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.”
Parallel Translations
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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.”
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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.
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Then Joseph went in 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.'
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Genesis 47:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 45:10 You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near to me, you, your children, your children’s children, your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.
- Genesis 46:31 Joseph said to his brothers, and to his father’s house, “I will go up, and speak with Pharaoh, and will tell him, ‘My brothers, and my father’s house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.
- Genesis 46:28 Jacob sent Judah before him to Joseph, to show the way before him to Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen.
- Genesis 45:16 The report of it was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, “Joseph’s brothers have come.” It pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.
- Genesis 46:34 that you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers:’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”
- Exodus 8:22 I will set apart in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, to the end you may know that I am Yahweh on the earth.
- Exodus 9:26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.
- Hebrews 2:11 For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 1. Then Joseph came. Joseph indirectly intimates to the…
1. Then Joseph came. Joseph indirectly intimates to the king, his desire to obtain a habitation for his brethren in the land of Goshen. Yet this modesty was (as we have said) free from cunning. For Pharaoh both immediately recognizes his wish, and liberally grants it to him; declaring beforehand that the land of Goshen was most excellent. Whence we gather, that what he gave, he gave in the exercise of his own judgment, not in ignorance; and that he was not unacquainted with the wish of Joseph, who yet did not dare to ask for what was the best. Joseph may be easily excused for having commanded his father, with the greater part of his brethren, to remain in that region. For neither was it possible for them to bring their cattle along with them, nor yet to leave their cattle in order to come and salute the king; until some settled abode was assigned them, where, having pitched their tents, they might arrange their affairs. For it would have shown a want of respect, to take possession of a place, as if it had been granted to them; when they had not yet received the permission of the king. They, therefore, remain in that district, in a state of suspense, until, having ascertained the will of the king, they may, with greater certainty, fix their abode there. That Joseph “brought five from the extreme limits of his brethren,” is commonly thus explained, that they who were of least stature were brought into the presence of the king: because it was to be feared lest he might take the stronger into his army. But since the Hebrew word קצה (qatsah) signifies the two extremities, the beginning and the end; I think they were chosen from the first and the last, in order that the king, by looking at them might form his judgment concerning the age of the whole.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 47:1 Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and…
Gen 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.
Ver. l. Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh.] This was great wisdom in him, to do nothing for his friends, though he were so great a favourite, without the king’s privity and approbation. There wanted not those that waited for his halting; envy attends upon honour, {a} and always aimeth at the highest; as the tallest trees are weakest at the tops. Melancthon tells us he once saw a certain ancient piece of coin, having on the one side Zopyrus, on the other Zoilus. It was an emblem of kings’ courts, saith he; {b} where calumnies accompany the well-deserving, as they did Daniel, Datames, Hannibal, {c} &c. Difficillimum inter mortales est gloria invidiam vincere, saith Sallust. {d} How potent that quick-sighted and sharp-fanged malignity is, we may guess by that question, Pro 27:4.
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{a} Scipioni obtrectabat Carbo; Alcibiadi Hyperbolus; Homero Zoilus; Ciceroni Clodius. Habuerunt et suos cucullos omnes docti et heroici.
{b} Manlii, loc. com., p. 414.
{c} Corn. Nepos, in Vita Datamis et Hannib.
{d} Sal., in Catilin.
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Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Either to abide there, or to remove thence to…
Either to abide there, or to remove thence to any other place which thou shalt appoint for them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here is, I. The respect which Joseph, as a…
Here is, I. The respect which Joseph, as a subject, showed to his prince. Though he was his favourite, and prime-minister of state, and had had particular orders from him to send for his father down to Egypt, yet he would not suffer him to settle till he had given notice of it to Pharaoh, Gen 47:1. Christ, our Joseph, disposes of his followers in his kingdom as it is prepared of his Father, saying, It is not mine to give, Mat 20:23.
II. The respect which Joseph, as a brother, showed to his brethren, notwithstanding all the unkindness he had formerly received from them.
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1. Though he was a great man, and they were comparatively mean and despicable, especially in Egypt, yet he owned them. Let those that are rich and great in the world learn hence not to overlook nor despise their poor relations. Every branch of the tree is not a top branch; but, because it is a lower branch, is it therefore not of the tree? Our Lord Jesus, like Joseph here, is not ashamed to call us brethren.
2. They being strangers and no courtiers, he introduced some of them to Pharaoh, to kiss his hand, as we say, intending thereby to put an honour upon them among the Egyptians. Thus Christ presents his brethren in the court of heaven, and improves his interest for them, though in themselves unworthy and an abomination to the Egyptians. Being presented to Pharaoh, according to the instructions which Joseph had given them, they tell him, (1.) What was their business - that they were shepherds, Gen 47:3. Pharaoh asked them (and Joseph knew it would be one of his first questions, Gen 46:33), What is your occupation? He takes it for granted they had something to do, else Egypt should be no place for them, no harbour for idle vagrants. If they would not work, they should not eat of his bread in this time of scarcity. Note, All that have a place in the world should have an employment in it according to their capacity, some occupation or other, mental or manual. Those that need not work for their bread must yet have something to do, to keep them from idleness. Again, Magistrates should enquire into the occupation of their subjects, as those that have the care of the public welfare; for idle people are as drones in the hive, unprofitable burdens of the commonwealth. (2.) What was their business in Egypt - to sojourn in the land (Gen 47:4), not to settle there for ever, only to sojourn there for a time, while the famine so prevailed in Canaan, which lay high, that it was not habitable for shepherds, the grass being burnt up much more than in Egypt, which lay low, and where the corn chiefly failed, while there was tolerably good pasture.
3. He obtained for them a grant of a settlement in the land of Goshen, Gen 47:5, Gen 47:6. This was an instance of Pharaoh's gratitude to Joseph; because he had been such a blessing to him and his kingdom, he would be kind to his relations, purely for his sake. He offered them preferment as shepherds over his cattle, provided they were men of activity; for it is the man who is diligent in his business that shall stand before kings. And, whatever our profession or employment is, we should aim to be excellent in it, and to prove ourselves ingenious and industrious.
III. The respect Joseph, as a son, showed to his father.
1. He presented him to Pharaoh, Gen 47:7. And here,
(1.) Pharaoh asks Jacob a common question: How old art thou? Gen 47:8. A question usually put to old men, for it is natural to us to admire old age and to reverence it (Lev 19:32), as it is very unnatural and unbecoming to despise it, Isa 3:5. Jacob's countenance, no doubt, showed him to be very old, for he had been a man of labour and sorrow; in Egypt people were not so long-lived as in Canaan, and therefore Pharaoh looks upon Jacob with wonder; he was as a show in his court. When we are reflecting upon ourselves, this should come into the account, "How old are we?"
(2.) Jacob gives Pharaoh an uncommon answer, Isa 3:9. He speaks as becomes a patriarch, with an air of seriousness, for the instruction of Pharaoh. Though our speech be not always of grace, yet it must thus be always with grace. Observe here, [1.] He calls his life a pilgrimage, looking upon himself as a stranger in this world, and a traveller towards another world: this earth his inn, not his home. To this the apostle refers (Heb 11:13), They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims. He not only reckoned himself a pilgrim now that he was in Egypt, a strange country in which he never was before; but his life, even in the land of his nativity, was a pilgrimage, and those who so reckon it can the better bear the inconvenience of banishment from their native soil; they are but pilgrims still, and so they were always. [2.] He reckons his life by days; for, even so, it is soon reckoned, and we are not sure of the continuance of it for a day to an end, but may be turned out of this tabernacle at less than an hour's warning. Let us therefore number our days (Psa 90:12), and measure them, Psa 39:4. [3.] The character he gives of them is, First, That they were few. Though he had now lived 130 years, they seemed to him but a few days, in comparison with the days of eternity, the eternal God, and the eternal state, in which a thousand years (longer than ever any man lived) are but as one day. Secondly, That they were evil. This is true concerning man in general, he is of few days, and full of trouble (Job 14:1); and, since his days are evil, it is well they are few. Jacob's life, particularly, had been made up of evil days; and the pleasantest days of his life were yet before him. Thirdly, That they were short of the days of his fathers, not so many, not so pleasant, as their days. Old age came sooner upon him than it had done upon some of his ancestors. As the young man should not be proud of his strength or beauty, so the old man should not be proud of his age, and the crown of his hoary hairs, though others justly reverence it; for those who are accounted very old attain not to the years of the patriarchs. The hoary head is a crown of glory only when it is found in the way of righteousness.
