PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis
Thomas Whitelaw [1840-1917] · 541,608 words · 594 reading sections
The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 481
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 8.-Esau aeparatesfrom Jacob. I. GOD REQUIRES ENTIRE DEVOTEDNESe AND FA 1TH. Edom is allied to the true kingdom, but is not one with it. We may keep in mind the relationship between the descendants of the two brothers, that we may learn the more clearly to distinguish the true heirs of…
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Jehonat, giving the fragments that remain Ver. 3.-Now (literally, and) Israel loved to the younger Elohist and the late re- J'oseph more than all his children (literally, dactor. The insufficient character of the sons), because he was the son of his old age grounds on which such assignments are -literally, a 8m of o…
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same thing is still <lone among the Hindoos, (Lange)-my ahear aroae, and also atood crimson, purple, and other colours being upright (literally, stood, i. e. placed itsell often tastefully sewed to~ther for beautiful upright, and remained so); and, behold, your or favoured children (vide 'Oriental Illus- sheaves sto…
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bility of this Y,Rge at least of the sacred being fulfilled (Kalisch, Pererins) ; or (2} record (vide Hii.vemick, 'Introd.,' § 21), in Leah, as the chief mistress of J acob's house- opposition to Bohlen, who finds in the sym- hold (Willet, Hughes, Inglis); or (3) Bilhah, bolical che.rncter of J oseph's dreams on evi- R…
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of Jacob's partiality for Joseph. He was the son of Jacob's old age. However this expression may be explained ('lli,de Exposition), the amount of it seems to be diat Joseph had come to gladden Jacob's heart after a considernble period of wait- ing, and at a time when Jacob was beginning to feel himself an old man. H…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ch. xxxvii.-The representative man. Jacob may be said to fall into the back- ground from this time until his parting benediction. The kingdom of God is repre- sented in Joseph and his history. The main points in this chapter are- I. GoD's DISTINGUISHING GRACE TO JOSEPH, separating him fro…
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Vers. 2--4.--Joseph aJ, lwme. "Joseph, being seventeen years old," &c. Picturesque 8Ccne is the encampment of Jacob. How well the dark camel-hair tents harmonise with the general character of the spots in which they are pitched. Peace and purity should dwell there. Ten men of the tribe of Jacob are most depraved, but t…
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a mnn\ found him, and, behold, he was stript 1oseph out of his coat, his coat of wandering in the field (obviously seeking many ooloura-i. e. his coat of i,nds, or coat eomo thing or person) : and the man asked of pieces (vide on ver. 3)-that was on him. him, saying, What aeekeat thou 1 And he Vel'S. 24, 25.-And the…
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IIOMILETICS. Vers. 12-25.-Joseph among his brethren at IJothan. I. THE FRIENDLY MISSION. 1. Its local destinatioii. This was Shechem, at a distance of sixty miles from Hebron, where Jacob had previously resided for a number of years and acquired a 1,rnall estate ( eh. xxxiii. 18, 19), where Jacob's sons had committ…
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the same spirit of murder aa existed in Adam's, Like Cain, the sons of Jacob were of that wiclced one, and slew (in intention at least) their brother, and for the Rame reason (1 John iii. 12). 3. Ita impious desig11,--to spoil hie dreams. From this it is evident that they regarded hie dreams as a. Heaven-sent prognost…
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far ns intent goes) " a murderer." In all journeyings we have to commit our way unto the Lord, and he will guide and defend.-H. Yers. 20, 21.-Coa's pi·ovuknce and man's i·espon.sibili,ty. I. Goo's PURPOSES CAR• RIED OUT BY MEN IRRESPECTl VE OF 'l'HEIR OWN PLANS. The word to Abraham ( eh. x,·. 13) does not seem to h…
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.Joseph out ot the pit, and sold .Joseph to the my son's coat; an evil beast (vide ver. 20) Ish.maelites for twenty pieces of ailver - hath devoured him (this was precisely what literally, for twenty (sc. shekels) of Bilver= his sons meant him to infer); .Joseph is with- £2 10s. ; the price afterwards fixed for a out d…
