Genesis 43 - 50: Hey, Let's All Go to Egypt!

Jacob and his sons and their families eventually eat all the food that they'd brought up from Egypt.

Jacob suggests that they maybe should go down and see about getting some more.

"Dad," they say, "you know he said we need to bring Benjamin down with us. So that's the only way we're getting anything else."

"You stupid knuckleheads, why did you have to go and blab about having another brother?"

"Well... he asked us," they reply. (If you go back a couple chapters, he didn't ask... they just kind of mentioned it.) Judah says, "Listen I promise he'll be fine. If you'd let me do this back when we got back I could have gone back and forth twice already."

"Alright, alright... take the kid. And take some other stuff... nuts and perfume and honey and some gum... everyone likes gum. And for crying out loud, don't forget to pay the man this time! Take extra money just in case."

They again travel all the way down to Egypt. Joseph sees them arrive and prepares a feast and tells his people to bring the travelers up to his house. His brothers are nervous because they think maybe they're in trouble for not paying the last time they were here and they try to explain the situation to Joseph's people.

"Ohhhh no, you're fine," says Joseph's steward. "You paid me. God must have put that money in your sacks. Amazing, right?"

They bring Simeon up from the jail, and everyone washes up for dinner. Joseph comes in for lunch and makes some small talk, asking about their father and such. But he gets a little overwhelmed with emotion at seeing Benjamin and has to step out a moment and compose himself before dinner.

After they eat, Joseph tells his steward, "Make sure they have food, then put their money back in their sacks. And here... take my cup that they know is mine and put it in Benjamin's sack. Don't let anyone see you."

Just after they leave, Joseph sends the steward after them. "Accuse them of stealing my cup. Really scare them, ok? Freak them out good.  This is going to be hilarious!  We'll all laugh about it later."

The steward catches up to them and yells at them. They deny taking anything, but a search turns up the cup in Benjamin's sacks. Busted. Back to Egypt they go.

They fall down in front of Joseph and beg forgiveness. Joseph replies, "Yeah, only the person who had it has to stay with me and be my servant. So the little one stays.  The rest of you can go home."

Jacob is not going to like it at all if they return without Benjamin. Judah tries to explain to Joseph how much this will hurt their father if Benjamin doesn't go home and he offers himself as a servant instead.

Joseph can't stand it anymore and bursts into tears. He sends all his servants out and when they're alone, he says, "DUDES! It's ME! JOSEPH! The one you sold into slavery! But hey, it's fine. Because if you hadn't sold me, I wouldn't have been here to interpret the Pharaoh's dream about the famine. Because of that, there's all this stored up food. So see? If I hadn't come here, we all would have died. God did that. Cool, right? So buzz back up to Canaan, tell our father that I'm down here, and bring the whole family down. We Hebrews are just going to fit right in here in Egypt! The Egyptians are awesome people. They love us!"

Pharaoh hears that Joseph's brothers are visiting him and agrees. "Oh look at your family! I'm so happy to meet you all!  You must bring everyone here and I'll give them the best of all we have.  I insist!"

I hate moving...

They load up the donkeys with a ton of stuff to prove the goodwill of the Pharaoh and with provisions for the trip to Canaan and then the return trip back to Egypt. They go and pick up Jacob and their wives and kids and families (all 70 of them) and make the trip back to Egypt. On the trip, God tells Jacob that they will be a great nation and, not to worry... that he will bring them up out of Egypt... eventually. And everything will be just fine.

Joseph meets up with them in Goshen and is reunited with his father. He tells them all, "I'm going to tell Pharaoh that you guys are all shepherds. So if he happens to ask, remember that. He'll give us the area of Goshen. Egyptians don't really like shepherds so we'll be ok here."

Pharaoh gives them Goshen and they settle there.

The famine continues and times get worse. People run out of money to buy food. Joseph tells the Egyptians that come for food that he'll take livestock in exchange for food. For a whole year he collects livestock in exchange for food.

The people run out of animals to trade. They start to give him their land for Pharaoh in exchange for food, and all the people become Pharaoh's servants. Joseph gives them seeds and tells them to sow this land, but that Pharaoh shall always get a fifth of the harvest. They agree.

Jacob's family does well in Goshen and accumulate wealth. Jacob grows old, and at 147 years, calls Joseph to him. "Promise me you'll bury me in Canaan." Joseph promises that he will. Jacob blesses Joseph's two sons and Joseph. Joseph sees that Jacob's right hand is on the younger son's head and tries to switch it over to the older son's.

"Nope, sorry," says Jacob. "Your younger son will be greater."

Then everyone gathers around Jacob as he's dying and Jacob tells them what's going to happen:

Reuben won't be the leader because he slept with that concubine. Simeon and Levi killed all those people after Dinah was raped and are too violent and rash to lead.

Judah will be praised by all his brothers and his descendents will be a strong tribe.

Zebulun will be a sea merchant and his area will be a harbor for ships.  Issachar will work hard and till the soil.  Dan will be a judge of the people of Israel.  Gad will be plagued by raiders, but he'll win in the end.  Asher's food will be really good and they'll be a rich people.

Naphtali is the pretty one.  Joseph is still my favorite.  Benjamin will be a great warrior.

And he dies. Joseph has the Egyptians embalm him and they mourn him for 70 days. Joseph asks Pharaoh for permission to go bury his father in the cave in Canaan. Everyone, including Pharaoh and all the elders of Egypt make the trek to bury Jacob.

Joseph's brothers worry that now that Jacob is gone, maybe Joseph will be mad at them again for that whole "faking his death and selling him into slavery" prank. So they tell Joseph that Jacob told them that he needs to forgive them. Joseph tells them not to worry since it all seems to have worked out pretty well.

Joseph lives 110 years, long enough to see his great great great grandchildren. Before he dies he reminds everyone about God's promise to bring them up out of Egypt and asks that when that happens, to please bring his bones with them. He dies and they embalm him and put him in a coffin.