(3.) Jacob both addresses himself to Pharaoh and takes leave of him with a blessing (Gen 47:7): Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and again, Gen 47:10, which was not only an act of civility (he paid him respect and returned him thanks for his kindness), but an act of piety - he prayed for him, as one having the authority of a prophet and a patriarch. Though in worldly wealth Pharaoh was the greater, yet, in interest with God, Jacob was the greater; he was God's anointed, Psa 105:15. And a patriarch's blessing was not a thing to be despised, no, not by a potent prince. Darius valued the prayers of the church for himself and for his sons, Ezr 6:10. Pharaoh kindly received Jacob, and, whether in the name of a prophet or no, thus he had a prophet's reward, which sufficiently recompensed him, not only for his courteous converse with him, but for all the other kindnesses he showed to him and his.
2. He provided well for him and his, placed him in Goshen (Gen 47:11), nourished him and all his with food convenient for them, Gen 47:12. This bespeaks, not only Joseph a good man, who took this tender care of his poor relations, but God a good God, who raised him up for this purpose, and put him into a capacity of doing it, as Esther came to the kingdom for such a time as this. What God here did for Jacob he has, in effect, promised to do for all his, that serve him and trust in him. Psa 37:19, In the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
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John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh,.... After he had…
Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh,.... After he had been with his father, had had an interview with him, and had took his leave of him for a time, he came to Pharaoh's court:
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; Pharaoh had desired they might come, and Joseph now acquaints him they were come; not being willing it should be said that they were come in a private manner, and without his knowledge; nor to dispose of them himself without the direction and approbation of Pharaoh, who was superior to him; and he makes mention of their flocks and herds, and other substance, partly to show that they were not a mean beggarly family that came to live upon him, and partly that a proper place of pasturage for their cattle might be appointed to them:
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and behold, they are in the land of Goshen; they are stopped at present, until they should have further directions and orders where to settle; and this is the rather mentioned, because it was the place Joseph proposed with himself to fix them in, if Pharaoh approved of it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain In this chapter we have instances,
In this chapter we have instances,
I. Of Joseph's kindness to his relations, presenting his brethren first, and then his father to Pharaoh, ver. 1-10. setting them in Goshen, and providing for them there, ver. 11, 12. paying his respects to his father when he sent for him, ver. 27-31.
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II. Of Joseph's justice between prince and people in a very critical affair; selling Pharaoh's corn to his subjects with reasonable profit to Pharaoh, and yet without any wrong to them, ver. 13-26.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Joseph informs Pharaoh that his father and brethren are
CHAPTER XLVII
Joseph informs Pharaoh that his father and brethren are
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arrived in Goshen, 1.
He presents five of his brethren before the king, 2,
who questions them concerning their occupation; they inform
him that they are shepherds, and request permission to dwell
in the land of Goshen, 3, 4.
Pharaoh consents, and desires that some of the most active of
them should be made rulers over his cattle, 5, 6.
Joseph presents his father to Pharaoh, 7,
who questions him concerning his age, 8,
to which Jacob returns an affecting answer, and blesses
Pharaoh, 9, 10.
Joseph places his father and family in the land of Rameses,
(Goshen), and furnishes them with provisions, 11, 12.
The famine prevailing in the land, the Egyptians deliver up
all their money to Joseph to get food, 13-15.
The next year they bring their cattle, 16, 17.
The third, their lands and their persons, 18-21.
The land of the priests Joseph does not buy, as it was a royal
grant to them from Pharaoh, 22.
The people receive seed to sow the land on condition that they
shall give a fifth part of the produce to the king, 23, 24.
The people agree, and Joseph makes it a law all over Egypt, 25, 26.
The Israelites multiply exceedingly, 27.
Jacob, having lived seventeen years in Goshen, and being one
hundred and forty-seven years old, 28,
makes Joseph promise not to bury him in Egypt, but in Canaan, 29, 30.
Joseph promises and confirms it with an oath, 31.
NOTES ON CHAP. XLVII
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Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Gen 47:1. They are in the land of Goshen…
Gen 47:1. 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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain - Jacob in Goshen
- Jacob in Goshen
11. רעמסס ra‛mesês, Ra‘meses “son of the sun.”
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31. מטה mı̂ṭṭāh, “bed.” מטה maṭṭeh “staff.”
Arrangements are now made for the settlement of Israel in Goshen. The administration of Joseph during the remaining years of the famine is then recorded. For the whole of this period his father and brothers are subject to him, as their political superior, according to the reading of his early dreams. We then approach to the death-bed of Jacob, and hear him binding Joseph by an oath to bury him in the grave of his fathers.
Gen 47:1-12
Joseph announces to Pharaoh the arrival of his kindred. “Of the whole of his brethren,” more exactly from the end of his brethren. Five men, a favorite number in Egypt. Shepherds, owners and feeders of sheep and other cattle. “Pasture.” Hence, it appears that the drought had made the grazing extremely scanty. Men of ability, competent to take the oversight of others. “Jacob his father,” he presents before Pharaoh, after he has disposed of all business matters. “Jacob blessed Pharaoh.” This is the patriarch’s grateful return for Pharaoh’s great kindness and generosity toward him and his house. He is conscious of even a higher dignity than that of Pharaoh, as he is a prince of God; and as such he bestows his precious benediction. Pharaoh was struck with his venerable appearance, and inquired what was his age. “Pilgrimage” - sojourning, wandering without any constant abode or fixed holding.
Such was the life of the patriarchs in the land of promise Heb 11:13. “Few and evil.” Jacob’s years at this time were far short of those of Abraham and Isaac, not to speak of more ancient men. Much bitterness also had been mingled in his cup from the time that he beguiled his brother of the birthright and the blessing, which would have come to him in a lawful way if he had only waited in patience. Obliged to flee for his life from his father’s house, serving seven years for a beloved wife, and balked in his expected recompense by a deceitful father-in-law, serving seven long years more for the object of his affections, having his wages changed ten times during the six years of his further toil for a maintenance, afflicted by the dishonor of his only daughter, the reckless revenge taken by Simon and Levi, the death of his beloved wife in childbed, the disgraceful incest of Reuben, the loss of Joseph himself for twenty-two years, and the present famine with all its anxieties - Jacob, it must be confessed, has become acquainted with no small share of the ills of life. “Blessed Pharaoh.” It is possible that this blessing is the same as that already mentioned, now reiterated in its proper place in the narrative. “According to the little ones.” This means either in proportion to the number in each household, or with all the tenderness with which a parent provides for his infant offspring.
Gen 47:13-26
Joseph introduces remarkable changes into the relation of the sovereign and the people of Egypt. “There was no bread in all the land.” The private stores of the wealthy were probably exhausted. “And Joseph gathered up all the silver.” The old stores of grain and the money, which had flowed into the country during the years of plenty, seem to have lasted for five years. “And Joseph brought the silver into Pharaoh’s house.” He was merely the steward of Pharaoh in this matter, and made a full return of all the payments that came into his hands. “The silver was spent.” The famishing people have no more money; but they must have bread. Joseph is fertile in expedients. He proposes to take their cattle. This was really a relief to the people, as they had no means of providing them with fodder. The value of commodities is wholly altered by a change of circumstances. Pearls will not purchase a cup of water in a vast and dreary wilderness. Cattle become worthless when food becomes scarce, and the means of procuring it are exhausted. For their cattle Joseph supplies them with food during the sixth year.
Gen 47:18-20
The seventh year is now come. The silver and cattle are now gone. Nothing remains but their lands, and with these themselves as the serfs of the soil. Accordingly they make this offer to Joseph, which he cannot refuse. Hence, it is evident that Pharaoh had as yet no legal claim to the soil. In primeval times the first entrants into an unoccupied country became, by a natural custom, the owners of the grounds they held and cultivated. The mere nomad, who roamed over a wide range of country, where his flocks merely cropped the spontaneous herbage, did not soon arrive at the notion of private property in land. But the husbandman, who settled on a promising spot, broke up the soil, and sowed the seed, felt he had acquired by his labor a title to the acres he had cultivated and permanently occupied, and this right was instinctively acknowledged by others. Hence, each cultivator grew into the absolute owner of his own farm. Hence, the lands of Egypt belonged to the peasantry of the country, and were at their disposal. These lands had now become valueless to those who had neither provisions for themselves nor seed for their ground. They willingly part with them, therefore, for a year’s provision and a supply of seed. In this way the lands of Egypt fell into the hands of the crown by a free purchase. “And the people he removed into the cities.” This is not an act of arbitrary caprice, but a wise and kind measure for the more convenient nourishment of the people until the new arrangements for the cultivation of the soil should be completed. The priestly class were sustained by a state allowance, and therefore, were not obliged to alienate their lands. Hence, they became by this social revolution a privileged order. The military class were also exempted most probably from the surrender of their patrimonial rights, as they were maintained on the crown lands.
