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Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks, their herds, and all that they own, have come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.”
From among his brothers he took five men, and presented them to Pharaoh.
Verse 2. The last. Extremos. Some interpret this word of the chiefest, and most sightly: but Joseph seems rather to have chosen out such as had the meanest appearance, that Pharao might not think of employing them at court, with danger of their morals and religion; ( Ch). or in the army, where they might be distracted with many cares, and be too much separated from one another. Bible.—He took such of his brethren as came first at hand. Vatable.
Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” They said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we, and our fathers.”
They also said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live as foreigners in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks. For the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.”
Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, “Your father and your brothers have come to you.
The land of Egypt is before you. Make your father and your brothers dwell in the best of the land. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen. If you know any able men among them, then put them in charge of my livestock.”
Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
Verse 7. Blessed him, Pharao; saying, perhaps, God save the king; or, O king live for ever: thus wishing that he might enjoy all sorts of blessings. Menochius.—It is generally taken in this sense, when men bless one another; but when they bless God, they mean to praise, supplicate, or thank him. Calmet.
Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?”
Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and evil. They have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”
Verse 9. Pilgrimage. He hardly deigns to style it life, as he was worn out with labour and sorrows, and was drawing fast to an end, so much sooner than his ancestors. Isaac had lived 180 years, and was only dead the year before Joseph was made ruler of Egypt. Some had lived above 900 years. Bible.
Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.
Joseph placed his father and his brothers, 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.
Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all of his father’s household with bread, according to the sizes of their families.
There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.
Verse 13. Chanaan. The whole world that was inhabited, and known to the Hebrews, felt perhaps the effect of this raging famine; but the countries here mentioned were the most afflicted. Bible.
Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.
Verse 14. Treasure, reserving nothing for himself. Philo.
When the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For our money fails.”
Verse 15. Wanted. Or “failed both in Egypt and Chanaan,” as the Hebrew insinuates. Bible.
Joseph said, “Give me your livestock; and I will give you food for your livestock, if your money is gone.”
They brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks, and for the herds, and for the donkeys: and he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock for that year.
When that year was ended, they came to him the second year, and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord how our money is all spent, and the herds of livestock are my lord’s. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands.
Verse 18. Second; or the next year after they had sold their cattle; the fourth of the famine, or perhaps the last, since they ask for seed, verse 19. In that year, Joseph gave back the cattle, and so forth to the Egyptians, on condition that they should ever after pay the fifth part of the products of the land to the king, the sole proprietor, who had thus full authority to send them to till any part of his dominions. Calmet.
Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh. Give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land won’t be desolate.”
Verse 19. Servants. A person may part with his liberty, to preserve life. Menochius.
So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for every man of the Egyptians sold his field, because the famine was severe on them, and the land became Pharaoh’s.
As for the people, he moved them to the cities from one end of the border of Egypt even to the other end of it.
Verse 21. People, “he transplanted” from, and so forth as the Hebrew Arab. and so forth now read, by the change of one letter. Herodotus, ii. 108, says, the same person has never a field there two years together. Diodorus 1. also attests, that individuals have no property in Egypt, the land being divided among the priests, the king, and the military. Tradesmen always follow their father’s profession, which makes them very skilful.
Only he didn’t buy the land of the priests, for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and ate their portion which Pharaoh gave them. That is why they didn’t sell their land.
Verse 22. Priests. This was done by the king’s direction, as they were probably idolaters. Menochius.—The immunities of the sacred ministers have been respected both by Pagans, Jews, and Christians; by all who have had any sentiments of religion. Reason dictates that they should live by the altar. They have to labour for the truest interests of the people, and consequently are worthy of their hire.—Which had been given, and so forth Inasmuch as their wants were supplied, and the king forebore to claim their land. Hebrew “only the land of the priests he, Joseph, bought not.” Bible.—If infidels did so much for their priests, ought we to do less for those of God? Saint John Chrysostom hom. 65. Worthington.
Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh. Behold, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land.
It will happen at the harvests, that you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four parts will be your own, for seed of the field, for your food, for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.”
They said, “You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.”
Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth. Only the land of the priests alone didn’t become Pharaoh’s.
Verse 26. This day. When Moses wrote, and long after, as we learn from Josephus. Saint Clement Alex. Diod. and so forth Calmet.
Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they got themselves possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly.
Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were one hundred forty-seven years.
The time came near that Israel must die, and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please don’t bury me in Egypt,
Verse 29. Thigh. To swear, as the steward of Abraham did. Calmet. 24:2.—Kindness and truth. This act of real mercy; or, shew me mercy, by promising freely to comply with my request; and truth, by fulfilling this oath. Menochius.
but when I sleep with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place.” Joseph said, “I will do as you have said.”
Verse 30. Place. Hebron, where Sara, Abraham, and Isaac reposed. Calmet.—Thus he manifested his belief in a future resurrection with his Saviour, who should be born in that land; and he admonished his descendants never to lose sight of it, nor forfeit the promises by their wicked conduct. Calmet. 23:17. Menochius.—He teaches us likewise, to be solicitous to obtain Christian burial. Worthington.
Israel said, “Swear to me,” and he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself on the bed’s head.
Verse 31. To the bed’s head. Saint Paul, (Hebrews 11:21,) following the Greek translation of the Septuagint, reads adored the top of his rod. Where note, that the same word in the Hebrew, according to the different pointing of it, signifies both a bed and a rod. And to verify both these sentences, we must understand that Jacob, leaning on Joseph’s rod, adored, turning towards the head of his bed: which adoration, inasmuch as it was referred to God, was an absolute, and sovereign worship: but inasmuch as it was referred to the rod of Joseph, as a figure of the sceptre, that is, of the royal dignity of Christ, was only an inferior and relative honour. Challoner.—Saint Augustine proposes another very probable explanation. He adored God, supporting himself on the top of his staff, or of Joseph’s sceptre, q. 162. The Septuagint and Syriac intimate, that Jacob bowed down respectfully towards the sceptre of his son, and thus complied with the explication which he had given to his dream. Calmet. 37:10. Others, who understand the Hebrew Hamitta, in the sense given to it by S. Jerom, Aquila, and Symmachus, suppose that after he had given his last instructions to Joseph in a sitting posture, growing weaker, he laid his head again upon his pillow. Calmet.—God was pleased to have this recorded in a language subject to such various interpretations; as he, perhaps, would have us to understand, that Jacob literally bowed down both to the bed-head and to the top of the sceptre. For many believe, that the Scripture has often several literal meanings. Tirinus.—If the Massoretic points had been known to the Septuagint we should not have had this variation. But the learned generally agree, that they are of human, and even of very modern invention.