What does Genesis 47:5 Mean?

Context Summary

What a meeting between father and son! If the old man were sitting in the corner of the lumbering wagon, weary with the long journey, how he must have started up when they said, "Joseph is coming!" What pathos there is in the expression, "wept a good while," as though the long-pent-up streams took a long time to exhaust themselves. Had Joseph been less noble he might have shrunk from introducing his lowly relatives to the mighty Pharaoh! But such thoughts were submerged in the great love which claimed that withered, aged, halting man as his father. Let us never be ashamed of our Savior, who has done more for us than even Jacob for his sons. This confession that the days of his pilgrimage had been few and evil is set to a sad minor chord; and to the superficial gaze Esau had enjoyed a much more prosperous career; but when Jacob stood before Pharaoh the mighty monarch recognized his moral supremacy, and bent beneath his benediction. Surely the less is blessed of the greater. Here was the harvest of his tears! [source]

Chapter Summary: Genesis 47

¹  Joseph presents his father, and five of his brothers before Pharaoh
¹¹  He gives them habitation and maintenance
¹³  He gets the Egyptian's money;
¹⁶  their cattle;
¹⁸  and their lands, except the priests', to Pharaoh
²³  He restores the land for a fifth
²⁸  Jacob's age
²⁹  He swears Joseph to bury him with his fathers