Study Desk

When the news reached Pharaoh’s palace, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” Pharaoh and his servants were pleased.

He sent his father the following: ten donkeys carrying the best products of Egypt and ten female donkeys carrying grain, food, and provisions for his father on the journey.

So Joseph sent his brothers on their way, and as they were leaving, he said to them, “Don’t argue on the way.”

Israel set out with all that he had and came to Beer-sheba, and he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

They also took their cattle and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Then Jacob and all his offspring with him came to Egypt.

His sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters, indeed all his offspring, he brought with him to Egypt.

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt—Jacob and his sons:

These were Leah’s sons born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, as well as his daughter Dinah. The total number of persons: thirty-three.

These were the sons of Zilpah—whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah—that she bore to Jacob: sixteen persons.

These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel. She bore to Jacob: seven persons.

The total number of persons belonging to Jacob—his direct descendants, not including the wives of Jacob’s sons—who came to Egypt: sixty-six.

Now Jacob had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to prepare for his arrival at Goshen. When they came to the land of Goshen,

Joseph hitched the horses to his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel. Joseph presented himself to him, threw his arms around him, and wept for a long time.

Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s family, “I will go up and inform Pharaoh, telling him, ‘My brothers and my father’s family, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

He took five of his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh.

And Pharaoh asked his brothers, “What is your occupation?”

Joseph then brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

Then Joseph settled his father and brothers in the land of Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s family with food for their dependents.

In this way, Joseph acquired all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh, because every Egyptian sold his field since the famine was so severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s,