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1thich the dead disappear, and whcro tl\oy Midianitcs or -l\fedanilcs were the actual consciously exist (2 Sam. xii. 23). Thu■ purchasers of Joseph, while the caravan took (literally, an<l) his father (not Isaac) wept itll name from tho Ishnrnelites, who formed for him, tho larger portion of it (Murphy)-eold him Ye…
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drew and lifted Joseph up out of tho pit, and sold him to the Midianites for thirty pieces of silver." The first recorded specimen of a transaction which has fre- quently been repeated in the history of mankind. Slave markets have often imitated, but seldom surpassed, the wickedness of which Joseph'e brethren were guil…
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EXPOSITION. introduce a passage from the life of Judah, CHAPTER XXXVIII. with the view of proving the necessity of Yer. 1.-And it ea.me to pe.ss. The pre- such removal, by showing, as in the case of sent chapter appears to interrupt the con- Judah, the almost certainty that, if left in ti11uitv of the narrative of…
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the narrative rrqnires the bitth of Hezron "Riches " "Cry for Help .. (Gcsenins). This end Hnmul to have tnken place in Canaan was not the name of Judah's wife (LXX. ), liut (Kalisch), it is simply llil:P°:'sibl? to bold of her father-(vide ver. 12)-and he took that all this occurred withm httle more her,-i. e. marr…
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l\ntailed by his evil OOut'lK',S 11.'1 immediately W. L. Alexander in Kitlo's 'Cyclopedia '); to snggc-st the punitive l1and or God. but mo1~ probably here I\ to\vn (Josh. xv. Y~r. 8.-And .Tuda.h &a.id unto Ona.n (ob- 67) in thn mountains or Judah (Robinson, viously nftcr a sufficient interval), Go in unto ii. 343, …
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family, Yet Tamar was really guilty of both ally, tlw C/YlUecraJed, the prostitul.'l bcin" adultery and incest, though Lnnge thinks the regarded as "one devoted to the WOT3hip of' wickedness of Er and Onan renders this open Astarte, a goddess of the Canaanites, the to question. deification of the generative and produc…
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HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-30.-The house of Judah: a family record of sin and sltame. I. THE WICKEDNESS or ER AND ONAN. 1. Early. On any hypothesis Er and Onan can have been little more than boys when they were man-ied, and yet they appear to have arrived at a remarkable precocity in sin. Nor was it simply that they had sh…
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11 prostitute, Tamar mnnifeatly was not a woman of refined and delicate sensibili- ties; but then she was a Canaanite, and had been the wife of Er and Onan1 who were not calculated to improve her modesty. 4. She was g,iilty of temptatwn. It ia true the narrative does not represent her as having been guilty of solici…
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EXPOSITION. 1 exception of a fow alterations by the redactor CH.APTER XXXIX. (Davidson), or because, though the work of ,·er. 1.-.And Joseph was brought down the Elohist, it has been modified by the to Egypt. The narrative now preparing to Jehovistic editor (Bleek, Yail1inger); but recite the fortunes of Joseph in E…
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HOMILETICS. Vere. 1-23.-Joseph in tlie house of Potiphar. I. PURCHASED AS A SLAVE. 1. A sad lot. Worse even thnn being kidnapped by strangers, Joseph had been first sold by his brethren; carried into Egypt, he had there been exposed for sale in a slave- market; and now, as if he had been a beast of burden or a captive…
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11 The Lord was with Joseph, and be was a prosperous man." A lesson on the true method of prosperity. A prosperous man is one who has the Lord with him- 1. To give him favour with fellow-men. 2. To teach him wisdom, and put things into his hand. 3. To give him the faculty of rule, and dispose others to trust him entire…
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voice and cried, that he left his garment the elder brother became like a panther; , , . with me (literally, by niy side), and fled, and he made his dagger sharp, and took it in his got him ont (or, went forth into the street, hand " (vide ' Records of the Past,' vol. ii ,a supra). p. 139). Vers. 16-18.-And she laid u…