Gen 47:23-26
I have bought you. - He had bought their lands, and so they might be regarded, in some sort, as the servants of Pharaoh, or the serfs of the soil. “In the increase ye shall give the fifth to Pharaoh.” This explains at once the extent of their liability, and the security of their liberty and property. They do not become Pharaoh’s bondmen. They own their land under him by a new tenure. They are no longer subject to arbitrary exactions. They have a stated annual rent, bearing a fixed ratio to the amount of their crop. This is an equitable adjustment of their dues, and places them under the protection of a statute law. The people are accordingly well pleased with the enactment of Joseph, which becomes henceforth the law of Egypt.
Gen 47:27-31
And they were possessed thereof. - They become owners or tenants of the soil in Goshen. The Israelites were recognized as subjects with the full rights of freemen. “They grew and multiplied exceedingly.” They are now placed in a definite territory, where they are free from the contamination which arises from promiscuous intermarriage with an idolatrous race; and hence, the Lord bestows the blessing of fruitfulness and multiplication, so that in a generation or two more they can intermarry among themselves. It is a remarkable circumstance that until now we read of only two daughters in the family of Jacob. The brothers could not marry their sisters, and it was not desirable that the females should form affinity with the pagan, as they had in general to follow the faith of their husbands. Here the twelfth section of the Pentateuch terminates.
Gen 47:28-31
Jacob lives seventeen years in Egypt, and so survives the famine twelve years. “He called his son Joseph.” Joseph retained his power and place near Pharaoh after the fourteen years of special service were completed; hence, Jacob looks to him for the accomplishment of his wishes concerning the place of his burial. “Put thy hand under my thigh” Gen 24:2. He binds Joseph by a solemn asseveration to carry his mortal remains to the land of promise. “And Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed.” On receiving the solemn promise of Joseph, he turns toward the head of the bed, and assumes the posture of adoration, rendering, no doubt, thanks to God for all the mercies of his past life, and for this closing token of filial duty and affection. The Septuagint has the rendering: ἐπί τὸ ἄκρον τῆσῥάβδον αὐτοῦ epi to ākron akron tēs rabdou autou “on the top of his staff,” which is given in the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb 11:21. This is obtained by a mere change in the vowel pointing of the last word.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain INTRODUCTION TO PHARAOH, AND SETTLEMENT IN EGYPT, Gen_47:1-12.
INTRODUCTION TO PHARAOH, AND SETTLEMENT IN EGYPT, Gen_47:1-12.
1-3. They said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds — “The Egyptian monuments abundantly illustrate the hatred and contempt which the ruling castes felt towards the shepherds. In those great pictures of Egyptian life painted on the walls of the Theban tombs in the time of the Pharaohs, the shepherds are caricatured in many ways, being represented by figures lank, emaciated, distorted, and sometimes ghostly in form and feature. They are a vivid contemporary comment from Egyptian hands upon the sacred writer’s statement, that ‘shepherds are an abomination to the Egyptians.’ Sheep are never represented in the Theban tombs as being offered in sacrifice or slaughtered for food; and though in certain districts mutton was used for food, and sheep and goats held sacred, (Her., 2:42,) these cases are regarded by Egyptologists as exceptional. (Knobel.) Woollen was esteemed unclean by the priests, and their religion forbade them to wear woollen garments into the temples, or to bury the dead in them. (Her., 2:81.) This apparent aversion to the sheep is, however, greatly offset by the wide-spread worship of Amun and of Noum as ram-headed gods, as even now illustrated in the paintings of the tombs and in the splendid ruins of Karnak, and gives no sufficient reason for the contempt in which the shepherd was held. Nor is it a sufficient reason, as some have supposed, that the shepherds were accustomed to slaughter for food the ox, which was held sacred by the Egyptians; for the Egyptian worship of the bull was restricted to a single animal at a time, called the Apis, and the sculptures represent the priests as offering bulls in sacrifice, and eating beef and veal. Besides, the nomads rarely kill the ox, and never kill the cow for food. It was not to the shepherd, as such, but to the nomadic shepherd, with his wild, roving, predatory habits, that the civilized Egyptian bore this hatred.
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“There was also a special reason found for this hatred in an event which has stamped itself deeply upon Egyptian history; but whether it transpired before the era of Joseph or not is still an unsettled question. About two thousand years before Christ Egypt was invaded by a people from the north-east, of what precise nation is uncertain, who dispossessed the native princes, cast contempt upon the national religion, demolished the temples, slew the sacred animals, and set up at Memphis a foreign government which ran through three dynasties, (the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth of Manetho,) and ruled the greater part of the land for five or six centuries. They are called in history the Hyksos, or shepherd kings. The Theban king Amosis finally rose against them, and expelled them from the land, driving them into the Syrian desert. The name of shepherd became thereafter inseparably associated in the Egyptian mind with this Hyksos subjugation and tyranny, and so was especially hateful. Wilkinson believes that the Egyptian career of Joseph took place in the period just following the expulsion of the Hyksos, and so explains why, at that time especially, a shepherd was ‘an abomination to the Egyptians.’ This is, however, one of the disputed questions of Egyptian chronology whose solution is probably locked up in monuments and papyri yet to be deciphered.
“But, whatever be the explanation of this enmity, the fact is abundantly attested by the monuments; and we have this remarkable manifestation of the meekness and godly wisdom of Joseph, that, so far from attempting to conceal or disguise this unpleasing fact concerning his family, he announced it to Pharaoh at the outset, and instructed his brethren to repeat it to the king at their first introduction. Thus he secured the frontier district of Goshen for the family of Israel, where they might dwell in comparative isolation from the Egyptian idolatry. His family was introduced in such a way as to effectually preclude their political advancement. His great popularity and influence at the Egyptian court could have secured for them political preferment, or at least a total change of worldly condition; yet he is not dazzled by this most natural family ambition, but seeks first the spiritual good of his brothers and his children. In this he is the prototype of Moses, who chose to be a Hebrew exile rather than an Egyptian prince.
“There are two remarkable Egyptian records of the twelfth dynasty (2020-1860 B.C., according to Wilkinson,) which strikingly illustrate the career of Joseph. One is the story of Saneha, written on one of the oldest papyri yet discovered. Saneha was a pastoral nomad, who was received into the service of the reigning Pharaoh, rose to a high rank, was driven into exile, and afterwards restored to favour — was made the king’s counsellor, given precedence over all the courtiers, ‘set over the administration of the government of Egypt to develop its resources,’ and finally ‘prepared his sepulchre among the tombs of the princes.’ (Translation by M. Chabas, in Speaker’s Commentary.) There is no proof that Saneha was the Hebrew Joseph, but the parallel is most instructive as illustrating the possibility of a foreigner’s elevation in Egypt.
“The other record, made under the same dynasty, is found in the pictures and inscriptions of the famous sepulchral grottoes of Beni-hassen, which are thirty excavations cut in the limestone along the Nile’s eastern bank. A picture in one of these tombs represents the presentation of a nomad Asiatic chief, with his family and dependents, before an Egyptian prince. Their features, colour, costume, even to the rich ‘tunic of fringe,’ (‘coat of many colours,’) are all Asiatic. There is also an inscription describing a prince who was a favourite of the Pharaoh, which brings Joseph most vividly before us. Lepsius thus translates it: ‘He injured no little child; he oppressed no widow; he detained for his own purpose no fisherman; took from his work no shepherd; no overseer’s men were taken. There was no beggar in his days; no one starved in his time. When years of famine occurred, he ploughed all the lands of the district, producing abundant food; no one was starved in it; he treated the widow as a woman with a husband to protect her.’ (BUNSEN’S Egypt, vol. v: translation by BIRCH.) Neither here is there any proof that this favourite was Joseph; but the high estimate set upon virtues and abilities just such as are shown in Joseph, furnish an instructive comment upon our history.” — Newhall.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1–12. Gen_47:1-4; Gen_47:6 b, Gen_46:12-27 a, Gen_46:29-31 J; 5,…
1–12. Gen_47:1-4; Gen_47:6 b, Gen_46:12-27 a, Gen_46:29-31 J; 5, 6a, 7–11, 27b, 28 P
1. Then Joseph went in] Joseph seems to address Pharaoh as if the latter had been unaware of the coming of Joseph’s family. The passage (Gen_47:1-4) seems to ignore, or to be independent of, Gen_45:17-20 (E), in which Pharaoh himself offers a home in Egypt to Joseph’s brethren.
