The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 527

(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, (Lange), which is forced and unnatural; but .,.;,-or (LXX.), truicum (Vulgatc)-in Egypt: either as forming a part of a caravan of get you down thither. That Jacob did not, Canaanites (Lawson), or simply as arriving like Abraham (eh. xii. 10) and Isaac (eh. among others who came from the same ne- :cm. 2), propose to remove his family to cessity (Keil). For the fa.mine was in the land of Ce.nae.n. The statements in this Egypt, ~aybe explained either by the length of the Journey, which was too great for so verse concerning the descent of Joseph's large a household, or by the circumstance brethren to Egypt, and the prevalence of the that the famine prevailed in Egypt as well as famine in the land of Canaan, both of which Canaan (Ge1·lach). That he intrusted his have already been sufficiently announced (vide sons, and not his servants, with the mission, ver. 3 ; eh. xli. 57; xiii. 2), are neither use- though perhaps dictated by a sense of its less repetitions nor proofs of different author- importance (Lawson), was clearly of Divine ship, but simply the customary recapitulations armngement for the further accomplishment which mark the commencement of a new of the Divine plan concerning Joseph and paragraph or section of the history, viz., that his brethren. And buy (i. e. buy corn, the in which Joseph's first interview with his verb being a denominative from "'1:;)I:,', corn) brethren is described (cf. 'Quarry on Genesis,' pp. 556, 657). forns from thence. From this it is.~pparent Ver. 6.-And Joseph was the governor that the hitherto abundant flocks and herds of the patriarchal family had been greatly over the le.nd. The word ~ 1~~. from ~?o/, reduced by tl1e long-continued and severe to rule, describes one invested with despotic drought, thus requiring them to obtain food authority, or a sultan (Gesenius), in which from Egypt, if either any portion of their character the early Shemites appear to have flocks were to be saved, or themselves to regarded Joseph (Keil). It is probably the escape starvation, as the patriarch explained same idea which recurs in the name Salatis, to his sons. The.t we me.y (literally, and we which, according to Manetho, belonged to shall) live, e.nd not die. the first of the shepherd kings (Josephus, Ver. 3.-And J'oseph's ten brethren went 'Contra Apionem,' i. 14). Occun-ing no- down-either it was for safety that all the where else in the Pentateuch, it reappears in ten went, or because, the corn being sold to the later writings of Eccles. (vii. 10; x. 5), individuals, the quantity received would de- Ezra (iv. 20; vii. 24), Dan. (ii. 15; v. 29), pend on theirnnmbers (Lange)-to buy corn which, however, need not suggest an exilian -the word for corn, "'I~, if not a primitive, or post-exilian authorship, but may be ex- like the Latin far (Furst), may be derived plained by the fact that the root is found equally in the Arabic and Aramrean dialects from "'IJ~, to separate, sever, choose out, hence (Keil). And he it was the.t sold to all the purify (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Gesenius), and people of the land. Not conducted the =y describe grain as that which has been retail corn trade (Tuch, Oort, Kuenen), which cleaned from chaff, as in Jer. iv. 11-in was assigned to subordinates (ver. 25; eh. (literally, from, i. e. corn to be brought from) xliv. 1), but presided over the general market Egypt. of the kingdom (Murphy), probably fixing Ver. 4.-:Bnt (literally, and) :Benjamin, the price at which the grain should be sold, J'oseph's brother (vule eh. xxxv. 18), Jo.cob determining the quantities to be allowed to sent not with his brethren. Nat because of purchasers, and examining the companies of his youth (Patrick, Lange), since he was now foreigners who came to buy (Rosenmiiller, upwards of twenty years of age, but because 1-Iavcrnick, Lange, Gerlach). And Joseph's he was J oseph's brother, and had taken brethren came, and bowed down themselves Joseph's place in his father's affections (Law- before him with their faces to the earth. son, Lange, Murphy, &c.), causing the old And so fulfilled his early dream in Shechem man to cherish him with tender solicitude. (eh. xxxvii. 7, 8). For he said (to, or within, himself, perhaps Ver. 7.-And Joseph saw his brethren, recalling the fate of Joseph),.Lest peradven- and he knew them, but (literally, and) made ture mischief befall him. pc~. from i11;;lt,-:, himself strange unto them. '.l'he root "'l;;l}, to hurt (Gesenius, Fiirst), and occurring only to be marked, signed, by indentation, hence !!1.sewhere in ver. 38, eh. xliv. 29, and Exod. to be foreign (Fiirst), or simply to be strange ;oci. 22, 23, denotes any sort of personal (Gesenius), in the Hiphil signifies to press injury in general, and in particular here such strongly into a thing (Fiirst), to look at a mischance as might happen to a traveller. thing as strange (Gescnius), or to recognise, Ver. 5.-And the sons of Israel co.me to and in the Hithpael has the sense of 1·epre- bny com e.mong those the.t co.me-literally, senting one's self as strange, i. e. of feigning 01'1, XLII, 1-38.) THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 475