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be n source of danger, and, if not guarde<l against, a cause of sin, to their possess- ors. In particular the good looks of men and women are often snares to others 11s well as fraught with peril to themselves, as the cases of Sarah (eh. xii. 14), Rebekah (eh. xxvi. 10), and Dinah (eh. xxxiv. 2)testify. Hence beauty of…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 21.-Joseph in slavery. "But the Lord was with Joseph," &c. Men would have thought, as they looked on the Hebrew slave, that he was God-forsaken. Not so. God blessed him. This was evidenced in the character he developed. The Lord was with him. I. DISCRETION, THE RESULT OF A BENSE OF T…
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EXPOSITION . . against, the preposition being repeated) the CH.APTER XL. king of Egypt-whom they had ntternpted Var. 1.-And it came to paas (literally, to poison (the Tnrgum of Jonathan), thou(l'h and it W(l.j) after these things (literally, this of course is only n conjecturo in the words, i. o. after the transacti…
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butlers and bakers, or cupbNi.rers and Court connected 1vith these dreams, that b11th of purveyors, the chiefs in both departments their recipients were simila.rly affected by being invested with high honour, and re- them, though there was much in the butler's garded with much tmst (Herod., iii. 34; dream to inspire…
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preters genera.Uy (Kalisch, Keil, Murphy) thee (literally, but, or mly, thou shalt re- regard the first e.s the unripe, a.nd the second member me with thee, a.ccording as, or when, a.a the ripe, cluster-and Pha.raoh's oup-- it goes well with thee), a.nd shew kindneBB, I C,1!1, a receptacle or vessel, either contract…
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Dathius, Rosenmiiller, and others), and ac- the instrument or method (Piscator, Lnpide, cords with the e'lidcnce of the monuments, Mercerus, 'Speaker's Commentary '). And which frequently exhibit baskets of wicker- the birds shall eat thy flesh from oft' thee. work (vide Will-i.nsou's 'Ancient Egyptians,' "The tenor…
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their official rank, the governor of the tower appointed Joseph to wait upon them and act 01 their servant. 2. Their attendant. In this new capacity Joseph behaved himself wisely and with discretion. With regard to his illustrious companions in misfortune, he-(1) Served them faithfully. "Joseph had been unjustly enslav…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 01· xl.-The inspire~ man. J?seph is already supreme in the narrow sphere of the prison: "all was comnutted to his hand." The narrow sphere prepares him for the wider. The spiritual supremacy has now to be revealed. "Do not interpretations belong to God ? " The dreams are partly of man and …
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man can attain to ; but the Holy SJlirit alone can so open it as to make it " the power of God." It is one thing to know the doctrines of sin and of salvation, and quite another to know ourselves ns sinners, and Christ as the Saviour. The one puffs up with pride of knowledge, the other leads to the one Foundation. Tl,e…
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We should blame others who were ungrateful; what if we have been I The longer action is postponed, the deeper the ingratitude, and the less likelihood is there that the favour will be felt. The longer postponed, the harder to acknowledge. Thus the butler may have hesitated to speak of Joseph because he would have to…
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\vas the common name for the Nile a.mong pointed to the corn of the Nile valley, the the E~tia.ns, the sacred being HO!pi (Ca.non truicumcompositum, which bears seven ears Cook m 'Speaker's Commentary,' p. 485). upon one stalk. The assertion of Herodotus, Ver. 2.-And, behold, there ea.me up out of t~at the Egyptians…
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1ent and called tor all the magioiana of Ver, 14.-Then Pharaoh aent and oalled Egypt,-the c•rp~~r,, from ~11:1 (tmused_l, to .Joseph, a.nd they brought him hastily (liter- engra,e, whence ~:;io, II stylus (Gesemus), all,:v1 caused him to run) out of the dungeon or from i-m, to see or explain, and Cl~~. to (vuu eh. x…