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the land of Goshen] Cf. Gen_45:10. Joseph reports of their arrival at Goshen, as if his brothers had reached that place accidentally.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Behold, they are in the land of Goshen.—Though…
XLVII
JOSEPH PRESENTS HIS FATHER AND BRETHREN TO PHARAOH.
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(1) Behold, they are in the land of Goshen.—Though Joseph had all along wished this to be the dwelling-place of his brethren, yet it was necessary to obtain Pharaoh’s permission; and at present Joseph only mentions that they had halted there. In Gen_47:4 they ask for the necessary consent.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain Genesis 37 - 50
Genesis 37 - 50
On which we shall dwell more particularly. There is not in scripture a more perfect and beautiful type of Christ than Joseph. Whether we view Christ as the object of the Father’s love, the object of the envy of His own, - in His humiliation, sufferings, death exaltation, and glory, in all we have Him strikingly typified by Joseph.
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In Gen. 37 we have Joseph’s dreams, the statement of which draws out the enmity of his brethren. He was the object of his father’s love, and the subject of very high destinies, and inasmuch as the hearts of his brothers were not in communion with these things, they hated him. They had no fellowship in the father’s love. They would not yield to the thought of Joseph’s exaltation. In all this they represent the Jews in Christ’s day. He came to His own and his own received him not." He had "no form nor comeliness in their eyes." They would neither own Him as the Son of God, nor king of Israel. Their eyes were not open to behold "his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of "grace and truth." They would not have Him; yea, they hated Him.
Now, in Joseph’s case, we see that he, in no wise, relaxed his testimony in consequence of his brethren’s refusal of his first dream. "And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren;" and they hated him yet the more....And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren." This was simple testimony founded upon divine revelation; but it was testimony which brought Joseph down to the pit. Had he kept back his testimony, or taken off ought of its edge and power, he might have spared himself; but no; he told them the truth, and therefore they hated him.
Thus was it with Joseph’s great Antitype. He bore witness to the truth - He witnessed a good confession He kept back nothing - He could only speak the truth because He was the truth, and His testimony to the truth was answered, on man’s part, by the cross, the vinegar, the soldier’s spear. The testimony of Christ, too, was connected with the deepest, fullest, richest grace. He not only came as "the truth," but also as the perfect expression of all the love of the Father’s heart:" grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." He was the full disclosure to man of what God was. Hence man was left entirely without excuse. He came and showed God to man, and man hated God with a perfect hatred. The fullest exhibition of divine love was answered by the fullest exhibition of human hatred. This is seen in the cross; and we have it touchingly foreshadowed at the pit into which Joseph was cast by his brethren.
"And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh; come now, therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit; and we will say, some evil beast hath devoured him; and we shall see what will become of his dreams." These words forcibly remind us of the parable in Matthew 22. "But, last of all, he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir, come let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him." God sent His Son into the world with this thought, "They will reverence my son;" but, alas! man’s heart had no reverence for the "well beloved" of the Father. They cast him out. Earth and heaven were at issue in reference to Christ; and they are at issue still. Man crucified Him; but God raised Him from the dead. Man placed Him on a cross between two thieves; God set Him at His own right hand in the heavens. Man gave Him the very lowest place on earth; God gave Him the very highest place in heaven, in brightest majesty.
ALL this is shown out in Joseph’s history. "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him; but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel;) even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breast and of the womb; the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren." (Gen. 49: 22-26)
These verses beautifully exhibit to our view "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." "The archers" have done their work; but God was stronger than they. The true Joseph has been shot at and grievously wounded in the house of his friends; but "the arms of his hands have been made strong" in the power of resurrection, and faith now knows Him as the basis of all God’s purposes of blessing and glory in reference to the Church, Israel, and the whole creation. When we look at Joseph in the pit, and in the prison, and look; at him afterwards as ruler over all the land of Egypt, we see the difference between the thoughts of God and the. thoughts of men; and so when we look at the cross, and at "the throne of the majesty in the heavens," we see the same thing.
Nothing ever brought out the real state of man’s heart toward God but the coming of Christ. "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin." (John 15: 22) It is not that they would not have been sinners. No; but "they had not had sin." So He says, in another place, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin." (John 9: 41) God came near to man in the Person of His Son, and man was able to say, "this is the heir;" but yet he said, "come, let us kill him." Hence, "they have no cloak for their sin." Those who say they see, have no excuse. confessed blindness is not at all the difficulty, but professed sight. This is a truly solemn principle for a professing age like the present. The permanence of sin is connected with the mere profession to see. A man who is blind, and knows it, can have his eyes opened; but what can be done for one who thinks he sees, when he really does not?
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Then Joseph came literally, and Joseph went, up to…
Then Joseph came literally, and Joseph went, up to the royal presence, as he had proposed (Gen_46:31) and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come cut of the land of Canaan; as thou didst desire (Gen_45:17, Gen_45:18) and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen. (vide Gen_45:10)
Vers. 1-10.
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Jacob and his sons before Pharaoh.
I JOSEPH"S BRETHREN BEFORE PHARAOH (vers. 1-6).
1. Their arrival announced (ver. 1). "My father and brethren are come out of the land of Canaan, and behold they are in the land of Goshen.
2. Their persons presented (ver. 2). "He took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them to Pharaoh. The import of this selection of five is explained in the exposition.
3. Their occupations declared (ver. 3). In answer to the king"s interrogation they replied that they were shepherds. They had no desire to deceive, although they had learnt that persons of their trades were not commonly regarded with favor. Joseph indeed had convinced them that in this instance honesty would be the best policy; but even had it been precisely the reverse there is no reason to suppose they would have attempted any sort of prevarication.
4. Their purpose explained (ver. 4). It was not their intention to settle permanently in Egypt, but only to find in it a temporary shelter during the years of famine. But while man proposes God disposes.
1. Their wish stated (ver. 4). "Now, therefore, let thy servants dwell in Goshen." Though Joseph might have had sufficient power to accord them this favor, it was only courteous to ask it from Pharaoh. "Honor to whom honor is due," is the dictate of right feeling as well as of true religion, and men seldom find themselves the losers by practicing politeness.
2. Their request granted (ver. 6). Pharaoh at once responded The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell." Nay, Pharaoh even exceeded their desires or expectations.
3. Their promotion indicated (ver. 6). "If thou knowest any men of activity among them, make them rulers over my cattle." "Seest thou a man diligent in business? he shall stand before kings!
II JOSEPH"S FATHER BEFORE PHARAOH (vers. 7-11).
1. The old mans blessing. "And Jacob blessed Pharaoh." This was
(1) a valuable gift. Once before he had sent a present to one whom he regarded as of vice-regal dignity; but now, when standing in the royal presence, he does not think of material offerings, but presents what must ever be beyond rubies, the intercession of a saintly heart with God on a fellow-creature"s behalf. If the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, the simple benediction of an aged saint cannot profit little.
(2) Earnestly given. This was shown by the promptitude with which it was bestowed. Immediately the venerable patriarch is ushered into the royal presence he breaks forth into the language of benediction, as if the inward emotion had just been trembling on the heart"s lip and ready at the first agitation to overflow. And he for whom he prays was a benefactor indeed, but a monarch and a heathen; and so are Christ"s people taught to pray for all men, for kings and such as are in authority, for unbelieving, as well as believing, and not for friends and benefactors solely, but likewise for enemies and persecutors.
(3) Solemnly confirmed. Spoken on the first entrance to the regal mansion, it was tremblingly re-uttered on departure. Never before had such a prayer been heard within an Egyptian palace. Yet the halls of princes no more than the novels or peasants are unsuitable for intercessions and supplications. Everywhere and always should be the saint"s motto in regard to prayer.
