CH.APTER XLVII. modern times (1736) exceedingly productive and thickly populated. And if thou knowest Ver. 1.-Then Joseph came-literally, and any men of activity among them,-literally, Joseph went, up to the royal presence II-'! and if thoit knowest, and there be among them, he had proposed (eh. xlvi. 31)-and told men of strengthr-chayil, from clml to twist Pharaoh, and said, My father and my (1il..vw 11..iauw), the idea being that of strength brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, as of twisted rope-then make them rulers &nd all that they have, are come out of the over my cattle-literally, and thou shalt land of Cana&n ;-M thou didst desire (eh. make them masters of cattle over that which, be- , xlv. 17, 18)-and, behold, they are in the wngs to me. '' The shepherds on an Egyptian land of Goshen (V'ide eh. xlv. 10). estate were chosen by the steward, who ascer- Ver. 2. -And he took some of his brethren, tained their character and skill previous to even five men,-literally, from the end, or their b&ing appointed to so important a trust" eztremuy, of hui brethren; not from the (Wilkinson, ' Ancient Egyptians,' vol. ii. p. weakest, lest the king should select them 445, ed. 1878). for courtiers or soldiers (the Rabbis, Olea.ster, Ver. 7.-A.nd Joseph brought in Jacob Pererius, and others); or the strongest and his father, and set him before Pharaoh. It most handsome, that the Egyptian monarch has been thought that Jacob's presentation and his nobles might behold the dignity of to the Egyptian king was deferred till a.fter Joseph's kindred (Lyra, Thostatus, and the monarch's interview with his sons be- others); or the youngest and oldest, that the cause of the public and political character of ages of the rest might be therefrom inferred that interview, relating as .it did to the (Calvin); but from the whole body of his occupation of the land, while Jacob's intro- brethren (Gesenius, Rosen.miiller, Keil, Ka- duction to the sovereign was of a purely lisch, et alii1 he took five men-and pre- personal and private description. And Jacob sented them unto Pha.ra.oh (cf. .Acts vii 13). - in reply probably to o. request from Ver. 3.-A.nd Pha.raoh said unto his (i. e. Pharaoh (Tayler Lewis), hut more likely sua Joscph's) brethren, What is your occupa.- .121ontJ-blessed Pharaoh. Not simply ex- tion l (vi.de eh. xlvi. 33). And they said unto tended to him 'the customary salutation Pha.raoh,-as directed (eh. xlvi. 34)-Thy accorded to kings (Rosenmiiller, Kalisch, servants are shepherds, both we, and also .Alford, and others), like the " May the king our fa.there. live for ever I " of later times (2 Sam. xvi. Ver. 4.-They ea.id moreover (literally, 16; l Kings i. 25; Dan. ii. 4; iii. 9, &c.), and they said) unto Pha.raoh, For to sojourn but, conscious of his dignity a.s a prophet of in the la.nd a.re we come ;-an unconscious Jehovah, pronounced on him a. heavenly fulfilment of an ancient prophecy (eh. xv. benediction (Murphy, 'Speaker's Comment- 13)-for thy servants ha.ve no pa.sture for ary,' a.nd others)-hoc verbo non wlgarU1 et their flocks (it was solely the extreme profana salutatio notatur, scd pia sanetaque drought that had caused them for n sea.son servi Dei precatio (Calvin). to vacate their own land) ; for the famine is Vers. 8, 9.-And Phare.oh ea.id unto Ja.cob, sore (literally, heavy) in the land of Ca.naa.n: How old art thou '!--literally, How many now therefore, we pray thee, let thy serv- are the days of the years of thy life 1 And ants dwell (literally, and now might thy Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the servants dwell, we pray, the future having years of my pilgrima.ge (literally, of my here the force of an optative) in the la.nd of sojournings, wanderings to and fro without Goshen. any settled condition) are &n hundred and Vers. 5, 6.-A.nd Pharaoh spake unto thirty yea.re. Since Joseph was now thirty- Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren seven years of age (eh. xlv. 6), it is apparent are come unto thee: the land of Egypt is that he was born in his father's ninety-first before thee (cf. eh. xx. 15); in the best of the year ; and since this event took place in the land make thy father and brethren to dwell. fourteenth year of Jacob's residence in Pndnn- Wilkinson thinks it possible that Jacob's aram (eh. xxx. 25), it is equally apparent sons "may have asked and obtained a grant that Jacob was seventy-seven years of ngo of land from the Egyptian monarch on con- when he left Beersheba after surreptitiously dition of certain services being performed by securing the patriarchal blessing (eh, xxviii. themselves and their descendants"(' Ancient 1). Few and evil have the days of the Egyptians,' voL i. eh. ii. p. 35). In the land years of my life been, and have not a.ttained of Goshen let them dwell. Robinso 1 (eh. i. unto the days of the years of the life of my 78, 79) speaks of the province of es-Shar- fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. .As ~iyeh, which corresponds as nearly as pos- J acob's life fell short of that of his ancestors sible with ancient Goshen, as being even in in respect of duration (witness the l 75 yearn OH, XLVU, 1-10.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 509
of Abrnh11.m, 11.nd the 180 of Is11.a.c), so it gre&tly surpassed theirs in respect of the I heVer. 10.-And 1acob ble11ed Pharaoh (as had done on entering the royal presence), miseries tho.t were crowded into 1t, and went out from before Pharaoh.