Genesis 47

Ge 47:1-31.

JOSEPH'S

PRESENTATION AT

COURT.

1. Joseph . . . told Pharaoh, My father and my

brethren--Joseph furnishes a beautiful example of a man who could

bear equally well the extremes of prosperity and adversity. High as he

was, he did not forget that he had a superior. Dearly as he loved his

father and anxiously as he desired to provide for the whole family, he

would not go into the arrangements he had planned for their stay in

Goshen until he had obtained the sanction of his royal master.

2. he took some of his brethren--probably the five eldest

brothers: seniority being the least invidious principle of

selection.

4. For to sojourn . . . are we come--The royal

conversation took the course which Joseph had anticipated

(Ge 46:33),

and they answered according to previous instructions--manifesting,

however, in their determination to return to Canaan, a faith and piety

which affords a hopeful symptom of their having become all, or most of

them, religious men.

7. Joseph brought in Jacob his father--There is a pathetic and

most affecting interest attending this interview with royalty; and

when, with all the simplicity and dignified solemnity of a man of God,

Jacob signalized his entrance by imploring the divine blessing on the

royal head, it may easily be imagined what a striking impression the

scene would produce (compare

Heb 7:7).

8. Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?--The question was

put from the deep and impressive interest which the appearance of the

old patriarch had created in the minds of Pharaoh and his court. In the

low-lying land of Egypt and from the artificial habits of its society,

the age of man was far shorter among the inhabitants of that country

than it had yet become in the pure bracing climate and among the simple

mountaineers of Canaan. The Hebrews, at least, still attained a

protracted longevity.

9. The days of the years of my pilgrimage, &c.--Though a hundred

thirty years, he reckons by days (compare

Ps 90:12),

which he calls few, as they appeared in retrospect, and

evil, because his life had been one almost unbroken series of

trouble. The answer is remarkable, considering the comparative darkness

of the patriarchal age (compare

2Ti 1:10).

11. Joseph placed his father and his brethren . . . in the

best of the land--best pasture land in lower Egypt. Goshen,

"the land of verdure," lay along the Pelusiac or eastern branch of the

Nile. It included a part of the district of Heliopolis, or "On," the

capital, and on the east stretched out a considerable length into the

desert. The ground included within these boundaries was a rich and

fertile extent of natural meadow, and admirably adapted for the

purposes of the Hebrew shepherds (compare

Ge 49:24;

Ps 34:10; 78:72).

13-15. there was no bread in all the land--This probably refers to

the second year of the famine

(Ge 45:6)

when any little stores of individuals or families were exhausted and

when the people had become universally dependent on the government. At

first they obtained supplies for payment. Before long money failed.

16. And Joseph said, Give your cattle--"This was the wisest

course that could be adopted for the preservation both of the people

and the cattle, which, being bought by Joseph, was supported at the

royal expense, and very likely returned to the people at the end of the

famine, to enable them to resume their agricultural labors."

21. as for the people, he removed them to cities--obviously for

the convenience of the country people, who were doing nothing, to the

cities where the corn stores were situated.

22. Only the land of the priests bought he not--These lands were

inalienable, being endowments by which the temples were supported. The

priests for themselves received an annual allowance of provision from

the state, and it would evidently have been the height of cruelty to

withhold that allowance when their lands were incapable of being

tilled.

23-28. Joseph said, Behold, &c.--The lands being sold to the

government

(Ge 47:19, 20),

seed would be distributed for the first crop after the famine; and the

people would 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.

29-31. the time drew nigh that Israel must die--One only of his

dying arrangements is recorded; but that one reveals his whole

character. It was the disposal of his remains, which were to be carried

to Canaan, not from a mere romantic attachment to his native soil, nor,

like his modern descendants, from a superstitious feeling for the soil

of the Holy Land, but from faith in the promises. His address to

Joseph--"if now I have found grace in thy sight," that is, as the

vizier of Egypt--his exacting a solemn oath that his wishes would be

fulfilled and the peculiar form of that oath, all pointed significantly

to the promise and showed the intensity of his desire to enjoy its

blessings (compare

Nu 10:29).

31. Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head--Oriental beds are

mere mats, having no head, and the translation should be "the top of

his staff," as the apostle renders it

(Heb 11:21).