2. The old mans history. Gazing with tender interest on the venerable form of the patriarch as, leaning on the arm of his son, he softly steps across the threshold of the magnificent reception hall, the royal Pharaoh, probably struck with his aged and feeble appearance, kindly inquires, "How many are the days of the years of thy life?" to which Jacob with equal circumlocution, with perhaps a little of the garrulousness that is so natural and becoming in the old, but also with a true touch of pathos, replies, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the lives of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage." His existence on the earth he characterizes as having been
(1) A perpetual pilgrimage, a constant wandering, a continual sojourning, which in his case it had really been from Beersheba to Padan-aram, from Padan-aram to Canaan, from one location in the land of promise to another, and finally from Canaan to Egypt but which is no less true of all men"s lives; "here we have no continuing city.
(2) A short pilgrimage. Adding them up one by one, the days of the years of his pilgrimage might seem to be many; but in the retrospect they appeared what they really were, few and soon numbered; as life, which to the young in prospect looks long, to the old in retrospect is ever short. How amazing is the difference which a change of standpoint produces in the view which the mind takes of man"s existence on the earth, as of other things! and how important that we should bear this in mind when numbering our days!
(3) A sad pilgrimage. Not only had the days of Jacob"s years been few, but they had also been evil, filled with trouble, sorrow, and vexation, more even than that- of any of his predecessors. It was one more testimony to the fact that not only is man born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward, but that it is only through much tribulation that a child of God can enter the kingdom.
Learn
1. That prudence becomes a counselor. This was strikingly exemplified in Joseph"s conduct in presenting his brethren before Pharaoh.
2. That honesty advances a suppliant. In the long run Joseph"s brethren were better served by their perfect integrity and straightforwardness in Pharaoh"s presence than they would have been by resorting to duplicity and equivocation.
3. That piety adorns the old. How beautiful "does the character of Jacob, the aged wanderer, appear as it stands before us in Pharaoh"s palace, in the westering sunlight of his earthly pilgrimage! "The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it he found in the way of righteousness.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD Vers. 1-10.
The presentation to Pharaoh.
I TESTIMONY TO POWER OF CHARACTER. Joseph"s influence. The five brethren selected perhaps with a view to their appearance, and in the number five, which was regarded as a significant number among the Egyptians. The monarch"s reception of the strangers due to Joseph"s influence. Generally diffused. There is much graciousness in the heathen monarch, although partly to be ascribed to national characteristics, for the Egyptians were a very different race from the Canaanites; still we may believe that the conduct of Pharaoh was mostly due to the effect of Joseph"s ministry and personal exemplification of the religious life. One true man is a great power in a country.
II A conspicuous EXAMPLE of Divine grace. The old patriarch is presented. He plainly impressed the monarch as extremely aged, perhaps indicating that the centenarian was a great rarity then among heathen nations. His long life was a long course of gracious dealings. The effect of a religious life in prolonging the years is exemplified. It is said that since Christianity obtained its legitimate, or more of its legitimate influence in Europe, the average length of human life has been doubled. Yet, as Jacob confesses, he is not as old as his fathers. His life had been a pilgrimage in a wilderness. His days few and evil, compared with what they might have been. Seventeen years longer they were lengthened out a testimony to the effect of peace and prosperity in preserving life when it is under the blessing of God. Jacob blessed Pharaoh. The less is blessed of the greater. The two princes stood face to face the prince of God the prince of Egypt.
III A PROPHETIC PACT: the world shall be blessed through the heirs of the Divine promise. Jacob had much to be thankful for; and although he thanked God first, he teaches us by his example not to forget the claims of fellow-creatures in our gratitude, even though they be separated from us in faith and religion. R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Gen_47:2. Five men.] The number five was a favourite…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Gen_47:2. Five men.] The number five was a favourite number with the Egyptians. (Gen_41:34; Gen_42:34; Gen_45:22; Gen_47:2).—
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Gen_47:7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.] This word is sometimes used to denote an ordinary salutation. But the salutations used among the pious Hebrews were real prayers addressed to God for blessings on behalf of the person saluted.—
Gen_47:11. The land of Rameses.] The land of Rameses is mentioned here only. The city is mentioned in (Exo_1:11; Exo_12:37; Num_33:3; Num_33:5). Herroopolis was afterwards substituted by the LXX as the name in their time.—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_47:1-12
JOSEPH INTRODUCES JACOB AND HIS FAMILY TO PHARAOH
I. The introduction.
1. Of Joseph’s brethren. In this appears
(1.) Joseph’s character for fidelity to his promise. He had promised to do this for his father and brethren. And now he does not spend his time in indulgence or festive rejoicing, but takes proper steps to fulfil his word.
(2.) Joseph’s respect for constituted authority. His high position would have warranted him in doing much for them on his own authority. But in this important matter of the settlement of his kindred in the country, he will have the direct authority of Pharaoh. It was only proper that they should remain on the borders until all was settled. Joseph accomplishes his purpose by selecting delegates from among his brethren, which gives to the affair the aspect of a public and political transaction.
(3.) The straightforwardness of Joseph’s brethren. (Gen_47:3-4). They desire to be taken for what they are. They envy not their brother’s grandeur. The answer which they gave to Pharaoh left them no higher ambition than to be appointed as rulers over cattle. They inform him that they are only come to sojourn in the land. They only require a passing accommodation. The Divine plan was impressed upon their minds, and they wish to regard themselves as strangers even in the midst of a nation which affords them peculiar privileges. They reserve for themselves the right of leaving the country when they please. The reception
2. Of Joseph’s father.
(1.) The reverence due to age. (Gen_47:7). The father is not introduced for the purpose of business, but by way of respect. He would soon pass away, and these arrangements would be of little moment to him. When the young men were introduced they stood. Jacob, in honour of his years and in compassion for his infirmities, is set before Pharaoh.
(2.) The priesthood of age. “Jacob blessed Pharaoh.” Here was the patriarch and priest of God’s church before the mightiest monarch on earth. In political position and importance Pharaoh was greater than Jacob. But Jacob was greater than he in the kingdom of God. Therefore he thought it not presumption to act upon this consciousness. His blessing was more than a mere privilege of venerable age. He was a son of Abraham, one to whom the promise was made, “I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing.” He was “a prince,” and had “power with God and man, and prevailed.”
II. The reception.
1. Of the brethren. Pharaoh grants their request, and receives them with courtesy and frankness. He does the best possible for them, as they themselves had limited their ambition. But even within this limit he proposes rewards for superior merit. (Gen_47:6).—The reception,
2. Of Jacob. Pharaoh was struck with his venerable appearance, and enquires his age. This seems to affect him more than the solemnity of the blessing. But it is probable that he felt the influence of Jacob’s spiritual character. His question was natural under the circumstances and drew a tender and pathetic utterance from the venerable patriarch. (Gen_47:9.) Concerning himself he speaks—
(1) Of the shortness of his life. His days had been “few.” He “had not attained unto the days of the years of the life of his fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.” He was now 130 years old; but Abraham lived to 175, and Isaac to 180 years.
(2) Of the sorrow which filled his life. Neither Abraham nor Isaac had so much toil and trouble. Ever since that day when he beguiled his brother of his birthright; all kinds of bitterness seem to have been mingled with his cup. He was a fugitive for his life from his father’s house. He was compelled to serve seven years for a beloved wife, and then was cheated of his recompence by his deceitful father-in-law. He was doomed to serve seven years longer, and to endure the vexation of having his wages changed ten times. He was grieved by the dishonour of his only daughter, and by the conduct of his sons who revenged it with such reckless cruelty. His beloved wife died in childbed. Then a cloud of sorrow settled upon his soul and remained to the end of his life, only to be removed by the light of another world (Gen_48:7). His son, Reuben had disgraced the honour of the family by a foul crime. He had lost Joseph for twenty-two years. He had endured the present famine, with all its fearful anxieties. Surely he knew from bitter experience the ills of human life!
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen_47:1-3. That they had an occupation Pharaoh took for granted. God made Leviathan to play in the sea (Psa_104:26); but none to do so upon earth. To be idle is to be evil; and he shall not but do naughtily that does nothing. We may not make religion a mask for idleness. (2Th_3:11-12.)—(Trapp.)
Every Government has a right to require that those who enjoy its protection should not be mere vagrants, but by their industry contribute in some way to the public good.—(Fuller.)
