7Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.8Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?”
9Jacob 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.”10Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.
11Joseph 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.12Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all of his father’s household with bread, according to the sizes of their families.
7 Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
8 Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?”
9 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.”
10 Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.
11 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.
12 Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all of his father’s household with bread, according to the sizes of their families.
KJVKing James Version
7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
8 And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou?
9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.
11 And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
12 And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
8 And Pharaoh said unto Jacob: 'How many are the days of the years of thy life?'
9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh: 'The days of the years of my sojournings are a hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojournings.'
10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.
11 And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
12 And Joseph sustained his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according to the want of their little ones.
Genesis 47:7(v10)Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
Job 14:1(v9)“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.
Psalms 39:12(v9)“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers…
Genesis 35:28(v9)The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years.
Genesis 47:6(v11)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…
Show all 70 cross-references
Genesis 47:10(v7)Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.
Exodus 1:11(v11)Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.
Exodus 12:37(v11)The children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, in addition to children.
Psalms 39:5(v9)Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.”
2 Samuel 8:10(vv7, 10)then Toi sent Joram his son to king David, to greet him, and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer and struck him; for…
2 Samuel 19:39(vv7, 10)All the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over. Then the king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned to his own…
Genesis 14:19(v10)He blessed him, and said, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.
Genesis 45:11(v12)There I will provide for you; for there are yet five years of famine; lest you come to poverty, you, and your household, and all that you…
Genesis 50:26(v9)So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Exodus 6:4(v9)I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their travels, in which they lived as aliens.
Exodus 7:7(v9)Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
Deuteronomy 33:1(v10)This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.
Deuteronomy 34:7(v9)Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his strength gone.
Joshua 24:29(v9)After these things, Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred ten years old.
Psalms 129:8(v10)Neither do those who go by say, “The blessing of Yahweh be on you. We bless you in Yahweh’s name.”
Hebrews 7:7(v10)But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater.
James 4:14(v9)Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time, and…
1 Peter 2:11(v9)Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
Genesis 11:11(v9)Shem lived five hundred years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and became the father of more sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:24-25(v9)Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah. Nahor lived one hundred nineteen years after he became the father of Terah,…
Genesis 25:7-8(v9)These are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived: one hundred seventy-five years. Abraham gave up his spirit, and died at a…
Genesis 47:28(v9)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.
Numbers 6:23-27(v10)“Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘This is how you shall bless the children of Israel.’ You shall tell them, ‘Yahweh bless you, and…
Job 8:8-9(v9)“Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers. (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because…
Job 42:16-17(v9)After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, to four generations. So Job died, being old and full of…
Psalms 119:19(v9)I am a stranger on the earth. Don’t hide your commandments from me.
Psalms 119:54(v9)Your statutes have been my songs in the house where I live.
Hebrews 11:9-16(v9)By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him…
Genesis 5:27(v9)All the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty-nine years, then he died.
Genesis 35:27(v7)Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners.
Genesis 47:1(v12)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…
Genesis 47:21(v12)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.
Genesis 47:24(v12)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…
Exodus 12:32(v7)Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also!”
Exodus 20:12(v12)“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
Numbers 6:23-24(v7)“Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘This is how you shall bless the children of Israel.’ You shall tell them, ‘Yahweh bless you, and…
Joshua 14:13(v7)Joshua blessed him; and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance.
Ruth 4:15(v12)He shall be to you a restorer of life and sustain you in your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than…
1 Samuel 2:20(v7)Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, “May Yahweh give you offspring from this woman for the petition which was asked of Yahweh.”…
2 Samuel 14:22(v7)Joab fell to the ground on his face, showed respect, and blessed the king. Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in…
2 Samuel 19:32-35(v9)Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even eighty years old. He had provided the king with sustenance while he stayed at Mahanaim; for he was…
1 Kings 1:47(v7)Moreover the king’s servants came to bless our lord king David, saying, ‘May your God make the name of Solomon better than your name, and…
2 Kings 4:29(v7)Then he said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, don’t greet him;…
1 Chronicles 29:15(v9)For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.
Psalms 89:47-48(v9)Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men! What man is he who shall live and not see death,…
Psalms 90:3-12(v9)You turn man to destruction, saying, “Return, you children of men.” For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is…
Psalms 119:46(v10)I will also speak of your statutes before kings, and will not be disappointed.
