The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 514

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 reveal his own ingratitude. Possibly he hoped Joseph was dead. Not so; Joseph lives. Forgotten by man, he is not forgotten by God. God will yet bring the forgetful one and his benefactor face to face. II. AROUSED MEMORIES. Wonderful is that faculty of the mind whereby we can imagine ourselves to exist in the past. Some have weak memories, others strong, Some have memories for places and thoughts, others for dates, figures, and words. 'Whether memory be strong or weak, the power of association is such that at times facts Jong past will be brought back most vividly. Revisiting plnces of interest, traversing certain countries, will bring to memory past friendships, and perhaps even subjects of conversation formerly held there. A house in which one has been born or trained becomes a complete history in time. Certain seasons arouse memories of the past, as birthdays, wedding days, Christmas time, or Easter. Certain circum- stances also arouse memory. Pharaoh's perplexity concerning his dream forcibly reminded the butler of bis morning of sadness in the prison. "I do remember," &c. The butler implied that he repented of his sins and of his forgetfulness. He may not have been very sincere, but as a courtier he introduces a subject in that way. Let us remember our faults, our inconsistencies as Christians, our hesitation to con- fess Christ, our excusing ourselves on the ground of the doings of others. Let us be plain with ourselves. Let us not see the motes in the eyes of others, and forget the beams in our own. Let us remember them that we may be humbled, may gain experience of bow to e.void them in the future, may gain strength to resist, may gain pardon for past faults, and learn thereby more of the infinite forbearance and love of God, who is so willing to blot out our transgressions, and even the memory of our sins.-H. EXPOSITION. Diet.,' p. 488; Sharpe's 'History of Egypt, CHAPTER XLI. vol. i. p. 35). It may assist the student to Ver. 1.-And it came to pass at the end arrive at a decision with respect to these con- of two full years (literally, two years of tending aspirants for the throne of Pharaoh days, i. e. two complete years from the in the time of Joseph to know that Canon commencement of J oseph's incarceration, or Cook (' Speaker's Commentary,' vol. i. p. more probably o.fter the butler's liberation), 451), after an elaborate and careful as well as that Pho.re.oh-on the import of the term scholarly review of the entire question, re• vide eh. xii. 15. Under what particular gards it as at least "a very probable conjec- monarch Joseph came to Egypt is a question ture" that the Phare.oh of Joseph was Ame- of much perplexity, and has been variously nemhe. III., "who is represented on the lately• resolved by modern Egyptologers in favour discovered table of Abydos as the last great of-1. Osirtasen I., the founder of the twelfth king of all Egypt in the ancient empire (tho dynasty, a prosperous and successful sove- last of the twelfth dynasty), and as such re- reign, whose name appears on a granite obe- ceiving divine honours from his descendant lisk at Heliopolis (Wilkinson, '.Ancient Rameses "-dreamed. "For the third time Egyptians,' i. 30, ed. 1878). 2. Assa, or are dreams employed as the agencies of Jo. Assis, the fifth king of the fifteenth dynasty seph's history: they first foreshadow his illus- of Shepherd kings (Stuart Poole in Smith's trious future ; they then manifest that the 'Bible Diet.,' art. Egypt). 3. Apophis, a Spirit of God had not abandoned him even in Shepherd kingofthe fifteenth dynasty, whom the abject condition of o. slave and a prisoner; all the Greek authorities agree in mentioning and lastly they are made the immediate fore- as the patron of Joseph (Osburn, 'Monu- runners of his greatness" (Kalisch). And, ment.al History,' vol. ii eh. 2; Thornley behold, he stood by the rivor-i. e.. upon Smith, 'Joseph and bis Times,' p. 42). 4. the banks of the Nile, the term il-tl (an Thotbrnes III., a monarch of the eighteenth Egyptian word signifyin~ great river or dynasty (Stanley Leatbes in Kitto's 'Cyclo- canal, in the Memphitic dialect yaro, in the pecha,' p. 744). 5. Rameses III., the king of Sahidic yero) being used almost exclusively Memphis, a ruler belon~g to the twentieth in Scripture for the Nile (Exod. i. 22 ; ii. dynasty (Bonomi in The Imperial Bible 8; vii. 15; Gesenius, 'Lex.,' p. 826). This OH. XLI. 1-45.) THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 461