Genesis Chapters 43-50

Chapter 43

Jacob (now called Israel) and his family end up eating all of the corn that they got in Egypt, so Jacob tells the boys that it’s time to go get more.  Judah brings up the detail about having to take Benjamin with them (they seem to have forgotten about Simeon rotting away in an Egyptian jail) and says that they will starve if they don’t do things “the man’s” way.  So Israel/Jacob tells them to gather up some balm, honey, spices, myrrh, nuts and almonds as gifts for “the man.”  He then tells them to take twice the money they need for the food and to take Benjamin along. At this point he remembers poor forgotten Simeon, and mentions trying to get him back as well. The boys do as their told and head out to get some food. (43:1-15)  Why they didn’t eat the nuts and honey, or how they grew them when they couldn’t grow other food is never explained.  There is also never an explanation as to why God isn’t just helping them instead of forcing them to go to Egyptians for help.

When Joseph spots the brothers and has his butler bring them to his house for lunch.  This scares the boys because they think that Joseph thinks they had stolen money the first time they were there and is going to make them slaves. (43:16-18)

When they get to Joseph’s house they explain to the steward about the money and he tells them not to worry and explains that he had put their money back.  He then brings out Simeon, feeds their donkeys, and lets them clean up for lunch. (43:19-24)

When Joseph arrives, the brothers give him their gifts. Joseph chit chats with them about their family and they have lunch. (43:25-34)

Chapter 44

The next morning Joseph has his steward fill up the brothers’ sacks with food, put their money back into the sacks, and put a silver cup in Benjamin’s.  Then when the brothers leave the city he has the steward chase them down, accuse them of stealing the cup, and bring them back to him. (44:1-14)

Joseph accuses them of theft, and tells them that Benjamin will be his slave since he was the one who actually “stole” the cup, and that the rest of them are free to leave.  Judah, begs Joseph to take him instead and let Benjamin go, because of what the loss of Benjamin would do to his father. (44:15-34)

Chapter 45

Joseph can’t hide his identity anymore and tells them who he is, and that they shouldn’t worry about what they had done to him, because it was obviously God’s plan. (45:1-7)

Joseph tells his brothers to go get their father and their families and bring them to Egypt so he can take care of them for the next five years.  Then the pharaoh tells Joseph to do what he had already done and gives him wagons and supplies for his brothers.  Joseph also gives his brothers some new clothes and gives Benjamin a bunch of money. (45:8-24)

The brothers go home and tell Israel (who is now called Jacob again), about Joseph and his offer. Jacob, (who is now called Israel again), agrees to go so that he can see Joseph. (45:25-28)

Chapter 46

Israel gets ready for his trip to Egypt, but stops at Beersheba for the night.  God comes to Israel in his dreams and calls him Jacob, even though he’s the one who changed his name to Israel.  God tells Israel/Jacob not to be afraid to go to Egypt because he will go with him and make him a great man there. (46:1-4)

The next morning Israel (who is once again called Jacob) gathers up all 67 members of his family, and all of their livestock and other possessions and they all head for Egypt.  He sends Judah ahead to tell Joseph they will meet him in Goshen. (46:5-28)

Joseph meets his family in Goshen, and he and his father have a teary reunion. (46:29-32)

Joseph tells his family to tell the Pharaoh that they are shepherds so that the Pharaoh will settle them in Goshen because all shepherds are “an abomination unto the Egyptians.” (46:33-34)  Why a man in his position wouldn’t know that Egyptians themselves were often shepherds who did not consider themselves abominations is not explained.

Chapter 47

After getting their story straight, Joseph introduces his family to the pharaoh, and gets permission for them to settle in Goshen, “in the land of Rameses” where he makes sure they have plenty to eat. (47:1-12) No explanation is given for the pharaoh calling the area “the land of Rameses”, when Ramses I wouldn’t even be alive for another 500 years.

After getting his family settled, Joseph gets back to his job of making sure that there is plenty of food for people throughout Egypt. (47:13-26)

During his 17 years in Egypt, Jacob (now called Jacob or Israel randomly) does well and his family grows, but as he nears death he makes Joseph promise to bury him back home and not in Egypt. (47:27-31)

Chapter 48

Since his father is sick, Joseph introduces him to his sons.  Jacob blesses the boys and says that the younger one will be more successful than the older, seemingly trying to pass on the problems he had with his own brother. (48:1-20)

Jacob then tells Joseph that one day God will make sure he returns to his native land which Jacob has made more his land than his brothers’, once again trying to sow discord amongst brothers. (48:21-22)

Chapter 49

Jacob then gathers all of his sons together and tells them their futures.  Most aren’t so good, but he says Judah (the brother-seller) will do the best, he heaps a good bit of praise on Joseph then makes them promise to bury him with Abraham and crew (again) then he dies. (49:1-33) The year is 1731 BC.

