: The days of the pilgrimage of my life are an hundred thirty years, few and evil, and they are not come to the days of my fathers, in which they were pilgrims.

¹⁰And blessing the king, he went forth.

¹¹But Joseph gave possession to his father and his brethren in Ægypt, in the best place of the land, in Rhamesses, as Pharao had commanded.

¹²And he nourished them, and all his father's house, allowing victuals to every one.

¹³For in the whole world there wanted bread. & famine oppressed the land, especially of Ægypt and Chanaan.

¹⁴Out of which he gathered together all the money for the selling of corn, & brought it in unto the king's treasure.

¹⁵And when the buyers wanted money, all Ægypt came to Joseph, saying: Give us bread: why die we before thee, our money failing?

¹⁶To whom he answered: Bring your cattle, and for them I will give you victuals, if you have not to pay.

¹⁷Which when they had brought, he gave them sustenance for horses, and sheep, and oxen, and asses: and he sustained them that year for the exchange of the cattle.

¹⁸And they came the second year, and said to him: We will not conceal from our lord, that our money failing, our cattle withal have failed: neither art thou ignorant, that we have nothing besides our bodies and land.

¹⁹Why therefore shall we die in thy sight? Both we and our land will be thine: buy us to be the king's bondmen, & give us seed, lest for default of tillers the land be turned into a wilderness.

²⁰Joseph therefore bought all the Land of Ægypt, every man selling his possessions for the greatness of the famine. And he brought it under Pharao's hands,

²¹and all the people thereof from the farthest ends of Ægypt, even to the uttermost coasts thereof,

²²saving the land of the Priests, which the king had delivered them: to whom also a certain allowance of victuals was given out of the common barns, and therefore they were not driven to sell their possessions.

²³Joseph therefore said to the people: Behold as you see, Pharao possesseth both you and your land: take seed, and sow the fields,

²⁴that you may have corn. The fifth part you shall give to the king: the other four Iam content you shall have for seed, & for food to your families & your children.

²⁵Who answered: Our life is in thy hand: only let our lord have a respect unto us, and we will gladly serve the king.

²⁶From that time until this present day in the whole land of Ægypt, the fifth part is payed to the kings, and it became as it were a law, saving the land of the Priests, which was free from this condition.

²⁷Israel therefore dwelt in Ægypt, that is, in the Land of Gessen, and possessed it: and was increased, & multiplied exceedingly.

²⁸And he lived in it seventeen years: and all the days of his life came to an hundred forty seven years.

²⁹And when he saw that the day of his death approached, he called his son Joseph, and said to him: If I have found grace in thy sight, put thy hand under my thigh: and thou shalt do me this mercy and truth. Not to bury me in Ægypt:

³⁰but I will sleep with my fathers, and take me away out of this land, & bury me in the sepulchre of my ancestors. To whom Joseph answered: I will do that thou hast commanded.

³¹And he said: Swear then to me. Who swearing, Israel adored God, turning to the bed's head.