Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 47

1 THen Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, my father, and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan: and behold, they are in the land of Goshen .

Either to abide there: Or to remove thence to any other place which thou shalt appoint for them.

2 And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.

Or, part, as this Hebrew word is used Dan. 1. 2. Or, the extremity or end or tail of them, i. e. the meanest of them for person and presence, as the word is taken, 1 King. 12. 31. lest if he had presented the goodliest of them, Pharaoh might have required their attendance upon him, either at court or camp. And for the same reason for which he did industriously represent them to Pharaoh as contemptible in their employment he might also present those to him who were so in their persons.

3 And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds both we, and also our fathers .

This employment is not pretended nor taken up by us in design or in contempt of thee or thy people, but was handed to us by our fathers and hath been our business to this day.

4 They said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come: for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is [illegible: 1+ letters]ore in the land of Canaan : now therefore we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

Not to d[illegible: 1+ letters]raud thy people of their lands and habitations but onely to be here for a season as strangers and sojourners till we can conveniently return to our own Land.

Which being an higher ground then Egypt, and watered in a manner onely by Rain from Heaven, must needs sooner and sorer feel the effects of a drought and scarcity than Egypt which had relief from N[illegible: 1+ letters]lus in that [illegible: 1 word].

6 The land of Egypt is before thee , in the best of the land make thy father and thy brethren to dwell, in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest any man of activity amongst them, then make them rulers over my Cattle.

To view it and take thy choice where thou pleasest, it is in thy power. See Gen. 13. 9.

Or, of strength or vigour of body and mind, fit for the employment. By which expression it seems probable that those five presented to Pharaoh were of the meanest sort of them. See on ver. 2.

7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

Not in an authoritative way, as the greater blesseth the less, [illegible: 1 word] in a general manner▪ i. e. he saluted him, thanked him for all his favours to him and his and prayed to God to bless and recompense him for it. Thus blessing is put for saluting, 1 Sam. 13. 10. 2 King. 4. 29. for praying, Numb. 6. 23, 24. for thanksgiving, Matth. 26. 26. compare with Luke 22. 19.

9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the dayes of the years of the life of my fathers , in the days of their pilgrimage.

(i. e.) Of my unstable or nasettled life, in which I have been flitting from place to place. See Gen. 17. 8. Psal. 119. 19. Heb. 11. 9, 13.

Though I seem old in comparison of thy people, yet I fall much short of my Progenitours, Isaac and Abraham and Terah.

Marginal references: Heb. 11. 9, 13.

11 And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and▪ gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses , as Pharaoh had commanded.

A part of the Land of Goshen, possibly that part where afterwards the City Rameses was built by the Israelites, Exod. 1. 11. and 12. 37. whence it is so called here by anticipation. For the Israelites were not now numerous enough to possesse the whole land of Goshen, which was given to them, but contented themselves with a part of it, leaving the rest to the management of the Egyptians, and therefore when they encreased greatly they were forced to spread their habitations amongst the Egyptians. See Exod. 12. 7, 23, 35, 37.

12 And Joseph nourished his father and his brethren, and all his fathers houshold with bread, according to their families .

Or, According to the mouth of the Family: mouth being put for their will or desire, as it is Gen. 24. 57. Isa. 30. 2. as much as every one desired, without any restraint: Or, according to the manner of a little child, he put their meat into their very mouths, it was brought to them without any more care or pains of theirs than an infant takes for its food.

Marginal references: Or, as a little child is nourished.; Heb. according to the li[illegible: 1+ letters]le ones.

13 And there was no bread in all the land: for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt, and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine .

Quest. Whence came it that the people in this extremity did not take the corn by force out of the several storehouses! Answ. Besides that singular providence of God which watcheth over Kings and Rulers, and stilleth the tumults of the people, Ioseph had no doubt foreseen this difficulty and took due care to prevent it, partly by disposing the stores in strong and well guarded places; partly by adding wealth and strength to the King, whereby he might more easily suppress any seditious risings; and principally by not permitting the people to despair or come to the utmost extremity, but giving them relief in all their exigencies.

14 And Joseph gathered up all the money, that was found in the land of Egypt , and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaohs house.

