grain which he had previously collected; in the first instance, for money; in tho second instance, when the money failed, for horses and cattle; and in the third in- stance, when nothing remained between the people and starvation, for their lands and their persons .. (3) At the close of the famine Joseph returned to the people their lnnds, along with seed, and of necessity also cattle for its cultivation, exacting from t.!iem in return as rei:it a fifth part of the produce, the same proportion that he hnd hfted from th~m durmg the_ seven prospe:ous yea!-s. 2. Joseph a policy _clialleng~d- It bas been vigorously assailed, (1) for its seventy; oloquent wnters d1latino- with much indignation on its arbitrary, oppressive, tyrannical, and ferocious character re- presenting Joseph as little other than a semi-royal despot who little reeked of' the Jives and liberties of his grovelling subjects so long as he could aggrandise himself and his royal patron; (2) for its injustice, being very different treatment from that which had been measured out to the Israelites, who wore strangers and foreigners in the land, while they (the Egyptians) were the native population; and (3) for its impiety, Joseph having sinfully taken advantage of the necessities of the people to reduce them by one bold stroke to a condition of abject and helpless slavery. 3. Joseph's policy defende,d, (1) The alleged severity is greater in appearance than reality, since it is ctrtain that Joseph did nothing harsh in selling corn for money so long as people bad it, or horses and cattle when money failed, and it cannot be fairly proved that Joseph did not give them full value for their lands. (2) The imputa- tion of pc.rtiality will disappear if it be remembered that Joseph's brethren were only expected to be temporary settlers in Egypt, and besides were few in number, so tl,at a gratuitous distribution of corn amongst them was not at all an unwarrant- able exercise of philanthropy, whereas to have pauperised a whole nation would have been to inflict upon them the greatest possible injury. (3) The charge of having enslaved a free people may be answered by stating first that the nan-ative when fairly construed implies nothing more than that Joseph changed the land tenure from that of freehold to a rent charge, and that for the convenience of supporting the people while the famin~ lasted be distributed them (i. e. the country folks) among the cities where the grain was stored; and secondly, that instead of complaining against Joseph as the destroyer of their liberties, the people applauded him as the saviour of their lives.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 11, 12.-The settlement of the children of Israel in Goslien. I. A CONBU~- Nl>.TION. Distinctly the act of Joseph, under the command of Pharaoh. 1. The fruit of righteousness reaped. 2. The fulfilment of God's word. Il. A NEW LIFE BASED UPON THE TESTIMONY Oil' DIVINE GRACE. The weak things have been proved mighty, the elect of God bas been exalted. The "best of the land" is for the seed of the righteous: "The meek shall hiherit the earth." Gosh•m the type of the Divine kingdom. Vers. 13-26. The policy of Joseph is faithfully employed for his monarch. The advantacre taken of the people's necessities to increase the power of the throne is quite Ea~tern in its character-not comn:iended t? general imitation, but permitted to be carried out through Joseph, because 1t gave him greater hold upon the government, and perhaps wrought beneficially on the whole in that early period of civilisat_ion. The honour of the priesthood is a testimony to the sacredness which the Egyptians attached t0 religious persons and thing~. The earliest nations were the most religious, and there is no doubt that the universality of religion can be traced among the tribes of the eaiih. An atheistic nation never has existed, and never can E"Xist, except as i11 France, at a re,·olutionary period, and for a short time.-R.
EXPOSITION. Ver. 28.-Aud Ja.cob lived in the land of and seven yea.re, Ho had Jived sevouty- Egypt Geventeen yeara: so the whole age seven years in Canaan, twenty ye11rs in of Ja.cob was (literally, the days of Jacob, tlte vears of hu life, were) an hundred. forty I Padan-arom, thirty-three in Canaan. 11gain, and sevonteen in Egypt, in all 147 years, Cll. XLVII. 28-31.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 515
Ver. 29. -And the time drew nigh that their permanent abode. And he (i. e. Joseph) Israel (i. e. Jacob) must die (literally, and said, I will do e.e thou hast said-literally, the days of Israel to die c/Jrew near): and he accordi7VJ to thy word. called hie son .J oeeph, and ea.id unto him, If Ver. 31.-And he (i. e. Jacob) said, Swear now I have found grace in thy eight (not as if unto me (in the manner indicated in ver. Jacob doubted Joseph's affection, lMlt simply 29). And he (i. e. Joseph) awe.re unto him. as desiring a last token of his love, perhaps And (having conclude,l this tonchin" and also as lllleonsciously recognising his son's impressive ceremonial) Israel bowed hkself greatness), put, I pray thee, thy hand under upon the bed's head. Though supported hy my thigh,-an ancient form of adjuration many eminent authorities (Ch~idee Para- (cf. eh. xxiv. 2)-and dee.I kindly and truly phrase, Symmachus, Vnlgate, Calvin, Wil- with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in let, Rosenmiiller, Delitzsch, Keil, Kalisch, Egypt. On the root 7~~, to bury (cf. Eng. &c., &c.), the present renderi.ug is not en- cover), vide eh. xxiii. 4. tirely free from difficulty, since not until the Ver. 30.-llut I will lie with my fathers, next chapter is there any mention of Jacob's and thou she.It carry me out of Egypt, end sickness; while in fa~our of the reading, bury me in their burying-place. The re- "And Israel bo,vecl himself on the top o [ quest of the venerable patriarch, while due his staff" (LXX.), it may be urgecl (1) that in some respect to the deeply-seated instinct it is adopted by the writer to tL.e Hebrews of human nature which makes men, almost (Heb. xi. 21), (2) that the Hebrew wonls for universally, long to be bw'ied in ancestral staff anu bed differ only in the punctuation, graves, was inspired by the clear faith that and (3) that the action of leaning on hi3 Canaan was the true inheritance of Israel, staff was quite as suitable to Jacob's circum- and that, though now obtaining a temporary stances as turning over and bowing on his refuge in Egypt, his descendants woulu bed's head. eventually return to the land of promise as