_JACOB, AND FIVE OF HIS SONS, ARE INTRODUCED TO PHARAOH, WHO ASSIGNS THE LAND OF GOSHEN TO THEM. THE AEGYPTIANS DELIVER UP THEIR FIELDS, THEIR CATTLE, AND THEMSELVES FOR FOOD. JOSEPH ASSURES JACOB, BY AN OATH, THAT HE WILL BURY HIM IN THE SEPULCHRE OF HIS FATHERS._ _Before Christ 1705._... [ Continue Reading ]
MAKE THEM RULERS OVER MY CATTLE— These words seem much to strengthen the interpretation of the last verse in the former chapter, which affirms, that shepherds were not held as impious and profane by the AEgyptians, but only as men of a mean and despicable profession: and, indeed, one can hardly conc... [ Continue Reading ]
JACOB BLESSED PHARAOH— When the word, _bless,_ says Calmet, is applied to God, it signifies to _thank,_ or _praise;_ when to men, it signifies, _to wish them health, prosperity,_ or _happiness:_ in which latter sense it is here used. _Jacob blessed Pharaoh, i.e._. wished him health, and a long and h... [ Continue Reading ]
OF MY PILGRIMAGE— The life of a believer is no other than a pilgrimage; while distant from his heavenly country, he has no abiding city. This is the beautiful idea, under which the language of sacred Scripture represents life in general. It is peculiarly applicable to the lives of the patriarchs, bu... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE LAND OF RAMESES— Some great writers are of opinion, that Rameses is the name of a king, and that the part assigned to the family of Jacob belonged to the royal territories. There was certainly a king of this name among the kings of AEgypt. Others suppose, that this was the name of a province... [ Continue Reading ]
JOSEPH GATHERED UP ALL THE MONEY— As long as the AEgyptians had any money left, they bought corn of Joseph, which supported them all the third, and, it is probable, the fourth and fifth years of the famine. That all the money of the people was expended, is, I think, very evident from the words of th... [ Continue Reading ]
JOSEPH SAID, GIVE YOUR CATTLE— There was certainly no injustice, as Chandler in his Vindication observes, in making the AEgyptians pay for the corn, which Joseph had bought with Pharaoh's money, and laid up with great care and expence: and in demanding their cattle, he had, most probably, a view to... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THAT YEAR WAS ENDED— The sixth year of the famine; _they came the second year, i.e._. the next year after the sale of their cattle, which was the last of the famine, as appears from the next verse, compared with Genesis 47:23.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE SHALL WE DIE—WE, AND OUR LAND— Land may be said, metaphorically, to die, when it lies uncultivated and desolate: this is agreeable, says Calmet, to the language of the poets, and of the best elastic writers. So Martial says, _suburbanus ne moriatur ager.*_ Seneca, _sata et vivere et mori d... [ Continue Reading ]
AS FOR THE PEOPLE, HE REMOVED THEM TO CITIES— Chandler, in his Vindication, observes well, "that in ch. Genesis 41:48. we are told, that Joseph _gathered up the food, and laid it up in the cities; the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same:_ so that, instead of s... [ Continue Reading ]
ONLY THE LAND OF THE PRIESTS BOUGHT HE NOT— Lord Shaftesbury has from this circumstance taken occasion to observe, in his usual way, "to what height of power the established priesthood was arrived, since the crown offered not to meddle with the church-lands: and that, in this great revolution, nothi... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN JOSEPH SAID, &C.— These three verses confirm all that we have said of the wisdom and humanity of Joseph. A wise minister of state, but, at the same time, generous, tender, and compassionate, he acquired for his king all that his subjects possessed; yet, instead of rigorously insisting upon the... [ Continue Reading ]
JOSEPH MADE IT A LAW— Chandler remarks, that Joseph, to his honour, was so far from enslaving the country, that, with the consent of king and people, he settled both the rights of the crown and of the subject upon the foundation of an irrepealable law, and was the first who limited the power of thei... [ Continue Reading ]
PUT—THY HAND UNDER MY THIGH— See note on ch. Genesis 24:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL LIE WITH MY FATHERS— Jacob's desire to be buried with his fathers is easily accounted for, both from that natural inclination which men have to be buried with their ancestors, and from his faith in the Divine promise that his posterity should inherit the land.... [ Continue Reading ]
BOWED HIMSELF UPON THE BED'S HEAD— The Septuagint and Syriac versions render this, _Israel worshipped upon the top of his staff;_ and I see no sort of reason why the Hebrew should not have been rendered exactly the same in our version of the Bible; for, literally, it is, _and Israel bowed himself up... [ Continue Reading ]