The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 536

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 inner life since the Ver. 6.-And Israel said,-thls is the incidents recorded of him in chs. xxxvil. and second time that Ja.cob is so designated in the xxxviii. history of Joseph, the first time being in eh. Ver. 11.-And their father Israel said xxxvil., which recites the sad account of unto them, If it must be so now (literally, Joseph's disappearance from the family circle. if so rww), do this ; take of the best fruits _The recurrence of what may eventually prove in the land (literally, of the SOW] of ehe land, another breach in the theocratic family is i. e. of its choicest and most praised produc- p_robably the cironmstance that revives the tions) in your vessels, and carry down the name Israel, which besides seems to prevail man a present. That Jacob could propose to .throughout the chapter (?lide vers. 8, 11)- send a handsome present of rich fruits to the Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell Egyptian viceroy has been regarded as incon- the man whether ye had yet a brother 1- sistent with the prevalence of a famine in the literally, whether yet to you a brother (sc. land of Cannan for over two or three years there was). (Bohlen); but (1) the failure of the cereal Ver. 7.-And they said, The man asked crops does not necessarily imply a like us straitly of onr state, and of our kindred, absence of fruit, and (2) it does not follow saying, Is your father yet alive t have ye that, though Jacob selected the under-men- another bi:other 1 Though not appearing in tioned articles for his gift, they exist(•d in the preceding narrative of the historian (eh. abundance, while (3) if the fruit harvest w,19 xiii. 13, 32), it must yet be held as accurate small, an offering such as is here described that the information given to Joseph about would only be all the more ln:roriant ,iwl Jacob n.nd Benjamin was supplied in answer to valuable on that account (Kurtz, Kalisch\. direct inquiries, since Judah afterwards gives A little balm,-balsam (vide eh. x=vii. 25) the same account of it (eh. xliv. 19) when -and a little honey,-0~:I. grape honey, pleading before Joseph in behalf of Benjamin. And we told him according to the tenor of called by the Arabians dibs, and the Persians these words-literally, accordi711J to these dushab, was prepared by boiling down mnst 1oords, i. e. either in conformity to his ques- or new wine to a third or half; hence called tions (Ainsworth, Rosenmiiller, Keil), ,card by the Greeks 'i,J,qi,a, and by the Romans r,}11 i1f'•pwr'I"'" ravr'l]v (LXX.),juxta idquod sapa, defrutum. It is still imported into f11erat scucitatU8 (V ulgate ), or like those Egypt from the district of Hebrnn. _That it words we have told thee (Kalisch). Could we was not the honey of bees, µ.X, (LX.'(. ), mel _certainly know (litemlly, knowi711J could we (Vulgate), is rnndercd probo.ble by the cir- know) that he would say, Bring your brother cUJnstance that Egypt abounds in this excel- down l lent production of nature (vide Michaelis, Ycrs. 8-10.-And J'udah said unto Israel 'Suppl.,' p. 301)-spioes, and myrrh (vide his father, Send the lad with me (Benjamin, eh. x.x..~vi1, 25), nuts,-tl'~t;l~, an oblong though styled a lad, must he.ve been at this species of nut, so ea.lied from its being flat on time upwards of twenty yea.rs of age), and we one side and bellying out on the other (the will arise and go; that we may (literally, and pistacia vem of Liunreus), having a.n oily 1oe shall) live, and not die, both we, and thou, kernel which is most palatable to Orientals and also our little ones. I will be surety (vide Kalisch in loco)-and almonds. Th" for him (the verb conveys the idea of chang- ii?.~ or almond tree, so called beca.nse of all ing places with another) ; of my hand ahalt t:t"ees it is the first to a.rouse from the sleep or thou require him (vide eh. ix. 5): if I bring him not nnto thee, and set him before thee, winter, the root being i~~. to be sleepless, -the words a.re even more emphatic than (Gesenins), does not seem to have been in- those of Reuben (eh. xiii. 37)-then let me digenous in Egypt, while it flourishes in bear the blame for ever-literally, and I Syria a.nd Palestine (Ka.lisch). ahall ba a sinner (i e. liable to punishment Ver. 12-And take double money (literally, e.s a sinner) against thee all the days (sc. of mcney of a second, i. e. of the sa.mo, amount; my life). The thought is elliptical. Judah not twice as much as the first timo, but sirnply means that if he does not return with Ben- a.s much as the first time) in your hand; iamin he shall both have failed in his promise and the money that was brought again (or and be guilty of a dire transgression aga.inst returned) in the mouth of your ea.eke, carry his father (cf. 1 Kings i. 21). For except we it a.gain in your band; peradventure it was had lingered? aurely now we had retll;l'Iled an overaight (literally, a somtthing cau.sed to this second time-literally, tliese two times. wander, a. mistake, from a. root signifying to The nobility of character which shines out so go a.stray). conspicuously in Judah's la.nguago is 11fter- Vers. 13, H.-Take also your brother, I I 2 484 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [err. XLIII. 1-34.