Genesis 47:23

_THEN JOSEPH SAID UNTO THE PEOPLE, BEHOLD, I HAVE BOUGHT YOU THIS DAY AND YOUR LAND FOR PHARAOH: LO, HERE IS SEED FOR YOU, AND YE SHALL SOW THE LAND._ Joseph said ... Behold ... The land being sold to the government (Genesis 47:19-20), seed would be distributed for the first crop after the famine, and the people occupy them as tenants-at-will, on the payment of a produce rent, almost the same rule as obtains in Egypt in the present day....

23._Then Joseph said unto the people_. Here Moses describes the singular humanity of Joseph, which, as it then repressed all complaints, so, at this time, it justly dispels and refutes the calumnies with which he is assailed. The men, who were entirely destitute, and, in a sense, exiles, he reinstates in their possessions, on the most equitable condition, that they should pay a fifth part of the produce to the king. It is well known that formerly, in various places, kings have demanded by law the payment of tenths; but that, in the time of war, they doubled this tax. Therefore, what injury, can we say, was done to the Egyptians, when Joseph burdened the land, bought for the king, with a fifth part of its income; especially seeing that country is so much richer than others, that with less labor than elsewhere, it brings forth fruit for the maintenance of its cultivators? Should any one ob...

13-26 Care being taken of Jacob and his family, which mercy was especially designed by Providence in Joseph's advancement, an account is given of the saving the kingdom of Egypt from ruin. There was no bread, and the people were ready to die. See how we depend upon God's providence. All our wealth would not keep us from starving, if rain were withheld for two or three years. See how much we are at God's mercy, and let us keep ourselves always in his love. Also see how much we smart by our own want of care. If all the Egyptians had laid up corn for themselves in the seven years of plenty, they had not been in these straits; but they regarded not the warning. Silver and gold would not feed them: they must have corn. All that a man hath will he give for his life. We cannot judge this matter by modern rules. It is plain that the Egyptians regarded Joseph as a public benefactor. The whole is...

Verse Genesis 47:23. _I HAVE BOUGHT YOU THIS DAY AND YOUR LAND FOR PHARAOH_] It fully appears that the kingdom of Egypt was previously to the time of Joseph a very limited monarchy. The king had his estates; the priests had their lands; and the common people their patrimony independently of both. The land of Rameses or Goshen appears to have been the king's land, Genesis 47:11. The priests had their lands, which they did not sell to Joseph, Genesis 47:22; Genesis 47:26; and that the people had lands independent of the crown, is evident from the purchases Joseph made,...

- Jacob in Goshen 11. רעמסס _ra‛m__e__sês_, Ra‘meses “son of the sun.” 31. מטה _mı̂ṭṭāh_, “bed.” מטה _maṭṭeh_ “staff.” Arrangements are now made for the settlement of Israel in Goshen. The administration of Joseph during the remaining years of the famine is then recorded. For the whole of this period his father and brothers are subject to him, as their political superior, according to the reading of his early dreams. We then approach to the death-bed of Jacob, and hear him binding Joseph by an oath to bury him in the grave of his fathers. Genesis 47:1 Joseph announces to Pharaoh the arriv

EXPOSITION GENESIS 47:11 AND JOSEPH PLACED HIS FATHER AND HIS BRETHREN (_i.e._ gave them a settlement, the import of which the next clause explains), AND GAVE THEM A POSSESSION (_i.e._ allowed them to acquire property) IN THE LAND OF EGYPT, IN THE BEST OF THE LAND, IN THE LAND OF RAMESES,—either that district of Goshen in which Jacob and his family first settled (Michaelis, Rosenmüller), or, what seems more probable, the land of Goshen itself (LXX; Keil, Hengstenberg, Kalisch, _et alii_)_, _being so named proleptically from the town Rameses, which was subsequently built (Exodus 1:11), or, if the town existed in the time of Joseph, and was only afterwards fortified by the Israel

THEN JOSEPH SAID UNTO THE PEOPLE,.... After he had bought their land, and before the removal of them to distant parts: BEHOLD, I HAVE BOUGHT YOU THIS DAY, AND YOUR LAND, FOR PHARAOH: which he observes to them, that they might take notice of it, and confirm it, or object if they had anything to say to the contrary: LO, [HERE IS] SEED FOR YOU, AND YE SHALL SOW THE LAND: by which it should seem that they were not removed from the spot where they lived, but retained their own land under Pharaoh, and had seed given them to sow it with, which may seem contrary to Genesis 47:21; wherefore that must be understood of a purpose and proposal to remove them, and not that it was actually done; or, as Musculus gives the sense, Joseph by a public edict called all the people from the extreme parts of Egypt to the cities nearest to them, and there proclaimed the subje

CHAPTER 47 THE SETTLEMENT IN GOSHEN _ 1. Before Pharaoh (Genesis 47:1)_ 2. The settlement (Genesis 47:11) 3. Joseph's wise administration (Genesis 47:13) 4. Jacob's request (Genesis 47:27) Jacob and some of his sons were presented to Pharaoh, who received them graciously, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. The great and powerful monarch of the great land of Egypt was blessed by the poor old Jacob. He is more than blessed, but a blesser, a type of what Israel is yet to be for the nations of the earth. There is no discrepancy in...

JOSEPH TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THE FAMINE TO SECURE FOR THE CROWN THE MONEY, THE CATTLE, AND THE LANDS OF THE EGYPTIANS. If this belongs to one of the main documents, J is the most probable. But it may be an independent piece. It is an æ tiological story (p. 134). The system of land tenure in Egypt must have struck the Hebrews as strange; they accounted for it in this way. The system is not attested in the inscriptions, but there is confirmatory evidence, and it probably existed much as represented. Apparently the events described belong to the closing years of the famine, for the distribution of seed was of no avail till the seven years of famine were drawing to an end (Genesis 45:6). The money presumably lasted for about five years, the cattle paid for corn in the sixth, in the seventh year they sold their land and became serfs, on their own suggestion, the need was so desperate. The priest...

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 bargain they had made, he returns them their estates, and only lays a tax upon them for the better support of his prince's crown and government, at the rate of four shillings in the pound, or a fifth part; which he found by trial, from what was taken up in the seven years of plenty, AEgypt could well spare; a favour, which we see the people acknowledge with the utmost gratitude, confessing, that he had been the very saviour of their lives. _Thou hast saved our lives; let us find grace in the sight of my lord;_ we thankfully accept the generous grant, _and we will be Pharaoh's servants, i.e._....