Gen_47:4. The king’s questions corresponded with what Joseph had anticipated. An instance of Joseph’s sagacity.
They wished only to be accounted as strangers and sojourners in Egypt. They had left the land of their inheritance for a season. In five years more a great part of the cattle of Canaan was likely to perish; yet they would not on any account renounce their final interest in that good land of promise. It was the land which the God of their fathers had spied out for them and given them for an everlasting inheritance; and there were their hearts.—(Bush.)
In our dealings with the children of this world no terms should be made to the injury of our eternal inheritance.
Gen_47:5-6. The purport of Pharaoh’s reply was this, “As to promoting your brethren, it does not seem to suit their calling or their inclinations. I will therefore leave it to you to make them happy in their own way. If there be one or more of them better qualified for business than the rest, let them be appointed chief of my herdsmen.”—(Bush.)
Gen_47:7. The sight of a prince who had shown such kindness to him and his, in a time of distress, calls forth the most lively sensations of gratitude, and which he is prompted to express by a solemn blessing! How befitting, and how affecting is this! It was reckoned by the Apostle as a truth “beyond all contradiction, that the less is blessed of the better.”—(Fuller.)
Verse 8. The days that are past may be lost, and worse than lost to us, but they are marked down in a book that shall one day be opened. Have we not lost many of our days? What if they are all lost days? What if all that has hitherto been done by us should be produced against us in the day of trial? What need have we to redeem our time?—(Bush.)
Gen_47:9. The greatness and the littleness of human life. Jacob speaks sadly of his pilgrimage. He calls his days few, though he had attained to twice the age now appointed to man. He calls them evil, though they were not wholly so; for he had long enjoyed riches and honour, and the far higher blessings which come through the favour of God. He alludes, indeed, to the longer life which his fathers had attained. But this is not the real ground of his complaint. It was not because his life was shorter than theirs that he spake these melancholy words. His real reason was, because his life was well nigh over. For it matters not when time has once gone what length it has been. Nothingness, vanity, emptiness, aimlessness—these are the sad characteristics of our human life looked upon from its earthly side.
I. Contrast this poor vanishing life of ours with the great capabilities of our souls. Our time on earth is too short to develop the great powers which God has given us. Life appears both great and small. It is great, in that it is filled with so much thought, feeling and energy; small, in that it is gone in a moment like a bubble that bursts on the wave. When we look upon human life in its works and effects, we see in it the energy of a spiritual existence—the greatness of a soul. But when we look back upon life, it becomes a memory—a mere lapse of time. Thus it is marked by littleness. Yet it is great, in that one moment of strong and noble life within us is worth all the ages of time. Life is disappointing, because the greatness of our souls has no opportunity for working out itself here. As believers, we have to begin here that which only faith can bring to an end. We are gifted with powers which we know must last beyond this life. These have in them the suggestions of immortality. We are forced upon the thought of another life where we shall have room for the expansion of our powers.
II. Consider some facts of human experience.
1. Consider the case of a good man who dies full of days. He may have lived to old age, still we feel that there were germs of goodness in him that had no chance of ripening. He had in him a marvellous kindness, a nobility of mind and heart; but contracted means and opportunities have repressed them, and hindered their proper issues. We feel as if his life had been a failure, as if his mind had never reached its true scope, as if the blossoms of his generous soul had been nipped. His days have been “few and evil.”
2. Consider the case of a good man who dies before his time. That is as we count such. There are some Christian men who in a single moment of their lives have shewn a height and majesty of mind which it would take ages fully to develop. Yet they are suddenly taken away. Surely they are reserved for higher things elsewhere. Such have given tokens of their immortality. There is something in the goodness and graces of the Christian life for which this world affords not sufficient room. Such men have not half showed themselves here, nor half put forth their strength.
3. Consider the case of the death-beds of some of the saints. We expect then to see the power of religion manifested, the signs of a hope full of immortality. We listen for a triumphant testimony of the supporting power of God’s grace amidst the awful terrors of death. We look for great and noble words. But how often are we disappointed! Illustrating the preacher’s words, “How dieth the wise man? As the fool.” King Josiah, the zealous servant of the living God, died the death of wicked Ahab, the worshipper of Baal. Death in all its awful forms comes to believers as to other men. By a sudden accident, amidst strangers, in battle, insensible, or seized with raging madness. Thus the golden opportunity is thrown away. The manifestation of the sons of God is hereafter. “It doth not yet appear.”
III. Our duty in the presence of these facts.
1. Seek eternal life. Like our natural life this is also the gift of God’s quickening Spirit. Christ is “the Life.” “He that hath the Son hath Life.” Without the consciousness of this eternal life, human existence is futile, empty of all solid food. No advance in science, and the arts of civilization can reconcile us to the loss of God and the hope of immortality. If there is no living God who is to reward us hereafter, if this present world is the be-all and the end-all of man, then “vanity of vanities” is the epitaph of life, and the universe is but a gigantic sepulchre.
2. Look forwards to the compensations of another world. In the heavenly world, the purposes of our life shall be accomplished, its shortcomings completed, its visions realized, its sorrows compensated.
Gen_47:10-12. The patriarch could not take leave of the king without again pronouncing a solemn blessing. We discover in this the signs of a hope which reaches beyond all the evils of his life. There is a lasting blessing of the Most High which can swallow up all evil.
Joseph continued to nourish and cherish them “as a little child is nourished.” And thus he is made, more than at the birth of Manasseh, to forget all his toil, and all the distresses which he had met with in his father’s house.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Gen 47:5-6
Gen 47:5-6
The land of Goshen may be designated as the Netherlands of Egypt. When the first settlers rested there, it was in the immediate neighbourhood of the court. The Israelitish life there must have been a life of villages. The Egyptian government, fearful of this people even scattered abroad, would never have permitted them to consolidate their strength in large towns. It was a region of coarse plenty, a rich pastoral country; it was also a frontier land and an exposed province. It formed the Delta of the Nile, and was well called "the best of the land."
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I. The villages of Goshen illustrate the mysterious path of divine purposes. Without that residence in Goshen we cannot see how Israel could have inherited its holy land; for Israel was not to be like Ishmael, a mere horde of bandit warriors, or a wandering race of unsettled Bedouins. The race was to exist for a purpose on the earth, and from the years of the discipline of despotism a spirit would infiltrate itself into the vast multitude; a mind, a Hebrew mind, would be born, fostered, and transmitted.
II. It is to the villages of Goshen that believers may turn to find how, when circumstances look most hopeless and men are most helpless, they are not forgotten or forsaken of God; how in the night-time of a nation’s distress the lamp of truth may somewhere be burning brightly.
III. There was safety in Goshen. There came a time when God in a very fearful manner arose for the deliverance of His Church. The firstborn throughout the land of Egypt died, and there was a great cry throughout the land; but Israel was safe.
E. Paxton Hood, The Preacher’s Lantern, vol. iii., p. 405.
References: Gen 47:8.—D. King, Memoir and Sermons, p. 265; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 280. Gen 47:8, Gen 47:9.—M. Nicholson. Redeeming the Time, p. 108.
Gen 47:9
Those who looked only on the outer life of Jacob would scarcely have thought that his days were either few or evil. It was conscience that spoke out in these words—conscience, which so often throws a reflected sadness over our estimate of things.
I. The helpfulness of Jacob’s character is this—that it is the history of a bad man, of a man who started with every disadvantage of natural character and training, but who notwithstanding became eventually a good man.
II. The one redeeming point in Jacob’s character—that which (humanly speaking) made him capable of better things, and enabled him to rise above his brother Esau and above his former self—was his faith. The great difference between Esau and Jacob was this: the former lived only in the visible and tangible world; his horizon was bounded by the narrow limits of our merely earthly life; but Jacob lived in a far wider world, a world which included spiritual interests and spiritual personages. This was why Esau sold his birthright—Jacob bought it. The same faith which caused him to value the birthright afterwards was the means of his salvation. His long and painful schooling, his wrestling with the angel at the ford of Jabbok, would have been impossible but for his faith, his grasp of spiritual realities. If Esau had had a vision of God and of angels, and of a ladder reaching up to heaven, he might have been frightened for the moment, but he would have shaken off the thought of it directly he awoke; the keenness of his appetite, the necessity of getting breakfast, would have been to him the realities of the hour. If one had wrestled with him through the night he might have fled in wrath, or died in obstinacy; but he would never have divined that that strong foe was a friend in disguise—he would never have thought of asking and extorting a blessing.
