_JOSEPH DISCOVERS HIMSELF TO HIS BRETHREN; AND, WITH PHARAOH'S APPROBATION, SENDS FOR HIS FATHER INTO AEGYPT: THE BRETHREN RETURN TO JACOB, WHO, HEARING THAT JOSEPH WAS YET ALIVE, REVIVES AT THE NEWS._ _Before Christ 1706._... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN JOSEPH COULD NOT— The beauties of this chapter are so striking, that it would be an indignity to the reader's judgment to point them out: all who can read and feel must be sensible of them; as, perhaps, there is nothing in sacred or prophane history more highly wrought up, more interesting or a... [ Continue Reading ]
DOTH MY FATHER YET LIVE— There is great beauty in this interrogation: it is highly expressive of anxious affection; and the transition is finely wrought: _I am Joseph; doth my father yet live?_ Is the pleasing intelligence still which you have before given me? Mr. Pope, in a note on Homer's Odyssey,... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THEREFORE BE NOT GRIEVED, &C.— See Genesis 45:8 and ch. Genesis 50:20. These passages discover to us the very noble and just ideas which Joseph entertained concerning the Providence of God, whose peculiar prerogative it is to bring good out of evil: but, besides this, we may observe a singular g... [ Continue Reading ]
EARING— i.e.. _Ploughing,_ an old word, from _aro,_ to _plough._ See Deuteronomy 21:4.Isaiah 30:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
TO PRESERVE YOU A POSTERITY— Heb. _To put you for a remainder._ See 2 Samuel 14:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH MADE ME A FATHER TO PHARAOH— i.e.. God has given me as much authority in the court of Pharaoh, as if I were really the king's father; so that he undertakes nothing without my advice, and executes nothing without my orders. And what wonder? since the wisdom of Joseph was so great and experienced... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT DWELL IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN— Goshen was the most easterly province of Lower AEgypt, not far from the Arabian gulph, lying next to Canaan; for Jacob went directly thither, when he came into AEgypt, and stayed there till Joseph came to him, ch. Genesis 46:28. It is called also the land of R... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS MY MOUTH THAT SPEAKETH UNTO YOU— The Chaldee adds, _in our own language,_ without an interpreter, as before.... [ Continue Reading ]
TELL MY FATHER OF ALL MY GLORY— He enjoins them to do this out of filial love, and in order to give satisfaction to his good old father, not with any vain or ostentatious views. In John 17:24 our Saviour says, _that they may behold my glory._ REFLECTIONS.—An address so affecting as that of Judah's,... [ Continue Reading ]
REGARD NOT YOUR STUFF— The word, which we render stuff, כלי _keli,_ signifies furniture of any kind; whatever is prepared and finished for the use of man. And the expression, which is peculiar in the Hebrew, as the margins of our Bibles shew, seems only to signify, that they should pay no regard to... [ Continue Reading ]
TO—EACH MAN CHANGES OF RAIMENT— St. Jerome renders it, two robes, _binas stolas;_ and the Syriac, _a pair of garments,_ which seems the true interpretation. Great part of the riches of the ancients consisted in changes of raiment, as well as in money; whence it became a custom to present changes of... [ Continue Reading ]
BREAD AND MEAT FOR HIS FATHER— The flesh which travellers in the east frequently carry with their other provisions, is usually _potted,_ in order to preserve it fit for use. Dr. Shaw* mentions it as part of the provision he made for his journey to Mount Sinai, which commonly is not completed under t... [ Continue Reading ]
SEE THAT YE FALL NOT OUT BY THE WAY— The word, rendered _fall not out,_ is very strong in the original; it signifies, to quarrel with passion and fury, Proverbs 29:9. 2 Kings 19:27. Joseph, thinking that his brethren, reflecting upon all that had passed, might probably reproach each other; or, possi... [ Continue Reading ]
JACOB'S HEART FAINTED— The Vulgate, and some others, render this passage, _Jacob awoke, as it were, out of a dead sleep,_ yet _he believed them not._ The particle כי _ki,_ rendered _for_ in our version of the Bible, often signifies _but, but yet,_ or _although:_ and thus the meaning of the passage i... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN HE SAW THE WAGGONS— The intelligence of his son Joseph was so unexpected, yet so important to the good old father, that he could scarcely be persuaded to believe the truth of it; nor could he be satisfied, without the convincing evidence of the magnificent presents which Joseph had sent him: th... [ Continue Reading ]
ISRAEL SAID, IT IS ENOUGH— Two things his sons told him, says Bishop Kidder, viz. that Joseph was alive, and that he was governor of AEgypt; and the latter of the two Joseph required them to tell his father, Genesis 45:9 but, for Joseph's glory and dominion, Jacob does not rejoice as one greatly aff... [ Continue Reading ]