Matthew 15:4-6(v12)For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you…
Matthew 26:26(v7)As they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it. He gave to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
Mark 7:10-13(v12)For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother;’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say,…
Luke 22:19(v7)He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in…
John 10:10(v11)The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
John 10:28(v11)I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
John 14:2(v11)In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
John 14:23(v11)Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.
John 17:2(v11)even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
John 17:24(v11)Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you…
1 Thessalonians 2:7(v12)But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.
1 Timothy 4:8(v12)For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now, and of that which…
1 Timothy 5:4(v12)But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety toward their own family and to repay their parents, for…
1 Timothy 5:8(v12)But if anyone doesn’t provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.
Hebrews 13:14(v9)For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come.
1 Peter 2:17(v7)Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
Ruth 2:4(v10)Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “May Yahweh be with you.” They answered him, “May Yahweh bless you.”
2 Corinthians 5:6(v9)Therefore we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;
70 distinct cross-references across this passage (72 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv7, 8, 9, 127. And Joseph brought in Jacob his father. Although…
7. And Joseph brought in Jacob his father. Although Moses relates, in a continuous narrative, that Jacob was brought to the king, yet I do not doubt that some time had intervened; at least, till he had obtained a place wherein he might dwell; and where he might leave his family more safely, and with a more tranquil mind; and also, where he might refresh himself, for a little while, after the fatigue of his journey. And whereas he is said to have blessed Pharaoh, by this term Moses does not mean a common and profane salutation, but the pious and holy prayer of a servant of God. For the children of this world salute kings and princes for the sake of honor, but, by no means, raise their thoughts to God. Jacob acts otherwise; for he adjoins to civil reverence that pious affection which causes him to commend the safety of the king to God. And Jeremiah prescribes this rule to the Jews, that they should pray for the peace of Babylon as long as they were to live in exile; because in the peace of that land and empire their own peace would be involved. (Jeremiah 29:7.) If this duty was enjoined on miserable captives, forcibly deprived of their liberty, and torn from their own country; how much more did Jacob owe it to a king so humane and beneficent? But of whatever character they may be who rule over us, we are commanded to offer up public prayers for them. (1 Timothy 2:1.) Therefore the same subjection to authority is required severally from each of us.
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.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv7–12Gen 47:7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father,…
Gen 47:7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
Ver. 7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.] That is, he prayed God to bless him, both at meeting and parting. To salute is comely: but see that ye be hearty, not frothy; prayerful, not complimental. We are heirs of blessing, and must therefore be free of it. {1Pe 3:9}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9, 11, 12Not in an authoritative way, as the greater blesseth…
Not in an authoritative way, as the greater blesseth the less, but in a general manner, i.e. he saluted him, thanked him for all his favours to him and his, and prayed to God to bless and recompense him for it. Thus blessing is put for saluting, 1Sa 13:10; 2Ki 4:29; for praying, Num 6:23,24; for thanksgiving, Mat 26:26, compare with Luk 22:19.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv7–12And Joseph brought in Jacob his father,.... That is,…
And Joseph brought in Jacob his father,.... That is, some time after he had introduced his five brethren, and had gotten the grant of Goshen for them, when he sent, for his father from thence, or he came quickly after to Tanis or Memphis, where Pharaoh's court was:
and set him before Pharaoh; presented Jacob to him, and placed his father right before Pharaoh, perhaps in a chair, or on a seat, by Pharaoh's order, because of his age, and in honour to him:
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and Jacob blessed Pharaoh; wished him health and happiness, prayed for his welfare, and gave him thanks for all his kindness to him and his; and he blessed him not only in a way of civility, as was usual when men came into the presence of princes, but in an authoritative way, as a prophet and patriarch, a man divinely inspired of God, and who had great power in prayer with him: the Targum of Jonathan gives us his prayer thus,"may it be the pleasure (i.e. of God) that the waters of the Nile may be filled, and that the famine may remove from the world in thy days.''
