What Does Genesis 45:18 Mean?

"'And bring your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.'" Pharaoh's invitation through Joseph is comprehensive and generous: bring your father, bring your households, come. The "best of the land of Egypt" and "the fat of the land" are the idioms of abundance and prosperity: the richest agricultural land, the most productive areas, the fullest provision. Pharaoh is not offering a corner of Egypt; he is offering the best. The invitation matches the urgency: come quickly, and when you come, come to abundance.

"I will give you": Pharaoh's personal guarantee of provision, in addition to Joseph's promise in verse 11. The family coming to Egypt will be provided for by both the son who is prime minister and the king who appointed him. The double provision: Joseph's administrative authority to provide, Pharaoh's personal royal promise to give: represents the full resources of the Egyptian state deployed on behalf of one shepherd family from Canaan. The family of the covenant promise is being invited into the most powerful civilization of the ancient world as honored guests.

"The fat of the land": the idiom for agricultural abundance, the richest yields from the most productive land. In the middle of a famine, "the fat of the land" means the stored resources that Egypt built up during seven abundant years: exactly the grain that Joseph administered. The family that comes to Egypt will receive from the stores that Joseph organized. The famine that drove all the earth to Egypt will be the mechanism by which the family of promise is brought to Egypt to receive the fat of the land. The comprehensive generosity of Pharaoh's invitation is the beginning of the Genesis-to-Exodus transition: the family goes down to Egypt for provision and stays.