Thread by @JoelBaden

#Genesis 47:1-12

Pharaoh meets Joseph’s family

If we’ve been paying attention up to this point, we know what’s supposed to happen here. The brothers are to say that they’re shepherds, so that Pharaoh will let them stay in Goshen, where they have already arrived.

And sure enough, first thing that happens is Joseph says “my brothers are in Goshen, with their flocks” - being sure to mention the whole shepherding thing all off-handed like, the sneaky devil.

And the brothers duly say “we’re shepherds” when Pharaoh asks what they do for a living, and mention the terrible famine in Canaan - which you’ll remember is a part only of the J story - and they specifically ask to remain (ישב) in Goshen.

Pharaoh’s response, though, starts out a little weird. “Your father and brothers have come to you.” Uh, no kidding dude, you were just talking to them. “The land of Egypt is open before you. Settle your father and brothers in the best of the land.” How about just Goshen, thanks?

It’s as if Pharaoh wasn’t listening at all. Especially to the part where the brothers said that they were shepherds, who are supposed to be so abhorrent to Egyptians. It’s even more jarring when in the next breath Pharaoh says “Let them stay in Goshen.”

What happened to “settle them wherever?” And then he clearly heard the shepherd thing, because he asks them to take charge of his livestock. If it isn’t clear, there’s something funky going on here. Pharaoh’s opening words in 47:5-6a don’t belong to J.

They belong to P, which continues in 47:7-10, in the dialogue between Pharaoh and Jacob. This isn’t so obvious a source assignment. In part it’s to do with plot logic - the purpose of the meeting with Pharaoh in J is to present the brothers as shepherds, so this doesn’t fit.

There are some relatively subtle stylistic things that suggest P here: “the years of your life” occurs only in P; the noun “sojourning” is exclusively P. But mostly it’s Jacob’s age: 130, which matches exactly with his age at his death in 47:28, in a verse that is also P.

In 47:11 we get the fulfillment of Pharaoh’s instructions in P: Joseph settles his brothers in the best of the land - in Rameses, not Goshen - as Pharaoh had commanded. And in 47:12 the same for J, as Joseph sustains his family just as he had promised in 45:11.

The two locations for the Israelites in Egypt will be maintained through the rest of the J and P accounts of Israel in Egypt. They’re in Goshen in J for the plagues (Ex 8:18; 9:26), and when they finally depart Egypt for good, they leave from Rameses in P (Ex 12:36). Continuity!