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv8–10How old art thou? - A question usually put…
How old art thou? - A question usually put to old men, for it is natural to us to admire old age, and to reverence it. Jacob's countenance no doubt shewed him to be old, for be 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.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9Verse 7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.] Saluted him on his…
Verse 7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.] Saluted him on his entrance with Peace be unto thee, or some such expression of respect and good will. For the meaning of the term to bless, as applied to God and man, See Clarke on Ge 2:3.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv7, 8, 9, 12Gen 47:7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh — Which is repeated,…
Gen 47:7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh — Which is repeated, Gen 47:10, as being a circumstance very remarkable. And remarkable surely it was that the greater, for such Pharaoh was in all external things, in wealth, power and glory, should be blessed of the less, Heb 7:7. But before God, and in reality, Jacob was much greater than Pharaoh. It is probable, therefore, that he not only saluted him, prayed for and thanked him for all his favours to him and his, all which the original word, here rendered blessed, often means; but that he blessed him with the authority of a patriarch and a prophet: and a patriarch’s blessing was a thing not to be despised, no, not by a potent prince.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9Blessed him, Pharao; saying, perhaps, God save the king;…
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)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv7, 8, 9, 11Joseph brought in Jacob his father--There is a pathetic…
Joseph brought in Jacob his father--There is a pathetic and most affecting interest attending this interview with royalty; and when, with all the simplicity and dignified solemnity of a man of God, Jacob signalized his entrance by imploring the divine blessing on the royal head, it may easily be imagined what a striking impression the scene would produce (compare Heb 7:7).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv11–1211. Rameses — See notes on Gen_47:6, and Exo_1:11.
11. Rameses — See notes on Gen_47:6, and Exo_1:11.
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 Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9, 11, 127. Jacob blessed Pharaoh] Here and in Gen_47:10 Jacob…
7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh] Here and in Gen_47:10 Jacob is said to “bless” Pharaoh. We should understand by this the solemn and benevolent benediction which is the privilege of aged persons in addressing those of much higher rank. According to another interpretation, the word should be rendered “saluted”; cf. 1Sa_13:10; 2Ki_4:29.
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 Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9, 12(7) Jacob blessed Pharaoh.—The presentation of Jacob to Pharaoh…
(7) Jacob blessed Pharaoh.—The presentation of Jacob to Pharaoh seems to have been a much more solemn matter than that of Joseph’s brethren. Pharaoh looks upon them with interest as the brothers of his vizier, grants their request for leave to dwell in Goshen, and even empowers Joseph to make the ablest of them chief herdsmen over the royal cattle. But Jacob had attained to an age which gave him great dignity: for to an Egyptian 120 was the utmost limit of longevity. Jacob was now 130, and Pharaoh treats him with the greatest honour, and twice accepts his blessing. More must be meant by this than the usual salutation, in which each one presented to the king prayed for the prolongation of his life. Pharaoh probably bowed before Jacob as a saintly personage, and received a formal benediction.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv7–12And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set…
And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh. It has been thought that Jacob"s presentation to the Egyptian king was deferred till after the monarch"s interview with his sons because of the public and political character of that interview, relating as it did to the occupation of the land, while Jacob"s introduction to the sovereign was of a purely personal and private description. And Jacob in reply probably to a request from Pharaoh (Tayler Lewis), but more likely sua sponteblessed Pharaoh. Not simply extended to him the customary salutation accorded to kings (Rosenm Kalisch, Alford, and others), like the "May the king live for ever!" of later times (2Sa_16:16; 1Ki_1:25; Dan_2:4 Dan_3:9, &c.); but, conscious of his dignity as a prophet of Jehovah, pronounced on him a heavenly benediction (Murphy, "Speaker"s Commentary," and others) hoe verbo non vulgaris et profana salutatio notatur, sed pia sanctaque servi Dei precatio (Calvin).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv7, 8, 9, 12And Joseph brought in Jacob his father
Gen_47:7
And Joseph brought in Jacob his father
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Joseph and his father
I.
