JOSEPH PRESENTS HIS BRETHREN AND HIS FATHER TO PHARAOH. HE MAKES EXTENSIVE CHANGES IN THE LAND TENURE OF EGYPT 6. Rulers over my cattle] The superintendenee of the royal flocks and herds would be a position of importance.... [ Continue Reading ]
FEW AND EVIL, etc.] Abraham was 175 years and Isaac 180 years old at their death. Jacob, therefore, regarded his years as comparatively few. The 'evil 'times in his life are not difficult to trace.... [ Continue Reading ]
LAND OF RAMESES] or Raamses. Evidently identical with the 'land of Goshen '(Genesis 47:4 and Genesis 47:6). The name here is probably anticipatory of the time of the great Rameses, who made his court at Zoan: see on Exodus 1:11. 14-25. From being owners of the land the people became tenants of the c... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SECOND YEAR] not of the famine, but the year after they had given up their cattle.... [ Continue Reading ]
It is now generally held that the v. should be rendered (with the LXX, Vulgate, and Samaritan texts), 'As for the people, he made bondmen of them from one end,' etc. (RM). The people became the tenants of the crown: see on Genesis 47:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
The priests were already provided for by the state; it was therefore unnecessary for them to sell their land. It is said that in later times the king, the soldiers, and the priests each owned one-third of the land.... [ Continue Reading ]
'The peculiar system of Egyptian land tenure, which is here attributed to Joseph, is so far in accordance with the evidence of the monuments that whereas in the Old Empire the nobility and governors of the nomes (district) possessed large landed estates, in the New Empire (which followed the expulsi... [ Continue Reading ]
The people were satisfied with Joseph's stipulations. They would be much better off when holding their land direct from the state under definite conditions, than when suffering from the exactions of small feudal rulers, who were a great infliction in Egypt.... [ Continue Reading ]
PUT.. THY HAND, etc.] see on Genesis 24:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
BOWED HIMSELF UPON THE BED'S HEAD] perhaps better, 'worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff,' as in Hebrews 11:21. The Hebrew words for 'bed' and 'staff' are very like each other.... [ Continue Reading ]