Israel in Egypt

In context

At Beersheba God tells Jacob, “Don’t be afraid to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation,” and the whole family goes down; the house of Jacob numbers seventy, not counting his sons’ wives (Genesis 46:3, 26–27). They settle in Goshen, because, as Joseph tells them, “every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians” (Genesis 46:34).

Before he dies at 147, Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons, crossing his hands to put the younger, Ephraim, first (Genesis 47:28; 48:14). Then he speaks to each of his sons, “the twelve tribes of Israel.” Not all his words are blessings: he recalls Reuben’s wrong against him and Simeon and Levi’s violence (Genesis 49:3–7, 28). Embalming took forty days, and the Egyptians mourned him for seventy (Genesis 50:3). His sons bury him, as he asked, in the family grave, the cave of Machpelah (Genesis 49:29–31; 50:13).

After Jacob’s death the brothers fear Joseph will pay them back, but he comforts them and promises to provide for them and their little ones (Genesis 50:15–21). Joseph dies at 110, asking that his bones be carried to the land God promised; Moses takes them out of Egypt, and they are buried at Shechem (Genesis 50:24–25; Exodus 13:19; Joshua 24:32). Early in Exodus a new king arises “who didn’t know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8).