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fruiting ; o.nd Da.thiue renders by jej=. food of those good years that come, and lay After which he (i. e. Pharaoh) informs Joseph up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let that the professional interpreters a.ttached to them keep food i.n the cities (or, foou in the the Court (the chartummim, or masters of cities, a…
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Layard, 'Ninc'<'eh and Babylon,' p.156)-and Life," or "the Food of the Living" (Canon put it upon Joseph's hand (thus investing Cook in 'Speaker's Commentary ')-and he him with regal authority), and arrayed him gave him to wife-<lf. the act of Rhamp- in vestures of fine linen,-~t;!, {311c111ivri sinitus, who gave hi…
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shepherd, he was circnmciseu, which, if this the cases of Moses, Exod. ii. 21, and Esther, rite was already observed in Egypt, and did eh. ii. le); that Joseph may have deemed not originate with Joseph, would certainly the religion of Egypt, especially in its early not prove a bar to the contemplated alliance symbolica…
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dream on one and the self-same night; that a young man, then an inmate of the cells, a Hebrew, and. a servant of the provost marshal, to whom they severally relatC'd their extraordrnary dreams, 'l'olunteered to deliver their interpretation; and that the eYent, in ~he case of both himself and his companion, had turne…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Cb. xli.-The tried man is now made ready' by long experience for his poSition of responsibility e.nd honour. He is thirty years old. He can commence hie public ministry for the people of God and the world. Pharaoh'e dreams, the kine and the ears of corn, like those of the butler and baker,…
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step of the way had i~s purpose. (? ohn xvi. 20), In the prison he waa learning lessons of th.~ soul,-unlearmng ~he spmt _of censoriousness and of self-complacency ( eh, xxxvn. 2),-and, by obeymg, learnmg how to rule. And the course of events bore him on to what was prepared for him. Had he remained at home or retw·ncr…
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EXPOSITION. Ver. 46.-A.nd Joseph was thirty years account of the number of bushels which old when he stood before Phare.oh king of another man, acting under him, measures. Egypt-literally, a son of thirty years in The inscription is as follows: 'The writer hi,s standing before Pharaoh. If, therefore, or registrar of b…
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HOMILETICS. Vers. 46-57.-Joseph on tlw second throne in Egy_pt. I. DURING THE SEVE~ YEA~B OF rLENTY. 1. His mai,ure manhood (ver. 46). Thirteen years had elapsed B!nce his brethren had sold him at Dothan, and during the interval what a chequered hfe had he experienced l Carried into Egypt by the spice caravan of the M…
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rather than to the really nec~6sitous. ( 4) By affixing to it a price the people were en?ouraged as lor.ig as poss1_ble to _practise frugality and preserve independence. Wise governors will ?e slow m makmg· paupers of their subjects. This is one of the dangers conn_ect~~ with the Po_or Law Administration in our own …
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previous abundance, owing to the overflow of the river, that in the terrible time of dearth there was abundance of bread in Egypt. 2. The foresight and energy of one man had led to the husbanding of resources and storing o-f excessive crops. 3. Divine revelation caused Joseph to act. He could not have known of the impe…
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(this does not imply that the rumour had not in the 9nW,St of the comers; not as being also rear,hed Jo.cob's sons, but only that the desirous to lose themselves in the multitudes, proposal to visit Egypt did not originate with as if troubled by an a.h\l'ming presenti.mep.t them) that there is corn-"'\~~. ut supi-a,…
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one's self to be a foreigner. And spake pride was swallowed up by fear" (Lawaon). roughly unto them-literally, BJ>ake hard We are all one man's son•; we are true men, things unto them,· not from a feeling of -i. e. upright, honest, viri bona fidei (Ro- revenge which still struggled in his breast senmliller), rather tha…
