Sources: Genesis 46–47; Exodus 1:1–7; archaeological evidence from Tell el-Dab’a (ancient Avaris).

Jacob’s family of seventy persons settles in the Goshen region of the eastern Nile Delta, invited by Joseph who has become Pharaoh’s vizier. The settlement is presented as the fulfillment of God’s warning to Abraham in the covenant of pieces (Gen 15:13): “Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.” The promised land must be temporarily abandoned to reach its fulfillment. The Goshen region corresponds archaeologically to the area around Tell el-Dab’a, ancient Avaris — excavations there have uncovered a large Semitic settlement with 12th–18th Dynasty material, including a palace complex with wall paintings showing Semitic figures in Egyptian court style. The Hyksos (from Egyptian heka-khasut, “rulers of foreign lands”) controlled northern Egypt (~1650–1550 BC) and their capital was at Avaris; this period provides the most plausible historical setting for a Semitic official rising to power as Joseph does. The settlement begins as a privileged arrangement — Joseph’s family given the best of the land (Gen 47:11) — but the conditions will change entirely after Joseph dies and “a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph” comes to power (Exod 1:8). What begins as refuge becomes bondage.