JOSEPH HONOURED HIS FATHER JACOB BY SHOWING HIM THE UTMOST RESPECT (Gen_46:29).
II. JOSEPH HONOURED HIS FATHER BY SHOWING HIS LOVE FOR HIM. One of our martyr-Presidents never stood higher in the nations eyes than when he turned around, after his inauguration, and, before all the assembled thousands, greeted his mother with a filial kiss.
III. JOSEPH HONOURED HIS FATHER BY HIS PURE AND NOBLE LIFE. Words of respect are comparatively worthless unless they have a life behind them.
IV. JOSEPH HONOURED HIS FATHER BY PRESENTING HIM SO PROMPTLY TO PHARAOH. He shows not a particle of shame of his rusticity, Jacobs homespun must have contrasted strangely with Pharaohs purple; Jacobs uncouth phrases of country-life with the kings polished diction. Joseph knew well enough how such people were ordinarily despised at the court, and yet how he omits no chance to show to Pharaoh how much he loved and honoured his father. The story is told of the Dean of Canterbury, afterwards Archbishop Tillotson, that one day after he had attained his churchly honours, an old man from the country, with uncouth manners, called at his door and inquired for John Tillotson. The foot man was about to dismiss him with scorn for presuming to ask in that familiar way for his master, when the Archbishop caught sight of his visitor and flew down the stairs to embrace the old man before all the servants, exclaiming with tones of genuine delight, It is my beloved father! We all admire such exhibitions of filial love, which overcomes the fear of the cool conventionalities of the world, and we find from our lesson that Pharaoh was touched by his prime ministers loyalty to his poor relations, for he gave him this royal token of his pleasure: The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and thy brethren to dwell; &c. (F. E. Clark.)
An interview with royalty
I desire to linger awhile on this thrilling scene. There are wise, good lessons in it.
1. I look upon it first of all and see an attractive picture of venerable old age. The hoary head is a crown of glory, says Solomon, if it he found in the way of righteousness. Age invests many things with a beauty of its own. An aged oak, wide-spread, gnarled, and weather-warped, stalwart, green, and stately; or an ancient castle, weatherworn and storm-swept, moss-clad and ivy-covered, its grey towers still standing bold and brave to all the winds of heaven; but of all attractive pictures that old time can draw, nothing is more winsome than the silver locks and mellowed features of godly old age. They remind me of some retired Greenwich or Chelsea veteran who can tell the tale of scars and wounds, of hair-breath escapes, of brave comrades, of stirring campaigns, of hard-fought battles; only this has been a holier war, followed by a dearer peace and more sweet reward and victories than ever followed Trafalgar or Waterloo. So with the godly character. It is beautiful in all its stages from youth to manhood; hut surely, fairest of all when age, experience, and grace hath ripened it into saintliness, and something of the heavenly shines outward from the soul within. As I look upon this aged patriarch confronting all the splendours of Pharaohs court, I see him standing on the utmost border, waiting to be ushered into the presence of a grand Monarch, into a fairer palace, and among a richer and nobler throng, and where he himself will be the wearer of a richer crown. As I look upon this strange scene in Pharaohs palace, I see that there is something grander and more powerful in moral worth than in any kind or amount of material power or possessions. In the epistle to the Hebrews I find this sentence, Without contradiction, the less is blessed of the greater. Jacob has something and can procure something which makes the monarch less than he, something which makes him better and greater than the king. It is the blessing of God. It is power with God. It is that influence from heaven and with heaven which belongs to moral goodness and virtue, and especially to aged piety everywhere and at all times. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Never forget that righteousness is far away greater than the riches.
2. And once more, as I look upon that striking scene in Pharaohs palace and listen to the aged patriarchs words, I think of his testimony concerning life. He calls it a pilgrimage. Young men! have you ever thought of that? Behind you there is a stern uncompromising power that is always muttering, Move on! Move on! March through the moments! hurry through the hours! tramp along the days! tread through the mouths! stride along the years! You cant halt! You cant step backward. Move on! Oh, but this is a tremendous view of human life! God help us from this hour to walk aright; to keep the path of duty, the ways of the Lord, lest the later stages of our pilgrimage find us in swamp and quagmire, scorching desert or thorny jungle when our strength is exhausted and the dull night winds blow!
