Thread by @JoelBaden

#Genesis 47:27-31

The beginning of the end

Two summary statements from P, and one bit of dialogue from J as we near the end of the Joseph story and the various bits and pieces get wrapped up.

Israel settles in Egypt and acquires inheritable holdings (אחוזה) therein. The אחוזה is a P term and concept, and was referred to in the last P verse, 47:11. We have to read the reference to Goshen here as redactional, since that’s J; perhaps it read Rameses here originally.

Obviously the reference to being fruitful and multiplying in this verse is a dead giveaway for P. But what may not be clear is that this is it: this is the moment when Israel fulfills that aspect of the divine promise. It’s done, accomplished, never to be seen again.

(Well, it’s seen in retrospect in Gen 48, and in the pluperfect in Exod 1, with reference to this verse even, and H makes it part of its blessing and curse formulations in Lev 26. But for P proper, for the narrative, this is the moment, and God never needs say it to anyone else.)

That’s an important piece of data for later in the story (in Exod 1, in particular): for P, the multiplication of the Israelites takes place while they are happily settled in their various inheritable properties in Egypt.

(That they have inheritable properties in Egypt in P also makes sense, as it’s P who has them there for four hundred years. But I’m getting ahead of myself...)

The next verse, Jacob’s age, matches with the previous P notice about Jacob’s age, and signals the coming end of his life in typical P style. Whereas the other sources will tell us that Jacob is dying in their own ways, and imminently.

In fact, J does it right here, in 47:29: the time came for Jacob to die. The oath gesture here is the same as that Abraham gave his slave back in Gen 24, the hand under the “thigh.” Here too the request involves a trip out of the country and back.

This is the beginning of a sequence of deathbed speeches and blessings that will run the next two chapters, as Jacob has much more to take care of than Abraham and Isaac did, what with his twelve sons and, in some cases, their sons.