The Bible

 

Genesis 47

Study

   

1 And Joseph came and told Pharaoh and said, My father and my brethren, and their sheep and their cattle, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.

2 And he took from the whole number of his brethren, five men, and set them before Pharaoh.

3 And Pharaoh said to his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers.

4 And they said to Pharaoh, To sojourn in the land are we come; for there is no pasture for the sheep that thy servants have, for the famine is grievous in the land of Canaan; and now, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

5 And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come to thee.

6 The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land settle thy father and thy brethren: let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if thou knowest men of activity among them, then set them as overseers of cattle over what I have.

7 And Joseph brought Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

8 And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the days of the years of thy life?

9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they do not attain to the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their sojourning.

10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from Pharaoh.

11 And Joseph settled his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

12 And Joseph maintained his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according to the number of the little ones.

13 And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very grievous; and the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were exhausted through the famine.

14 And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

15 And when money came to an end in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, saying, Give us bread! for why should we die before thee? for [our] money is all gone.

16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle, and I will Give you for your cattle, if [your] money be all gone.

17 And they brought their cattle to Joseph; and Joseph gave them bread for horses, and for flocks of sheep, and for herds of cattle, and for asses; and he fed them with bread for all their cattle that year.

18 And that year ended; and they came to him the second year, and said to him, We will not hide [it] from my lord that since [our] money is come to an end, and the herds of cattle are in the possession of my lord, nothing is left before my lord but our bodies and our land.

19 Why should we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be bondmen to Pharaoh; and give seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land be not desolate.

20 And Joseph bought all the soil of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them; and the land became Pharaoh's.

21 And as for the people, he removed them into the cities, from [one] end of the borders of Egypt even to the [other] end of it.

22 Only the land of the priests he did not buy; for the priests had an assigned portion from Pharaoh, and ate their assigned portion which Pharaoh had given them; so they did not sell their land.

23 And Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and sow the land.

24 And it shall come to pass in the increase that ye shall give the fifth to Pharaoh, and the four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.

25 And they said, Thou hast saved us alive. Let us find favour in the eyes of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's bondmen.

26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, [that] the fifth should be for Pharaoh, except the land of the priests: theirs alone did not become Pharaoh's.

27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they had possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly.

28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; and the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were a hundred and forty-seven years.

29 And the days of Israel approached that he should die. And he called his son Joseph, and said to him, If now I have found favour in thine eyes, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me: bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt;

30 but when I shall lie with my fathers, thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their sepulchre. And he said, I will do according to thy word.

31 And he said, Swear to me; and he swore to him. And Israel worshipped on the bed's head.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #6115

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

6115. 'And Joseph caused the silver to come to Pharaoh's house' means that all that factual knowledge was brought into association with the general whole within the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'causing to come' as bringing into association with and introducing into; from the meaning of 'silver' as factual knowledge that holds truth in it and is appropriate, dealt with in 6112; and from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as the natural in general, dealt with in 5160, 5799, 6015, and therefore 'Pharaoh's house' is the general whole within the natural since this includes everything there in its entirety.

[2] Regarding this matter of bringing known facts that hold truths in them and that are appropriate into association with a general whole, it should be recognized that all known facts, and truths as well, if they are to be anything, must without exception be brought into association with a general whole. They must be placed with and contained within the general whole and be made subject to it; otherwise they are instantly scattered to the winds. Indeed, if known facts and truths are to be anything, they must be brought into a form in which they have a mutual relationship with one another, and this cannot be done if they do not exist in association with one another subject to a general whole. This therefore is what preserves them in the form they receive and gives each fact or truth there its specific character. That general whole too, together with others like it, must be brought into association with one another subject to a more general whole, and these in turn must be subject to the most general of all. If they are not, even the general wholes, and the more general ones too, are scattered to the winds.

[3] The most general and all-embracing whole, the source from which everything is held in place, is the Lord Himself; and what holds everything in place is Divine Truth going forth from Him. The more general wholes are general communities in the spiritual world into which Divine Truth flows, which makes them distinct and separate from one another on a general level; and the general wholes are less general communities subject to a more general one. The more general communities are those to which the members, organs, and viscera in a person correspond; through the amazing way that they are linked together they exist in a kind of form in which they have regard to one another and thus hold one another in place, and also present themselves as a single whole. In the human being the most general and all-embracing whole, holding every single thing in place, is the soul. It is also Divine Truth going forth from the Lord, for Divine Truth flows constantly into the soul and makes it what it is.

[4] Divine Truth going forth from the Lord is what is called the Word, through which all things were created, John 1:1-3, that is, through which all things came into being, and therefore through which all things are kept in being. The truth that all things in the entire natural world exist subject to a general whole, each specific thing to its own general whole, and that otherwise they cannot remain in being, anyone will plainly discover who is willing to turn his attention to those things in the natural creation.

  
/ 10837  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.