3. I notice, too, that Jacob calls his days evil days. He means by that they had been sorrowful, full of trouble and care. Well, his was a hard life, he had had disappointment and distress beyond the common. If you will read his history you will find that his own conduct had to answer largely for his cares; his sins were the seed of his sorrows; his wrong-doing caused the very most of his rough usage, and nobody knew that better than Jacob did himself. Sin is the mother of sorrow, and its seeds sown in the life are sure to bring a harvest of pain. There is an Australian weapon called the boomerang, which is thrown so as to describe a series of curves and comes back at last to the feet of the thrower. Sin is a boomerang which we throw off into space, but it turns upon its author, and strikes the soul that launched it.
4. Learn another lesson from this striking picture--a lesson of Gods sure faithfulness. Jacob with all his faults had served and trusted God. His troubles and distresses had helped to bring him more fully into pious confidence and patient faith; and his trust in God brought about all things right at last. (J. J. Wray.)
Jacob and Pharaoh
1. The chief value of this narrative is that it affords one of the most impressive of all illustrations of the providential purposes of God.
2. We gain here some insight into the business regulations of a successful government. Pharaoh appears to have been a model king. He managed the state on business principles. The first question he asked these strangers who had come to settle in his kingdom was, What is your occupation? Such a government expects its subjects to be men of business. No idlers were wanted there in time of famine; none but men of ability, active habits, prudence, capacity.
3. We find in this scene an example of courtesy. There is a touching simplicity and an air of vivid reality in this picture, which leads to intuitive recognition of its genuineness. Jacob respected Pharaohs office, and Pharaoh respected Jacobs age.
4. We have here also a model for conversation.
5. This scene suggests a sad retrospect. Jacob as a prince had prevailed with God. He had gained the birthright, but he had not escaped the consequences of his own sins. Men do not escape the fruits of sin by receiving honours in the kingdom of God. Gods grace may brighten the future, but nothing else than righteous living can make happy memories; and the shadows of youthful transgression stretch across a long life.
6. We have in this scene a remainder of our eternal relations with God. (A. E. Dunning.)
Jacob and Pharaoh
I. A STRANGE MEETING. Meetings of historical characters and their results an interesting study (Diogenes and Alexander, Columbus and Ferdinand, Luther and Charles V., Milton and Galileo, &c.). None more remarkable than this.
1. Strange circumstances led to it.
2. A strange introduction given to it. Joseph presented five of his brethren to the king. These probably were the five eldest, who were at this time advanced in life.
3. Strange conversation marked it. Pharaoh, apparently overwhelmed by the venerable aspect of Jacob, inquired his age. Jacob, talking to a much younger man, calls his own life short.
4. Strange consequences flowed from it. Nearly 400 years ago this meeting left its mark on history, never to be effaced. Consequences to Israel and Egypt.
5. After the farewell was spoken they appear to have never seen each other again.
II. A STRANGE CONTRAST,
1. A patriarch, and a prince. The one the head of Gods chosen people, now numbering a few souls, to become a nation; the other the head of a mighty people, already a great nation.
2. A servant of God, and a worshipper of idols. The one the head of a people who were to become great and powerful; the other the king of a nation that should afterwards be humbled.
3. An Israelitish shepherd, and an Egyptian monarch. The occupation of the one an abomination to the other.
4. A poor man, and a rich man. The one, through his son, the benefactor and the deliverer of the other.
5. A very aged man, and a man in the prime of life. Age of Pharaoh uncertain, but the age of Jacob 130 years.
III. A STRANGE COMMENT, i.e., on life.
1. It is a pilgrimage. Not a settled, permanent, certain ,state. A journey from the cradle to the grave. Among strange people, scenes, trials, and joys. Over hills of prosperity and across plains of content, down valleys of sorrow and poverty.
2. Counted by days. The unit of measurement very short. Know not what a day may bring forth.
3. Few. Yet 130 years. How few are our years! Few as compared with eternity; or even with life of many (Methuselah, &c.). Few, compared with hopes, projects, &c.
