The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Sojourning” it comes from the Hebrew Word “magur” which means “sojourning, a temporary dwelling place.”
An old shepherd stands before the most powerful ruler in the world, and blesses him instead of the other way around. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Genesis 47.
Joseph presents five of his brothers to Pharaoh, who grants them the land of Goshen to settle their flocks. Joseph then brings Jacob before Pharaoh as well. When Pharaoh asks his age, Jacob answers with striking honesty, describing his life as “few and evil,” only 130 years, compared to his ancestors, and calling his years “the days of the years of my pilgrimage.” The Hebrew word for this temporary dwelling is “magur.”
As the famine intensifies across Egypt, Joseph manages the crisis wisely, selling grain to the Egyptian people first for money, then for livestock, and eventually in exchange for their land, in order to survive. This policy consolidates land ownership under Pharaoh, though Joseph establishes that the people will keep a fifth of what they produce going forward, and the priests’ land is left untouched entirely.
Jacob’s family prospers greatly in Goshen, and as Jacob’s life nears its end, he makes Joseph swear to bury him back in Canaan, in the family burial cave, rather than in Egypt.
It is also worth noting the sharp contrast this chapter draws between Jacob and Joseph’s approaches to crisis. Joseph manages Egypt’s famine through careful, structured policy, while Jacob simply offers an honest, weathered assessment of his own long life. Together, the two men represent both the practical wisdom and the quiet endurance God had built into this family over generations of hardship.
Jacob’s life had real hardship in it, and he did not pretend otherwise even in front of Pharaoh. But he still saw his whole journey as a pilgrimage, a temporary path toward something more permanent. That honest perspective let him bless a king rather than envy him.
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