III. Jacob was saved by faith, and this is the way in which we are to be saved also. Faith is the handle whereby grace takes hold of us. Without faith it is impossible to please God, because unless we realise the unseen we are in fact shut up within the world of sense—we are shut out from God and He from us.
R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions, p. 36.
The patriarch called his days few and evil, not because his life was shorter than his fathers’, but because it was nearly over. When life is past, it is all one whether it has lasted two hundred years or fifty. And it is the fact that life is mortal which makes it under all circumstances equally feeble and despicable.
I. This sense of the nothingness of life is much deepened when we contrast it with the capabilities of us who live it. Our earthly life gives promise of what it does not accomplish. It promises immortality, yet it is mortal; it contains life in death and eternity in time, and it attracts us by beginnings which faith alone brings to an end.
II. Such being the unprofitableness of this life viewed in itself, it is plain how we should regard it while we go through it. We should remember that it is scarcely more than an accident of our being—that it is no part of ourselves, who are immortal; The regenerate soul is taken into communion with saints and angels, and its "life is hid with Christ in God." It looks at this world as a spectator might look at some show or pageant, except when called upon from time to time to take a part.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. iv., p. 214; also Selection from the same, p. 341.
References: Gen 47:9.—A. Raleigh, Thoughts for the Weary, p. 241; J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 336; J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 377; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., pp. 535, 553. Gen 47:11-28.—R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis, vol. ii., p. 254. Gen 47:13-26.—W. M. Taylor, Joseph the Prime Minister, p. 91; M. Dods, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, p. 209. Gen 47:27.—W. M. Taylor, Joseph the Prime Minister, p. 153. Gen 47:29-31.—R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis, vol. ii., p. 259. Gen 47-49.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 545; Parker, vol. i., p. 346.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Gen 47:1 - Gen 47:12.
Genesis
GROWTH BY TRANSPLANTING
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Gen 47:1 - Gen 47:12.
1. The conduct of Joseph in reference to the settlement in Goshen is an example of the possibility of uniting worldly prudence with high religious principle and great generosity of nature. He had promised his brothers a home in that fertile eastern district, which afforded many advantages in its proximity to Canaan, its adaptation to pastoral life, and its vicinity to Joseph when in Zoan, the capital. But he had not consulted Pharaoh, and, however absolute his authority, it scarcely stretched to giving away Egyptian territory without leave. So his first care, when the wanderers arrive, is to manage the confirmation of the grant. He goes about it with considerable astuteness-a hereditary quality, which is redeemed from blame because used for unselfish purposes and unstained by deceit. He does not tell Pharaoh how far he had gone, but simply announces that his family are in Goshen, as if awaiting the monarch’s further pleasure. Then he introduces a deputation, no doubt carefully chosen, of five of his brothers {as if the whole number would have been too formidable}, previously instructed how to answer. He knows what Pharaoh is in the habit of asking, or he knows that he can lead him to ask the required question, which will bring out the fact of their being shepherds, and utilise the prejudice against that occupation, to ensure separation in Goshen. All goes as he had arranged. Thanks partly to the indifference of the king, who seems to have been rather a roi fainéant in the hands of his energetic maire du palais, and to have been contented to give, with a flourish of formality, as a command to Joseph, what Joseph had previously carefully suggested to him {vers. 6, 7}. There is nothing unfair in all this. It is good, shrewd management, and no fault can be found with it; but it is a new trait in the ideal character of a servant of God, and contrasts strongly with the type shown in Abraham. None the less, it is a legitimate element in the character and conduct of a good man, set down to do God’s work in such a world. Joseph is a saint and a politician. His shrewdness is never craft; sagacity is not alien to consecration. No doubt it has to be carefully watched lest it degenerate; but prudence is as needful as enthusiasm, and he is the complete man who has a burning fire down in his heart to generate the force that drives him, and a steady hand on the helm, and a keen eye on the chart, to guide him. Be ye ‘wise as serpents’ but also ‘harmless as doves.’
2. We may note in Joseph’s conduct also an instance of a man in high office and not ashamed of his humble relations. One of the great lessons meant to be taught by the whole patriarchal period was the sacredness of the family. That is, in some sense, the keynote of Joseph’s history. Here we see family love, which had survived the trial of ill-usage and long absence, victorious over the temptation of position and high associates. It took some nerve and a great deal of affection, for the viceroy, whom envious and sarcastic courtiers watched, to own his kin. What a sweet morsel for malicious tongues it would be, ‘Have you heard? He is only the son of an old shepherd, who is down in Goshen, come to pick up some crumbs there!’ One can fancy the curled lips and the light laugh, as the five brothers, led by the great man himself, made their rustic reverences to Pharaoh. It is as if some high official in Paris were to walk in half a dozen peasants in blouse and sabots, and present them to the president as ‘my brothers.’ It was a brave thing to do; and it teaches a lesson which many people, who have made their way in the world, would be nobler and more esteemed if they learned.
3. The brother’s words to Pharaoh are another instance of that ignorant carrying out of the divine purposes which we have already had to notice. They evidently contemplate only a temporary stay in the country. They say that they are come ‘to sojourn’-the verb from which are formed the noun often rendered ‘strangers,’ and that which Jacob uses in Gen 47:9, ‘my pilgrimage.’ The reason for their coming is given as the transient scarcity of pasturage in Canaan, which implies the intention of return as soon as that was altered. Joseph had the same idea of the short duration of their stay; and though Jacob had been taught by vision that the removal was in order to their being made a great nation, it does not seem that his sons’ intentions were affected by that-if they knew it. So mistaken are our estimates. We go to a place for a month, and we stay in it for twenty years. We go to a place to settle for life, and our tent-pegs are pulled up in a week. They thought of five years, and it was to be nearly as many centuries. They thought of temporary shelter and food; God meant an education of them and their descendants. Over all this story the unseen Hand hovers, chastising, guiding, impelling; and the human agents are free and yet fulfilling an eternal purpose, blind and yet accountable, responsible for motives, and mercifully ignorant of consequences. So we all play our little parts. We have no call to be curious as to what will come of our deeds. This end of the action, the motive of it, is our care; the other end, the outcome of it, is God’s business to see to.
4. We may also observe how trivial incidents are wrought into God’s scheme. The Egyptian hatred of the shepherd class secured one of the prime reasons for the removal from Canaan-the unimpeded growth of a tribe into a nation. There was no room for further peaceful and separate expansion in that thickly populated country. Nor would there have been in Egypt, unless under the condition of comparative isolation, which could not have been obtained in any other way. Thus an unreasonable prejudice, possibly connected with religious ideas, became an important factor in the development of Israel; and, once again, we have to note the wisdom of the great Builder who uses not only gold, silver, and precious stones, but even wood, hay, stubble-follies and sins-for His edifice.
5. The interview of Jacob with Pharaoh is pathetic and beautiful. The old man comports himself, in all the later history of Joseph, as if done with the world, and waiting to go. ‘Let me die, since I have seen thy face,’ was his farewell to life. He takes no part in the negotiation about Goshen, but has evidently handed over all temporal cares to younger hands. A halo of removedness lies round his grey hairs, and to Pharaoh he behaves as one withdrawn from fleeting things, and, by age and nearness to the end, superior even to a king’s dignity. As he enters the royal presence he does not do reverence, but invokes a blessing upon him. ‘The less is blessed of the better.’ He has nothing to do with court ceremonials or conventionalities. The hoary head is a crown of honour, Pharaoh recognises his right to address him thus by the kindly question as to his age, which implied respect for his years. The answer of the ‘Hebrew Ulysses,’ as Stanley calls him, breathes a spirit of melancholy not unnatural in one who had once more been uprooted, and found himself again a wanderer in his old age. The tremulous voice has borne the words across all the centuries, and has everywhere evoked a response in the hearts of weary and saddened men. Look at the component parts of this pensive retrospect.
