Jacob Goes Down to Egypt

Meanwhile, with affairs in Egypt well arranged to meet the famine, a severe shortage of grain began to afflict the world. Driven by this need, Jacob sent his sons into Egypt, keeping only Benjamin at home with him. Since Joseph was at the head of affairs and had complete control over the grain supplies, his brothers came to him and paid him the same honor as a king. When he saw them, he cleverly hid that he recognized them, and accused them of having come as enemies, to spy out the land by stealth. But he was troubled not to see his brother Benjamin among them. So things came to this point: they promised that Benjamin would come, chiefly so that he might be asked whether they had entered Egypt to spy out the land. To make sure the promise was kept, Simeon was held as a hostage, while grain was given them freely. [a]

So they went home, and came back bringing Benjamin with them as had been agreed. Then Joseph made himself known to his brothers, to the shame of these men who had wronged him. He sent them home again loaded with grain and given many gifts, warning them that there were still five years of famine to come, and advising them to come down to Egypt with their father, their children, and all their households. So Jacob went down to Egypt, to the great joy of the Egyptians and of the king himself, and his son welcomed him tenderly. This happened in the hundred and thirtieth year of Jacob’s life, and one thousand three hundred and sixty years after the flood. But from the time when Abraham settled in the land of the Canaanites to the time when Jacob entered Egypt, two hundred and fifteen years are to be counted.

After this, in the seventeenth year of his stay in Egypt, Jacob fell seriously ill and begged Joseph to see that his remains were laid in the tomb. Then Joseph presented his sons to be blessed. Jacob blessed them, though in the worth of the blessing he set the younger above the elder; and then he blessed all his own sons in turn. He died at the age of a hundred and forty-seven. His funeral was a most impressive one, and Joseph laid his remains in the tomb of his fathers. Joseph went on treating his brothers kindly, although after their father’s death they were afraid, conscious of the wrong they had done. Joseph himself died in his hundred and tenth year.