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by some (Ainsworth, Wordsworth, Murphy, impress them. Nat only were tho nine to • Speaker's Commentary') the expression is be released, but their original demand for regarded simply as a strong asseveration (cf. grain to earn• home to Palestine \Vas to be l Sam. i. 26 ; xvii. 55)-ye shall not go complied with, the g…
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•ieten to their request for food, and their what they had done to him (Wordsworth), 8Ubsequent incarceration, though innocent and perhaps hoping to incite them, through of any offence, were all calculated to recall pity for Simeon, to retlll'Il the more speedily to their recollection successive steps in their with Benj…
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,nd told him all that befell unto them prompted him to endeavour to recover (literally, all the tMngs happening to them, Simeon, as formerly he had sought to deliver the participle being constmed with the ac- Joseph), Slay my two eons,-as Reuben had cusative); saying, The mo.n, who is the lord four sons (eh. xlvi. 9…
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to do to keep themselves from etarving. If the thought of Egypt bad anything to do with their listlessness antl inactivity, it may remind us how dangerous it is to sin 'the memory of past transgressions having an uncomfortable habit of springing up ·at unexpected moments, like grim and shaggy lions in the path; if t…
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Eg.yptian priest ( ~h. xli. 42); (3) he swore like a courtier-" By the life of Pho.mob," which certamly !us brethren knew was not the language of Canaan. Yet, if they had been ns nnx10us to see their lost brother as he had been to see them (it is just possible _Joseph may have been on the outlook for his brethren, e…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ch. xlii.-God:strials of his people. The trial of Joseph is over. Now comes the trial of his brethren and of Jacob. The Spirit of God is at work in a.II their hearts. True men they were and yet sinful men. Before they can be made partakers of the blessing of Joseph they must pass through t…
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EXPOSITION. Shechemites (Keil, Murpl1y); or because be CH.APTER XLIII. could speak to his father with greater free- Vors. 1, 11.-And the famine was sore dom, having a freer conscience than the rest (literally, was heavy) in the land (sc. of (Lange); or because be was a man possessed Canaan). And it came to paBB (how…
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from the fact that ho believed the Egyptian wards signally illustrated in his pathetic govel'llor to be in thorough earnest when he pleading before Joseph, and goes far to count- declared that without BeI\jamin they should enance the suggestion that a change must sue a second time in vain. have taken pla.ce in his i…
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and arise, go again unto the man; and God themselves), :Because of the money that Almighty-El Shaddai, the covenant God of was returned in our sacks at the first time Abraham (eh. xvii. 1), and of Jacob himself are we brought in; that he may seek oooa- (eh. xxxv. 11)-give yon mercy (literally, sion against us,-Iiterall…
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there, This must he.ve been communicated the knife, spit, or basin of a Grecian, nor to them after they had entered Joseph'e taste the flesh of a clean cow if it happenecl pe.le.ce, since they ha.cl obviously not learnt it to be .mt with a Grecian knife. For that is upon the we.y thither (vide au,pra, ver. 18), &n e.bo…
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famine, and the complete consumption of the corn they had brought from Eg·ypt ou the previous octasion. 2. Tiu second journey agreed on. (1) The difficulty started. As explained by Judah, it was useless to go to Egypt unless accompanied by Ben- JRmin, since the governor had solemnly protested and sworn that without him…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Cb. xliii.-Lessons of life. I. The chief lesson of this chapter is the MINGLING TOGETHER OF THE PROVIDENTIAL GOVERNMENT OF Gon WITH HIS PURPOSE OF GRACE. It was part of the Divine plan that Jacob and his family should be settled for a long period in Egypt. It could only be brought about by…
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Public domain historical Pulpit Commentary. Source page identifies the volume as Public Domain; text extracted from its historical PDF.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.