Genesis 47:26

_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....

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 47:26. _AND JOSEPH MADE IT A LAW_] That the people should hold their land from the king, and give him the _fifth_ part of the produce as a yearly tax. Beyond this it appears the king had no farther demands. The whole of this conduct of Joseph has been as strongly _censured_ by some as _applauded_ by others. It is natural for men to run into extremes in attacking or defending any position. Sober and judicious men will consider _what_ Joseph did by _Divine appointment_ as a prophet of God, and what he did merely as a _statesman_ from the circumstances of the case, the complexion of the times, and the character of the people over whom he presided. When this is dispassionately done, we shall see much reason to adore _God_, applaud the _man_, and perhaps in some cases censure the _minister_. Joseph is never held up to our view...

- 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

AND JOSEPH MADE IT A LAW OVER THE LAND OF EGYPT UNTO THIS DAY,.... With the consent of Pharaoh, his nobles, and all the people of the land, who readily came into it; and so it became, a fundamental law of their constitution, and which continued to the times of Moses, the writer of this history: [THAT] PHARAOH SHOULD HAVE THE FIFTH [PART]; that is, of the increase the whole land of Egypt produced: EXCEPT THE LAND OF THE PRIESTS ONLY, [WHICH] BECAME NOT PHARAOH'S; it not being bought by him; so Diodorus Siculus m, as he assigns the first part of the land to the priests, so he says they were free from all taxes and tribute, and next to the king were possessed of honour and authority. m Ut supra. (Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 47.)...

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...

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 their princes. This circumstance seems confirmed by Diodorus, who, among other instances of the good government of AEgypt, mentions this, b. 1: "That the people were not oppressed with taxes; and that the husbandmen rented their lands, at a small price, of the king, the priests, and the soldiers:" a happiness which they seem to have derived from Joseph's constitution. _EXCEPT THE LAND OF THE PRIESTS ONLY_— i.e.. Except the _fifth part_ of the land of the priests only, their land not becoming subject to the payment of any taxes. REFLECTIONS.—Business must interrupt the pleasing intercourse of frie...

3. _Joseph as Prime Minister of Egypt_ (Genesis 41:46 to Genesis 47:31) 46 And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. 47 And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls. 48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. 49 And Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left off numbering; for it was without number. 50 And unto Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera priest of On, bare unto him. 51 And Joseph called the name