Joseph
Jacob’s eleventh son, sold into slavery by his brothers. He rises to govern Egypt under Pharaoh and brings his family there during a famine. The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh descend from his two sons.
Joseph is the first son of Rachel and the eleventh of Jacob (Genesis 29:31–30:24). His brothers sell him to traders when he is seventeen (Genesis 37:2) (Genesis 37:28). In Egypt he rises from prison to rule the country under Pharaoh at thirty (Genesis 41:39–46), and the story of the famine and of his family’s move to Goshen is told in Joseph and the Descent into Egypt. He marries Asenath, daughter of a priest of On, and has two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim (Genesis 41:50–52). Jacob adopts them as his own and sets the younger, Ephraim, first (Genesis 48:5) (Genesis 48:17–20). Joseph forgives his brothers (Genesis 50:19–21) and dies in Egypt at 110 (Genesis 50:26). Moses takes his bones out of Egypt, and they are buried at Shechem (Exodus 13:19) (Joshua 24:32).
Psalm 105 calls him a man sent ahead of Israel (Psalm 105:16–22), Stephen’s speech retells how he brought his family to Egypt in the famine (Acts 7:9–14), and Hebrews counts his instruction about his bones as an act of faith (Hebrews 11:22). His dates are worked out from the Bible’s own figures; see the dating note at Joseph and the Descent into Egypt.
In the timeline
- about 1898 BC to 1876 BC, traditional dateJoseph and the Descent into Egypt
Joseph, sold by his brothers as a slave, rises to govern Egypt and stores grain against a seven-year famine. He is reconciled with his brothers, and Jacob’s whole family settles in the land of Goshen.