Life has been to him a ‘pilgrimage’. He thinks of all his wanderings from that far-off day when at Bethel he received the promise of God’s presence ‘in all places whither thou goest,’ till this last happy and yet disturbing change. But he is thinking not only, perhaps not chiefly, of the circumstances, but of the spirit, of his life. This is, no doubt, the confession ‘that they were strangers and pilgrims’ referred to in the Epistle to the Hebrews. He was a pilgrim, not because he had often changed his place of abode, but because he sought the ‘city which hath foundations,’ and therefore could not be at home here. The goal of his life lay in the far future; and whether he looked for the promises to be fulfilled on earth, or had the unformulated consciousness of immortality, and saluted the dimly descried coast from afar while tossing on life’s restless ocean, he was effectually detached from the present, and felt himself an alien in the existing order. We have to live by the same hope, and to let it work the same estrangement, if we would live noble lives. Not because all life is change, nor because it all marches steadily on to the grave, but because our true home-the community to which we really belong, the metropolis, the mother city of our souls-is above, are we to feel ourselves strangers upon earth. They who only take into account the transiency of life are made sad, or sometimes desperate, by the unwelcome thought. But they whose pilgrimage is a journey home may look that transiency full in the face, and be as glad because of it as colonists on their voyage to the old country which they call ‘home,’ though they were born on the other side of the world and have never seen its green fields.
To Jacob’s eyes his days seem ‘few.’ Abraham’s one hundred and seventy-five years, Isaac’s one hundred and eighty, were in his mind. But more than these was in his mind. The law of the moral perspective is other than that of the physical. The days in front, seen through the glass of anticipation, are drawn out; the days behind, viewed through the telescope of memory, are crowded together. What a moment looked all the long years of his struggling life-shorter now than even had once seemed the seven years of service for his Rachel, that love had made to fly past on such swift wings! That happy wedded life, how short it looked! A bright light for a moment, and
‘Ere a man could say “Behold!”
The jaws of darkness did devour it up.’
It is well to lay the coolness of this thought on our fevered hearts, and, whether they be torn by sorrows or gladdened with bliss, to remember ‘this also will pass’ and the longest stretch of dreary days be seen in retrospect, in their due relation to eternity, as but a moment. That will not paralyse effort nor abate sweetness, but it will teach proportion, and deliver from the illusions of this solid-seeming shadow which we call life.
The pensive retrospect darkens as the old man’s memory dwells upon the past. His days have not only been few-that could be borne-but they have been ‘evil’ by which I understand not unfortunate so much as faulty. We have seen in preceding pages the slow process by which the crafty Jacob had his sins purged out of him, and became ‘God’s wrestler.’ Here we learn that old wrong-doing, even when forgiven-or, rather, when and because forgiven-leaves regretful memories lifelong. The early treachery had been long ago repented of and pardoned by God and man. The nature which hatched it had been renewed. But here it starts up again, a ghost from the grave, and the memory of it is full of bitterness. No lapse of time deprives a sin of its power to sting. As in the old story of the man who was killed by a rattlesnake’s poison fang embedded in a boot which had lain forgotten for years, we may be wounded by suddenly coming against it, long after it is forgiven by God and almost forgotten by ourselves. Many a good man, although he knows that Christ’s blood has washed away his guilt, is made to possess the iniquities of his youth. ‘Thou shalt be ashamed and confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done.’
But this shaded retrospect is one-sided. It is true, and in some moods seems all the truth; but Jacob saw more distinctly, and his name was rightly Israel, when, laying his trembling hands on the heads of Joseph’s sons, he laid there the blessing of ‘the God which fed me all my life long, . . .’the Angel which redeemed me from all evil.’ That was his last thought about his life, as it began to be seen in the breaking light of eternal day. Pensive and penitent memory may call the years few and evil, but grateful faith even here, and still more the cleared vision of heaven, will discern more truly that they have been a long miracle of loving care, and that all their seeming evil has been transmuted into good.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Joseph presents his Brethren and his Father to Pharaoh.…
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.
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9. 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.
11. Land of Rameses] or Raamses. Evidently identical with the 'land of Goshen '(Gen_47:4 and Gen_47:6). The name here is probably anticipatory of the time of the great Rameses, who made his court at Zoan: see on Exo_1:11.
14-25. From being owners of the land the people became tenants of the crown. They remained on the land, paying one-fifth of the produce for state requirements, and retaining four-fifths for their own use. In such a fertile land as Egypt these conditions must be regarded as much more favourable than in some Eastern states in the present day, such as Turkey and Persia, where the peasants have to hand over from a half to three-fourths of the produce of the land to the government. See Dillmann, and on Gen_47:25.
16, 17. When Joseph took the people's cattle which they were unable to support in the dried-up Nile valley, he probably removed them to Goshen (cp. Gen_47:6) until the famine was ended.
18. The second year] not of the famine, but the year after they had given up their cattle.
21. 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 Gen_47:14-25.
22. 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.
23. '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 expulsion of the Hyksôs), the old aristocracy has made way for royal officials, and the landed property has passed out of the hands of the old families into the possession of the crown and the great temples '(D.).
25. 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.
29. Put.. thy hand, etc.] see on Gen_24:2.
31. Bowed himself upon the bed's head] perhaps better, 'worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff,' as in Heb_11:21. The Hebrew words for 'bed' and 'staff' are very like each other.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain CHAPTER 47 The Settlement in Goshen
CHAPTER 47 The Settlement in Goshen
1. Before Pharaoh (Gen 47:1-10)
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2. The settlement (Gen 47:11-12)
3. Joseph’s wise administration (Gen 47:13-26)
4. Jacob’s request (Gen 47:27-31)
Jacob and some of his sons were presented to Pharaoh, who received them graciously, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. The great and powerful monarch of the great land of Egypt was blessed by the poor old Jacob. He is more than blessed, but a blesser, a type of what Israel is yet to be for the nations of the earth.
There is no discrepancy in Gen 47:11, for Goshen is also called Rameses. We likewise get a glimpse in this chapter of the wonderful administration of Joseph during the years of famine. Gen 47:27 speaks of Israel’s prosperity in the land. Notice how the names of Jacob and Israel are used. He requested to be buried in Canaan and Joseph promised to carry out his wish.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Jacob and Five of his Sons Presented to Pharaoh
Jacob and Five of his Sons Presented to Pharaoh
v. 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. This was the formal and official notification of their arrival in Pharaoh’s domain.
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v. 2. And he took some of his brethren, out of their total number, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.
v. 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. As Joseph had foreseen the question of Pharaoh, so his instruction to his brothers had just covered the case.
v. 4. They said moreover unto Pharaoh, for to sojourn in the land, to live here only a while as strangers, are we come; for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.
v. 5. And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee;
v. 6. the land of Egypt is before thee, in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; he might give them places to live in whatsoever part he considered most excellent for their purposes, in the land of Goshen let them dwell. It is a fine bit of tact on the part of Pharaoh in yielding to Joseph the right and the decision as to the settlement in Goshen. And if thou knowest any men of activity among them, able, energetic men, then make them rulers over my cattle, they were to be given positions as chief herdsmen.
v. 7. And Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, after the first part of the audience had terminated so successfully,and set him before Pharaoh, presented him to the king;and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. It was not an ordinary, humble greeting, but a true priestly blessing.
v. 8. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? an inquiry of courtesy.
v. 9. And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years. The expression is purposely chosen to indicate extension, duration. Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. The complaint of Moses is here anticipated: "Yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away," Psa 90:10. The age of Jacob, although he did not die as soon as he expected, did indeed fall much short of that of Abraham and Isaac, and in addition, his shorter life had brought him much grief and sorrow. The believers have no guarantee of immunity against the troubles of this earth, but, on the contrary, very often are obliged to carry an unusual measure, and they bear them willingly in the fear of God.
v. 10. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh. If the princes of the world grant to the believers a place where they may live and worship in peace and security, they will receive the blessings of the Lord in return.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Joseph went in and told Pharaoh ... He took…
Joseph went in and told Pharaoh ... He took five of his brothers and introduced them
The UDB reorders the events chronologically, whereas the ULB lists the events as the author wrote them. (See: Order of Events)
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translationWords
Joseph (OT)
Pharaoh
ancestor
brother
flocks
Canaan
Goshen
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 47:1-6 Pharaoh responded as Joseph hoped by giving Jacob’s…
47:1-6 Pharaoh responded as Joseph hoped by giving Jacob’s family the best part of the land; he even gave some of the brothers oversight of his own livestock (47:6).
47:1 Goshen (see study note on 45:10) is not referred to in ancient Egyptian texts; the name it bore in later Egyptian writings was “the region of Rameses” (47:11; see Exod 1:11). It was fertile and near to Joseph at court, which suggests that it was on the eastern side of the Nile delta.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.