Wherein he did no more than any of the Subjects might have done: he bought great store of Corn in the plentiful years with the Kings money▪ and kept it till a time of Famine, and sold it at a rate which was agreeable to the season.

15 And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth.

Why shouldest thou see and suffer us to perish for our want of money, when thou canst relieve us?

18 When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year , and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent, my lord also had our herds of cattle: there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands.

Not the second from the beginning of the Famine, but from their great extremity, the second year after that last mentioned, wherein they had sold their Cattle; but this seems to have been the last year of the Famine, because he now gives them Corn for food and for seed too, ver. 23. whereas in the six first years there was no sowing nor reaping, Gen. 45. 6.

19 Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes , both we and our land ? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh : and give us seed that we may live and not die, that the land be not desolate .

(i. e.) Whilst thou lookest upon us like an idle spectatour, not pitying and relieving us!

The land is said to die improperly, when it is desolate and barren, and when the fruits of it dye, or which is equivalent to it, do not live.

Pharaoh shall be the sole proprietor and we are content to be his Tenants to manage it for his use.

Because this was the last year of Famine, as Ioseph informed them, and therefore they tilled and sowed the ground for the following year.

Without inhabitants, as it will be if thou sufferest us to die for want of bread.

21 And as for the people, he removed them to tities from one end of the borders of Egypt, even to the other end thereof .

Under the Cities are here comprehended the Villages and Lands belonging to the Territory and Government of each City, for the seed which he gave them was not to be sown in Cities but in the Countrey: but the Cities onely are here mentioned, because they were sent thither first, either for the conveniency of nourishing them during this Famine out of the publick storehouses which were there; or that they might all profess their subjection to the Governments of the several Cities, which was convenient for the management of that numerous and tumultuous people; or that the Cities might be first and most replenished with inhabitants, as being the principal honour and strength and security of a Kingdom, and that Arts and Trades and Merchandise might flourish, without which the commodities of the Country would have been of less price and use. But the Cities being first supplied, the residue, which doubtless was vast, were dispersed in the Countrey.

Far from their native [illegible: 1+ letters]oil and antient Patrimonies, that none of them might plead prescription, but that all might be forced to acknowledge that they owed their estates not to their own wit and industry, nor to their Parents gift, but wholly to the Kings favour, and that the remembrance of their patrimonial Lands might be worn out, and therewith the grief which would arise from their resentment of their loss of them, which probably would be matter of tumults and seditions, to which that people were very prone. And it is probable, that he so disposed of this affair, that those who were apt and likely and used to unite together in seditious insurrections, whether kindred or others, should be separated one from another, as far as might be. If any think that Ioseph dealt hardly with them, and made an ill use of their necessity, he will see how moderately and mercifully he deals with them, ver. 24.

22 Only the land of the Priests bought he not : for the Priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh. and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands.

Under this name he understands chiefly those who administred the Worship of the Gods or Idols of Egypt, and withal those who applied themselves to the study of the arts and vertues, called their wisemen and magicians. Though some understand it of the Princes (as that word sometimes signifies) or Officers of Pharaoh, who were nourished out of the Kings Treasures. And possibly the same Hebrew word may here comprehend both, viz. the ministers of the King and of their Idols too, for both enjoyed the same priviledges, as Diodorus Siculus relates. And that the Priests are included, if not mainly intended here, will be evident enough to any one that considers the state of Egypt, how mad that people universally were upon their Idols, how numerous their Priests were and in how great honour and veneration both with Prince and People. Besides, reason of State obliged Pharaoh to ingage and secure to himself that sort of men which bore so great sway with the old inhabitants of their several places, and were likely to have the same authority with the new inhabitants, to quiet and satisfie them at their first change, which must needs be very ungrateful to them.

Of this immunity of the Priests that antient writer, Diodorus Siculus, makes mention. But this is not to be ascribed to Iosephs will or choice, for he who abhorred their Idolatry, could not have a kindness for nor would have given encouragement to, the great upholders and promoters of it, but in this he was over-ruled either by Pharaohs express command, (it being not probable; that so great an interest as that of the Priests should not have friends at Court, or that their friends should not plead for them, or that their pleas and desires should not be granted by an Idolatrous King) or by the Laws of Egypt, or by their customs and usages in things of a like nature, which would have the force of a law among them.