4. Evil. Full of sin, sorrow, &c. Little done that is good. Man born to trouble. Uncertain. Full of changes.
5. Yet the longest life only a pilgrimage, and reckoned by days. Learn:
1. The best meeting for us is the meeting of the penitent sinner with the merciful Saviour. Arrangements are made for it, good results will inevitably flow from it. The closet is the audience-chamber.
2. The best contrast for us is between the old state of nature and the new state of grace. May we all realize it, and enjoy its blessings.
3. Then our new life, hopes, &c., will be a comment on the Saviours power, and on the work of the Holy Spirit (written epistles, &c.). And when this short pilgrimage is over, we shall, in eternity, comment upon the wonderful love of God, and the blessed life in heaven. (J. C. Gray.)
Joseph introduces Jacob and his family to Pharaoh
I. THE INTRODUCTION.
1. Of Josephs brethren. In this appears--
(1) Josephs character for fidelity to his promise.
(2) Josephs respect for constituted authority.
(3) The straightforwardness of Josephs brethren (Gen_47:3-4).
2. Of Josephs father.
(1) The reverence due to age.
(2) The priesthood of age.
II. THE RECEPTION.
1. Of the brethren.
2. Of Jacob. (T. H. Leale.)
Josephs filial conduct
I. SEEKING ROYAL FAVOUR.
1. Approaching the king.
2. Speaking for others.
3. Presented to the king.
II. SECURING ROYAL AID.
1. Kindly inquiry (Gen_47:3).
2. Truthful statement (Gen_47:4).
3. Generous permission (Gen_47:6).
III. DISPENSING ROYAL BOUNTY.
1. The father honoured (Gen_47:7).
2. A home bestowed (Gen_47:11).
3. The family nourished (Gen_47:12). (American Sunday School Times.)
Growth by transplanting
I. 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 monarchs 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 utilize the prejudice against that occupation, to insure separation in Goshen. All goes as he had arranged. 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.
II. WE MAY SEE IN JOSEPHS CONDUCT ALSO AN INSTANCE OF A MAN IN HIGH OFFICE AND NOT ASHAMED OF HIS HUMBLE RELATIONS. 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 in America and England, who have made their way in the world, would be nobler and more esteemed if they learned.
III. The brothers word to Pharaoh is another instance of THAT IGNORANT CARRYING OUT OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES WHICH WE HAVE ALREADY HAD TO NOTICE. 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 Gods business to see to.
IV. We may also observe HOW TRIVIAL INCIDENTS ARE WROUGHT INTO GODS 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.
V. THE INTERVIEW OF JACOB WITH PHARAOH IS PATHETIC AND BEAUTIFUL. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Jacob before Pharaoh
I. THE IMPRESSIVE SPECTACLE OF A VENERABLE OLD AGE.
1. Picture the old mans attitude of soul toward God, and death, and the world to come.
2. His retrospect of life, and how he now sees events in their true proportions and bearings.
3. His own subdued passions and amiable spirit.
4. His concern for, and interest in, the rising generation.
II. THE SUPERIORITY OF MORAL OVER MATERIAL GREATNESS AND WORTH. Jacob blessed Pharaoh (Heb_8:7).
III. A LESSON ON LIFES EVANESCENCE AND VANITY (Gen_47:9).
1. A natural reflection.
2. It may be a morbid and evil reflection. Better to imitate the Psalmists thankful hopefulness (Psa_23:1-6).
IV. A LESSON OF TRUST IN GOD TO BRING ABOUT ALL THINGS RIGHT AT LAST. (T. G. Horton.)
Jacob and Pharaoh
I. THE PATRIARCH JACOB, IN HIS OLD AGE, A SOJOURNER IN EGYPT.
II. JACOB AND THE PHARAOH OF EGYPT.
III. JOSEPH, THE AFFECTIONATE SON AND NOBLE BROTHER.
1. The reality of Josephs love for his brothers, as well as for his lather, is found in the abundant provision he made for them all.
2. This evidence of Josephs forgiveness of his brothers great wrong to him, and of his care for them, completes the picture of one of the most beautiful characters presented in history.
