Read Genesis 44:18-47:27 at Bible Gateway.
teaching tools of scripture
outline of genesis according to its hebrew paragraph divisions
The paragraph divisions for this torah portion are:
Gen 44:18-46:7 {s} Joseph revealed to his brothers and father
Gen 46:8-27 {s} Seventy persons of Israel went down to Egypt
Gen 46:28-47:27 {p} Joseph the provider
This torah portion forms a chiastic structure:
Gen 44:18-47:27 s+s+p
1a) Gen 44:18-45:25, Joseph revealed + his brothers sent to retrieve Jacob and all his household:
– 1a.1) Gen 44:18-34, Judah speaks for the brothers before Joseph;
– 1a.2) Gen 45:1-15, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and fell on them and wept;
– 1a.3) Gen 45:16-20 Pharaoh’s speech: bring your father and come, and the best of the land of Egypt will be yours;
– 1a.4) Gen 45:21-23, Joseph gave them provisions for the journey;
– 1a.5) Gen 45:24-25, They went up out of Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob their father;
1b) Gen 45:26-28, Carts went up from Egypt and from Joseph to Jacob;
1c) Gen 46:1, Jacob came with all that he had to Beersheba;
central axis) Gen 46:2-4, God: “I will go with you down to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again;”
2c) Gen 46:5a, Jacob arose from Beersheba with all that he had;
2b) Gen 46:5b-27 s+s, Carts went down to Egypt carrying Jacob and all his seed, seventy persons;
2a) Gen 46:28-47:27, Joseph reunited + his brothers bring Jacob and all his household:
– 2a.1) Gen 46:28a, He sent Judah before him to Joseph;
– 2a.2) Gen 46:29-30, Joseph presented himself to his father, and fell on his neck and wept;
– 2a.3) Gen 46:31-47:11, Joseph presented Jacob and his brothers to Pharaoh + he gave them the land of Goshen;
– 2a.4) Gen 47:12-26, Joseph provided his father + his household + all Egypt with bread for the famine was very severe;
– 2a.5) Gen 47:27 p, Israel dwelt in Egypt, in Goshen, and they multiplied exceedingly.
I said last week that this torah portion would reveal why Joseph put his brothers through testing. The tests reveal the extent of their transformation! Benjamin was the clear favorite of Jacob, just as Joseph had been. But the brothers do not hate Benjamin because he is favored. They have accepted it and return honor to their brother and their father. Envy and hatred no longer rule them.
Joseph creates for them the same conditions of imprisonment and slavery that they created for him, and yet their response to his tests reveal their greater concern for the welfare of their father, rather than their own position in the household.
Judah in his speech to Joseph, offers himself to be slave in his brother Benjamin’s place. Slavery, we have seen before, is a type of death in Scripture, as it ends the way of life previously known. Now Judah had no way of knowing that the whole incident had been staged. He truly believed he was going to spend the rest of his life as a slave in Egypt. He could have let Benjamin bear his punishment, but out of love for his father, he gave himself in his brother’s place. His substitutionary “death” prophesies of Messiah Yeshua!
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