Chapter 50

After Jacob dies, Joseph gets permission to take him home for burial, and he and his brothers bury Jacob the maid-breeder in the same place as his incestuous ancestors. (50:1-13)

The boys then return to Egypt where Joseph formally forgives his brothers, again, for what they had done to him and eventually dies at the age of 110.  He is mummified and buried in Egypt. (50:14-26)

And so ends the book of Genesis.

Next time we will start on the book of Exodus, which doesn’t contain near as much incest, but does contain a lot more murder, genocide, and other godly death and suffering.

Genesis Chapters 36-42

Chapter 36

Basically , this chapter just runs through Esau’s children and grand-children and takes a long-winded approach to saying that Esau fathered the Edomites, after he left Jacob and Canaan behind.

Chapter 37

The story line goes back to Jacob’s family, and we learn that Joseph has become Jacob’s favorite son, and that Jacob had made him a fancy multi-colored shirt. Because of the favoritism Jacob has shown Joseph, the other eleven boys don’t like him much. (37:1-4)

To make matters worse Joseph starts having dreams where he is in charge of the whole family, except it seems for Dinah.  This makes his brothers even angrier. (37:5-11)

His brothers, who are working instead of dreaming, take the family’s sheep to Shechem to feed them.  Jacob tells Joseph to go join them and help out, so Joseph heads out to find his brothers.  When Joseph gets to Shechem his brothers aren’t there and some stranger finds him wandering around in a field (probably day-dreaming) and tells him that his brothers have taken the flock to Dothan, so he heads that way. (37:12-17)

Joseph’s brothers see him coming and decide to kill him, throw him in a pit, tell everyone that some beast ate him, and then “…see what will become of his dreams.”  But, Reuben the maid-breeder, convinces the rest of his brothers not to kill him, and just throw him into the pit. His intention is to rescue his little brother later, and take him back to Daddy.. (37:18-22)

So, when Jacob arrives in camp his brothers take his pretty coat, and throw him into a pit. (37:23)

The boys then sit down for supper and spot some traders headed for Egypt, Judah convinces most of his brothers to sell Joseph to the traders for 20 pieces of silver. (37:24-28)

When Reuben notices that Jacob is gone, they all decide to smear goat’s blood on Joseph’s pretty coat, and they take it to Jacob, who believes that a beast killed and ate his son.  Jacob losses it and starts dressing like Tarzan, and mourns hard for his lost boy, who we find out has been sold to the Pharaoh’s captain of the guard in Egypt. (37:29-36)

Chapter 38

Sometime after selling his little brother into slavery, Judah marries a Canaanite woman named Shuah.  Judah has three sons with Shuah:  Er, Onan, and Shelah. (38:1-5)

Judah then gets Er a wife named Tamar, presumably after he’s grown up a bit, but God doesn’t like Er, so he kills him. (38:6-7)

After Er dies, Judah has Onan marry his late brother’s wife so he can get her pregnant. Onan marries her, but instead of getting Tamar pregnant, he spills his seed on the ground since any child wouldn’t be considered his for some reason.  God gets mad at Onan for pulling out, and kills him.  Sell your brother into slavery, no big deal, but refuse to get your brother’s wife pregnant=death. (38:8-10)

Judah sends Tamar back to her father because he thinks that his sons keep dying because of her and he wants his youngest son Shelah to live long enough to give her a try. (38:11)

Then Judah’s wife dies, so he and his buddy go see what his sheep shearers are up to. (38:12)

Tamar hears that Judah is nearby so she dresses up like a prostitute to see if Shelah has grown up yet. (38:13-14)

Judah spots her, and not knowing who she is, offers her a baby goat for some sex.  She says ok, but only if he’ll give her his ring, bracelets and staff to hold until she gets her goat. He says ok, they have sex, and she heads back home to her father’s house. (38:15-19)

Judah gets the baby goat and has his buddy try to deliver it so he can get his jewelry back, but his buddy can’t find her. (38:20-24)

Three months later, Judah hears that Tamar has been selling herself and has ended up pregnant.  So Judah has her brought to him so he can burn her alive for being a whore. When she gets there, she shows him the jewelry, and he decides not to kill her.  (it’s OK because she was a whore for him and not some stranger) She later has twin boys:  Pharez and Zarah. (38:25-30)

Chapter 39

Now we turn to Joseph.

