pilgrin1s to their appointed settlement (Da- castes that then prevailed. .According to o. thius, Rosenmiiller, Keil, Lange, Ainsworth, law promulgated by Amasis, a monaroh of Mm-phy, 'Speaker's Commentary'), rather the 26th dynasty, every Egyptian was obliged than that Joseph might meet him in Goshen to give a yearly account to tho monarch or (LXX., Vulgate, Samaritan, Kalisch)- and State governor of how he lived, with the (having received the necessary directions) certification that if he foiled to show that ho they came into the land of Goshen. The possessed an honourable calling (o,~ai'I" l.:d11v) LXX. read,;, yiji, 'Paµ,crcrij,asin eh. xlvii. 11. he should be put to death (Herod., ii. 177). Ver. 29. -And ;Joseph made ready his That ye shall say, Thy servants' trade bath chariot, and went up to meet Israel his been about oattle (literally, men of cattle father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto ai·e thy servants) from our youth even until him ;-literally, he (i. e. Joseph) appeai·ed now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye (the niph. form of the verb, which is com- may dwell in the land of Goshen. Joseph monly used of the appearance of God or his probably desired his brethren to settle in angels, being here employed to indicate the Goshen for three reasons. (1) It was suitable glory in which Joseph came to meet his for their flocks and herds ; (2) it would fat.her: Keil) unto him, viz., Jacob-and he secure their isolation from the Egyptians; and fell on his neck,-i. e. Joseph fell upon Ja- (3) it was contiguous to Canaan, and would cob's neck (LXX., Vulgate, Calvin, Dathe, be easier vacated when the time arrived for Keil, and commentators generally), though their return. For every shepherd is o.n Maimonides regards Jacob as the subject of abomination Ullto the Egyptians. These are the verb fell-and wept on his neck a good obviously the words not of Joseph, but of the while-in undoubted transports of joy, feel- historian, and theil accuracy is strikingly ing his soul by those delicious moments corroborated by Herodotus (ii. 47, 164), who abundantly recompensed for all the tears he affirms that the swine-herds, one of the seven h&d shed since he parted from his father in castes, classes, or guilds into which the Egyp- Hebron, upwards of twenty years before. tians were divided, were regarded with such Ver. 30.-And Israel (realising something abhorrence that they were not allowed to of the same holy satisfaction as he trembled enter a temple or contract marriage with any in his son's embrace) said unto ;Joseph, Now others of their countrymen ; and by existing let me die, since I have seen thy face, be- monuments, which show that though tho cause thou art still alive-literally, I will statement of Josephus(' Ant.,' ii. 7, 6) is in- die thi,s time, after I have seen thy face, correct that "the Egyptians were prohibited that (Keil, Kalisch), or since, thou art still from meddling with the keeping of sheep," alive; the meaning of the patriarch being yet those who tended cattle were greatly that, since with his own eyes he was now despised, Egyptian artists evincing the con- assured of J oseph's happiness, he had nothing tempt in which they were held by frequently more to live for, the last earthly longing of representing them as either lame or deformed, his heart having been completely satisfied, dirty and unshaven, and sometimes of a most and was perfectly prepared for the last scene ludicrous appearance (vide Willcinson, 'An- of all-ready, whenever God willed, to be cient Egyptians,' vol. ii. p. 444, ed. 1878). gathered to his fathers. It has been thought that the disrepute in Vers. 31, 32.-And ;Joseph said unto his which the shepherd guild was held by the brethren, and 1lllto his father's house, I will Egyptians was attributable partly to the go up (employed in ver. 29 to describe a nature of their occupation, and partly to the journey from the interior of the country to feeling excited against them by tho domin- ation of the shepherd kings (Wilkinson, the desert, or Canaan, the verb i1~P, is here Wordsworth, Murphy, and others); but (1) used in a courtly sense to signify a visit to a while this might account for their dislike to sovereign or superior), and shew Pharaoh foreign shepherds, it would not explain their (literally, relate, or tell, to Pharaoh), and antipathy to native shepherds ; (2) if, as say unto him, My brethren, e.nd my father's some think, Joscph's Pharaoh was one of the house, which were in the land of Canaan, shepherd kings, it is not likely that this are come unto me; and the men are shep- rooted prejudice against shepherds would herds (literally, keepers of flocks), for their then be publicly expressed, however violently trade hath been to feed cattle (literally, it might afterwards explode ; (3) there is they are men of cattle) ; and they have good reason for believing that the descent brought their flocks, and their herds, and into Egypt occurred at a period much earlier all that they have. than the shepherd kings. Hence the ex- Vers. 33, 34.-And it shall come to pass, planation of this singular antipathy to shep- when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, herds or wandering nomads has been souglit What is your occupation 1 Pharaoh's in- in the fact that the Egyptians were essen• quiry was characteristically Egnitian, being tially an agricultural people, who associntod reudered necessary by the strict distinction of ideas of rudeness and barbarism with the dli.XLVI. 1-34.j 'l'tlE BOOK OF GENESIS. 505
very name of a shepherd (Hengstenberg, haps also because from their occupation Keil, Kurtz), perhaps because from a very shepherds were accustomed to kill the a.ni- early period they had been ~xposed 011 their mals held sacred by the other classes of the Ee.stem boundary to incursions from such community (Kalisch). nomadic shepherds (Rosenmiiller), and per-