Reading the Bible, Genesis Chapter 11

Joseph brings the Israelites to Egypt

Yosef reveals his identity to his brothers

actually, this story continues the story from last week. this is actually a direct continuation and there is no time gap. this is the first time this happens, that a story is cut into two chapters just because its too long...

anyway, Yehuda cant agree to the conditions of Yosef. He pleas and explains why they cant go back to the father without benjamin. “it will kill him to lose the second son from the same wife”.

This speech tears Yosef and he breaks. he commands all Egyptians to leave him with his brothers, and reveals his identity while crying. it is noted that the Egyptians did hear him cry, even while being outside the room. this means they were actually worried for him and listened.

at first the brothers cant believe yosef, but he insists that this was God’s doing in order to actually prepare the land for the arrival of the family. yosef asks them to go back and bring the entire tribe to live in egypt, since he knows there are 5 more years of famine to go through. yosef asks several times to convince his father to come to egypt and gives them several reasons to tell him. this tells us that this kind of decision would have been very difficult for Yaakov to be done. this is both a bet, and maybe also they all knew that Yaakov would reject such an idea.

Thes news of the identity of the brothers arrives to Paroe. He asks yosef to give the brothers enough food to do the road to their home and back to egypt with the entire tribe. which is quite a gesture, considering that in such a situation, nobody would easily add more mouths to feed (remember that they planned carefully the amounts). this shows again how much yosef was respected in the house of egypt at the time.

before the brothers go on their way, yosef tells them “don't be angry on your way” (Genesis, 45:24). why would they be angry, if they only have good news? some say that they might be angry on themselves for all they have done to yosef. but he didn't want them to waste time or fight with each other on this.

Yaakov travels to egypt

the brothers arrive to Yaakov, tell him about the identity of the ruler in egypt, and once he believes them, he becomes alive again, and eager to see him.

he take everyone through beer sheva, where avraham covenant was and the promise for the land of Israel. God revealed himself there to Yaakov as well, confirming that he can go to egypt and that “I will bring you back here, and yosef will put his hands on your eyes” (genesis, 46:4). meaning, you will die in egypt, yosef will bury you (confirming that yosef is there), but your people will eventually be brought back here to their land.

Yaakov, now reassured of his path, takes off to egypt. this is not an easy task and that is why we have several times that it is said how much propoert yaakov has. it is like it is a trouble.

then we get a description about the traveling party. we have 66 people in yaakov’s family and 4 in yosef’s family. a total of 70 people will be in egypt. but we also have servants and a lot of cattle, I believe.

Israelites arrive to egypt

when they get closer, yehuda is sent to find the right spot in Goshen, the land that was given to the israelites to sit in. Yosef hears about their arrival and go there as well. emotional meeting with the father, of course, and then another interesting section. yosef is directs the family how to explain about themselves to Paroe. this is weird since a few months ago Paroe agreed to let them come and he promised all the best for them. this probably means that either Paroe changed his mind, or wasn't honest in the first place.

anyway, then Yosef goes to Paroe and explains to him about the family (it is said that he took 5 brothers with him to Paroe). and then Paroe ask the 5 brothers about their plans here. this doing is really weird, since the father is here, and he should have come to Paroe, rather than the sons.

then Paroe says that since its your family, let them stay here. but also if you know that either of them can work for you, you can hire them as ministers over the food project management.

eventually, Yosef brings yaakov to see Paroe. it is said that yaakov blesses Paoe twice. once in the beginning and once when he leaves. there is also a conversation in the middle, and paroe asks only about his age. it sounds like a courtesy conversation to an old wise man, but nothing more.

the tribe of Yaakov settles down in Goshen, gets food from Yosef, and all is well. they grow in numbers and thrive.

Money depleted. Yosef makes Paroe the owner of all land.

a few years go by, and the money the people have is depleted. they originally got money since Yosef paid them as he bought the food from them in order to put in the shelters and barns. they used the money to buy it back for several years, and now its finished.

Yosef said that he will now trade also against cattle. this works for another year. the next year he agrees to trade against their land and their slavery. this was the last thing these people could sell — their freedom. so from this point on, Paroe becomes the owner of al lands in egypt (like the pope of today :).

yosef then reorganizes the settlements and distributes the people differently across the land. probably after he redesigns a better usage of the land for growing crops etc. yosef also provides each farm with seeds to grow, and he develops the agriculture, since in some way they actually manage to start growing things. they pay 20% tax to the government from whatever they grow.

the bible text in hebrew.