Since Joseph had been sold into slavery he had done quite well for himself, and had become the overseer of his owner’s estate.  God was good to Joseph’s owner, Potiphar, for appointing Joseph as overseer. (39:1-5)

Potiphar’s wife develops a hankering for Joseph and starts trying to get him to sleep with her.  Joseph keeps turning her down, then one day she grabs him by his cloak and he runs away leaving his cloak behind. She tells everybody he tried to rape her, and Potiphar throws him in prison.  Where the warden takes a liking to him, and puts him in charge of all the other prisoners. (39:6-23) Joseph doesn’t know how lucky he is that it wasn’t his dad deciding his fate, because we all know that Jacob would have killed him and every man town, then taken the women and children as slaves.

Chapter 40

While Joseph is running things at the prison, the Pharaoh throws his chief butler and chief baker in prison where Joseph is put in charge of them.  After they had been there a while the two men have dreams that make them sad.  When Joseph sees that they are upset he asks them what’s going on and they tell him that they have had dreams but have no one to interpret the dreams for them. Joseph tells them that interpretation of dreams is for God to do, so he will do it. (40:1-8)

So, Joseph tells the butler that his dream means that in three days he will restored to his old position. And, Joseph asks him to put in a good word for him. (40:9-15)

Then the baker, thinking he’ll get good news also, has Joseph interpret his dream.  Joseph tells him that in three days the Pharaoh would remove his head, hang him on a tree, and that birds would feast on his flesh. (40:16-19)

Three days later the Pharaoh throws a big party, gives the butler his job back, and hangs the baker. (40:20-22)

The butler forgets all about Joseph. (40:23)

Chapter 41

This chapter starts with more dreams.  This time the dreams are from the Pharaoh.  In the first dream seven fat cows are eaten by skinny cows.  And in the second seven good ears of corn are eaten by seven thin ears. The really strange thing about this last dream is that corn didn’t exist in the Middle East until sometime around the 16th century AD, some 3,500 years after the pharaoh’s dream.  In fact, no one in the Bible would have eaten corn, known what it was, or have even seen it, except possibly Adam. (41:1-7)

The pharaoh’s dream interpreters can’t figure out the dreams, and his chief butler suggests talking to Joseph. So, the pharaoh calls in Joseph, who gets cleaned up and goes to the pharaoh. (41:8-14)

The pharaoh tells Joseph about his dreams, and Joseph tells him that they both mean the same thing: that God has shown him that there will be seven good years in the kingdom followed by seven years of famine. (41:15-32)

Joseph then advises the pharaoh that he should put somebody in charge of things to collect a 20% tax on all food crops for the next seven years, so that those crops held as taxes can be used to feed people for the following years. (41:33-36)

After asking his advisers if they know of anyone who has God’s blessing to do such a job, the pharaoh makes Joseph a prime minister of Egypt and gives him jewelry, fine clothes, and the pharaoh’s own second chariot.  Pharaoh then changes Joseph’s name to Zaphnathpaaneah, and gives him Asenath the daughter of a priest for a wife.  Joseph is 30 years old when this happens. (41:37-46)  No explanation is given for the pharaoh’s belief in God.

During the next seven years, Joseph collects a lot of corn (seemingly from South America since corn won’t be in Egypt for another 3,500 years) and has two sons Manasseh, and Ephraim. (41:47-53)

Then the seven bad years start.  Joseph uses the corn he had stored to feed Egypt, and soon people come from other lands to buy corn, because the famine is worldwide. (41:54-57)

Chapter 42

Jacob hears about the corn in Egypt, and since his land is suffering from God’s famine along with the rest of the World he sends ten of his remaining sons to buy some of this amazing new grain.  Benjamin stays home because they are worried that he might get hurt.  They, like everyone else, have to go to Joseph for the purchase. (42:1-6)

Joseph recognizes his brothers, and disguises himself so that they won’t recognize him. He then accuses them of being spies, and tells them to send one brother to get their youngest brother and return with him or they will be thrown in prison. He puts them in jail for three days, then changes the terms for their release.  The new deal is that they can buy their corn and take it back, but one of them has to stay in prison until they return with their younger brother. (42:7-20)

They reluctantly agree, and Joseph has Simeon shackled and lets the others out.  Joseph then has his men fill the brothers’ grain sacks, put their money in their sacks, give them some provisions and send them on their way.  During their trip home the brothers discover that their money is in the sacks which confuses them. (42:21-27)

When they get home they tell Jacob about what happened.  Jacob says that there is no way he is going to send Benjamin to Egypt, because losing another son would kill him. (42:28-38)

Next Episode:

What will Jacob do?  Will it be revealed why God is trying to starve everyone to death? Will we learn how Joseph got corn from South America, and will he get potatoes also? Will the boys find suitable sisters or cousins to marry during this famine?  

Tune in next time as we finish the book of Genesis and at least one of these questions is answered.

For those of you who are interested, I have included below an updated family tree for Jacob’s family to account for the two sons of Judah which came from his buying the widow of his two oldest sons and using her like a prostitute.