3. And this perfection of character, combining so many qualities, presents him to us not only as a beautiful model of manliness, of filial and fraternal love, but also as one of the most perfect types of our great exemplar, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lessons:
1. Gods faithfulness to His people.
2. Notwithstanding the Divine love, Gods people are not exempt from suffering.
3. A good son maketh the heart of his father to rejoice.
4. Let us learn more perfectly the duty of loving one another. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn vv9–10
Genesis
GROWTH BY TRANSPLANTING
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TWO RETROSPECTS OF ONE LIFE
Gen 47:9. - Gen 48:15 - Gen 48:16.
These are two strangely different estimates of the same life to be taken by the same man. In the latter Jacob categorically contradicts everything that he had said in the former. ‘Few and evil,’ he said before Pharaoh. ‘All my life long,’ ‘the Angel which redeemed me from all evil,’ he said on his death-bed.
If he meant what he said when he spoke to Pharaoh, and characterised his life thus, he was wrong. He was possibly in a melancholy mood. Very naturally, the unfamiliar splendours of a court dazzled and bewildered the old man, accustomed to a quiet shepherd life down at Hebron. He had not come to see Pharaoh, he only cared to meet Joseph; and, as was quite natural, the new and uncongenial surroundings depressed him. Possibly the words are only a piece of the etiquette of an Eastern court, where it is the correct thing for the subject to depreciate himself in all respects as far inferior to the prince. And there may be little more than conventional humility in the words of my first text. But I am rather disposed to think that they express the true feeling of the moment, in a mood that passed and was followed by a more wholesome one.
I put the two sayings side by side just for the sake of gathering up one or two plain lessons from them.
1. We have here two possible views of life.
Now the key to the difference between these two statements and moods of feeling seems to me to be a very plain one. In the former of them there is nothing about God. It is all Jacob. In the latter we notice that there is a great deal more about God than about Jacob, and that determines the whole tone of the retrospect. In the first text Jacob speaks of ‘the days of the years of my pilgrimage,’ ‘the days of the years of my life,’ and so on, without a syllable about anything except the purely earthly view of life. Of course, when you shut out God, the past is all dark enough, grey and dismal, like the landscape on some cloudy day, where the woods stand black, and the rivers creep melancholy through colourless fields, and the sky is grey and formless above. Let the sun come out, and the river flashes into a golden mirror, and the woods are alive with twinkling lights and shadows, and the sky stretches a blue pavilion above them, and all the birds sing. Let God into your life, and its whole complexion and characteristics change. The man who sits whining and complaining, when he has shut out the thought of a divine Presence, finds that everything alters when he brings that in.
And, then, look at the two particulars on which the patriarch dwells. ‘I am only one hundred and thirty years old,’ he says; a mere infant compared with Abraham and Isaac! How did he know he was not going to live to be as old as either of them? And ‘if his days were evil,’ as he said, was it not a good thing that they were few? But, instead of that, he finds reasons for complaint in the brevity of the life which, if it were as evil as he made it out to be, must often have seemed wearisomely long, and dragged very slowly. Now, both things are true-life is short, life is long. Time is elastic-you can stretch it or you can contract it. It is short compared with the duration of God; it is short, as one of the Psalms puts it pathetically, as compared with this Nature round us-’The earth abideth for ever’; we are strangers upon it, and there is no abiding for us. It is short as compared with the capacities and powers of the creatures that possess it; but, oh! if we think of our days as a series of gifts of God, if we look upon them, as Jacob looked upon them when he was sane, as being one continued shepherding by God, they stretch out into blessed length. Life is long enough if it manifests that God takes care of us, and if we learn that He does. Life is long enough if it serves to build up a God-pleasing character.
It is beautiful to see how the thought of God enters into the dying man’s remembrances in the shape which was natural to him, regard being had to his own daily avocations. For the word translated ‘fed’ means much more than supplied with nourishment. It is the word for doing the office of shepherd, and we must not forget, if we want to understand its beauty, that Jacob’s sons said, ‘Thy servants are shepherds; both we and also our fathers.’ So this man, in the solitude of his pastoral life, and whilst living amongst his woolly people who depended upon his guidance and care, had learned many a lesson as to how graciously and tenderly and constantly fed, and led, and protected, and fostered by God were the creatures of His hand.
