47:11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers. He gave them territory 2 in the land of Egypt, in the best region of the land, the land of Rameses, 3 just as Pharaoh had commanded. 47:12 Joseph also provided food for his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household, according to the number of their little children.
47:13 But there was no food in all the land because the famine was very severe; the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan wasted away 4 because of the famine. 47:14 Joseph collected all the money that could be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan as payment 5 for the grain they were buying. Then Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s palace. 6
1 tn Heb “from before Pharaoh.”
2 tn Heb “a possession,” or “a holding.” Joseph gave them a plot of land with rights of ownership in the land of Goshen.
3 sn The land of Rameses is another designation for the region of Goshen. It is named Rameses because of a city in that region (Exod 1:11; 12:37). The use of this name may represent a modernization of the text for the understanding of the intended readers, substituting a later name for an earlier one. Alternatively, there may have been an earlier Rameses for which the region was named.
4 tn The verb לַהַה (lahah, = לָאָה, la’ah) means “to faint, to languish”; it figuratively describes the land as wasting away, drooping, being worn out.
5 tn Or “in exchange.” On the use of the preposition here see BDB 90 s.v. בְּ.
6 tn Heb “house.”