Genesis 47:4

47:4 Then they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live as temporary residents ¹  in the land. There ²  is no pasture for your servants’ flocks because the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. So now, please let your servants live in the land of Goshen.”

Genesis 47:11

47:11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers. He gave them territory ³  in the land of Egypt, in the best region of the land, the land of Rameses, ⁴  just as Pharaoh had commanded.

[47:4]  ¹ tn Heb “to sojourn.”

[47:4]  ² tn Heb “for there.” The Hebrew uses a causal particle to connect what follows with what precedes. The translation divides the statement into two sentences for stylistic reasons.

[47:11]  ³ tn Heb “a possession,” or “a holding.” Joseph gave them a plot of land with rights of ownership in the land of Goshen.

[47:11]  ⁴ 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.