Marginal references: Or, Princes.

23 Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day, and your land for Pharaoh: Lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land .

For this was the last year of the Famine, as was noted before.

24 And it shall come to pass in the increase, that you shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own , for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your housholds, and for food for your little ones.

Whereas he might have reserved four parts to Pharaoh and have allowed them onely the fifth. Herein he shewed both his humanity and kindness in mitigating that hard bargain which themselves had made and were necessitated to make, and his prudence, in composing, sweetning, and winning the hearts of the people to the King, and making them pay their tribute for the future with more chearfulness.

25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives : let us find grace in the sight of my Lord , and we will be Pharaohs servants .

Without thy care and Providence we had all been dead men, and therefore if thou hadst kept us to the first bargain, thou hadst done us more kindness than wrong, much more when thou hast used us with so much equity and clemency.

Be thou our friend with Pharaoh in this and upon all other occasions.

To manage his land for him upon the terms which thou hast proposed.

26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part : except the land of the Priests only, which became not Pharaohs.

That the propriety of the land should be Pharaohs, and that in token thereof the people should pay the fifth part of the products of it to Pharaoh.

Marginal references: Or, Princes.

27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen, and they had possessions therein, and grew and multiplyed exceedingly.

(i. e.) Lands, not for the dominion or propriety of them, for that rested in Pharaoh, but for the use and profit of them for their present subsistence.

29 And the time drew [illegible: 1+ letters]igh that Israel must die, and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh , and deal kindly and truly with me, bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt.

(i. e.) Swear to me, as ver. 31. that thou wilt do what I am now desiring of thee. See the notes on Gen. 24. 2. He requires this, not out of any distrust of Iosephs promise, but partly as a more solemn protestation of his right to, and affection for that promised land: partly as a motive to all his children to have their minds and hearts there even when their bodies were in Egypt; and partly to give Ioseph an argument and excuse to Pharaoh that he might more willingly permit Ioseph to fulfil his fathers desire because of his own oath.

Or, that thou wilt deal: as the Hebrew Vau joyned with the future tense is elsewhere used, as Psal. 24. 7. and 35. 24. and 51. 15.

Kindly in promising, and truly in performing thy promise.

Marginal references: chap. 24. 2.; See chap. 50▪ 25.

30 But I will lie with my fathers , and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying-place: and he said, I will do as thou hast said.

Abraham and Isaac in Canaan. See Gen. 23. 19. and 25. 9. and 35. 29. Which he desired not so much for himself, as knowing that wherever he was buried, he should rise to Glory; as for his children, to shew his own, and confirm their faith in Gods promise of Canaan, to discover his high valuation of that land not onely for it self, but as it was a type and pledge of the heavenly inheritance, to keep his childrens minds and hearts loose from Egypt, a place of so much sin and danger, and fixed upon Canaan, that they might be more willing to go thither when God called them, by vertue of that inclination which is in most persons to be buried with their Fathers: and in the mean time to declare his detestation of Idolaters, with whom he would have no communion either in life, as far as he could avoid it, or in the place of burial; and on the contrary to profess his communion with his godly Ancestours by his desire to be joyned with them in burial. And for the same reasons Ioseph desired the translation of his bones thither, Gen. 50. 25.

31 And he said, Swear unto me: and he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the beds head .

Not to Ioseph, who, being now not upon his throne, nor amongst the Egyptians, but in his fathers house, was doubtless more ready to pay that reverence as he did chap. 48. 12. than to receive veneration from him, which he owed to his father; but to God, who is here to be understood, as he is in the same phrase, 1 King. 1. 47. whom with this gesture he worshipped and praised as for the promise of Canaan, and the assurance which he had now received from Ioseph of his being buried there, so for all his favours to him and to Ioseph and by him to all his family.

Iacob at this time was bed-rid through age and infirmity, but, being now to give God solemn thanks, though the words and manner of it be not here expressed, he raised himself and s[illegible: 1+ letters]t upon the head or uppermost part of his bed, as he did also, Gen. 48. 2. that he might express his reverence to God as much as he could, by bowing, when he could not do it as much as he would, being unable to do it kneeling. Others for bed read staff, the discussion whereof I refer unto its proper place, Heb. 11. 21.

Marginal references: Heb. 11. 21.