It was he, I suppose, who first gave to religious thought that metaphor which has survived temple and sacrifice and priesthood, and will survive even earth itself; for ‘I am the Good Shepherd’ is as true to-day as when first spoken by Jesus, and ‘the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall lead them,’ and be their Shepherd when the flock is carried to the upper pastures and the springs that never fail. The life which has brought us that thought of a Shepherd-God has been long enough; and the days which have been so expanded as to contain a continuous series of His benefits and protections need never be remembered as ‘few,’ whatsoever be the arithmetic that is applied to them.
The other contradiction is equally eloquent and significant. ‘Few and evil’ have my days been, said Jacob, when he was not thinking about God; but when he remembered the Angel of the Presence, that mysterious person with whom he had wrestled at Peniel, and whose finger had lamed the thigh while His lips proclaimed a blessing, his view changed, and instead of talking about ‘evil’ days, he says, ‘The Angel that redeemed me from all evil.’ Yes, his life had been evil, whether by that we mean sorrowful or sinful, and the sorrows and the sins had been closely connected. A sorely tried man he had been. Far away back in the past had been his banishment from home; his disappointment and hard service with the churlish Laban; the misbehaviour of his sons; the death of Rachel-that wound which was never stanched; and then the twenty years’ mourning for Rachel’s son, the heir of his inheritance. These were the evils, the sins were as many, for every one of the sorrows, except perhaps the chiefest of them all, had its root in some piece of duplicity, dishonesty, or failure. But he was there in Egypt beside Joseph. The evils had stormed over him, but he was there still. And so at the end he says, ‘The Angel . . .redeemed me from evil, though it smote me. Sorrow became chastisement, and I was purged of my sin by my calamities.’ The sorrows are past, like some raging inundation that comes up for a night over the land and then subsides; but the blessing of fertility which it brought in its tawny waves abides with me yet. Joseph is by my side. ‘I had not thought to see thy face, and God hath showed me the face of thy seed.’ That sorrow is over. Rachel’s grave is still by the wayside, and that sorest of sorrows has wrought with others to purify character. Jacob has been tried by sorrows; he has been purged from sins. ‘The Angel delivered me from all evil.’ So, dear friends, sorrow is not evil if it helps to strip us from the evil that we love, and the ills that we bear are good if they alienate our affections from the ills that we do.
2. Secondly, note the wisdom and the duty of taking the completer and brighter view.
These first words of Jacob’s are very often quoted as if they were the pattern of the kind of thing people ought to say, ‘Few and evil have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage.’ That is a text from which many sermons have been preached with approbation of the pious resignation expressed in it. But it does not seem to me that that is the tone of them. If the man believed what he said, then he was very ungrateful and short-sighted, though there were excuses to be made for him under the circumstances. If the days had been evil, he had made them so.
But the point which I wish to make now is that it is largely a matter for our own selection which of the two views of our lives we take. We may make our choice whether we shall fix our attention on the brighter or on the darker constituents of our past.
Suppose a wall papered with paper of two colours, one black, say, and the other gold. You can work your eye and adjust the focus of vision so that you may see either a black background or a gold one. In the one case the prevailing tone is gloomy, relieved by an occasional touch of brightness; and in the other it is brightness, heightened by a background of darkness. And so you can do with life, fixing attention on its sorrows, and hugging yourselves in the contemplation of these with a kind of morbid satisfaction, or bravely and thankfully and submissively and wisely resolving that you will rather seek to learn what God means by darkness, and not forgetting to look at the unenigmatical blessings, and plain, obvious mercies, that make up so much of our lives. We have to govern memory as well as other faculties, by Christian principle. We have to apply the plain teaching of Christian truth to our sentimental, and often unwholesome, contemplations of the past. There is enough in all our lives to make material for plenty of whining and complaining, if we choose to take hold of them by that handle. And there is enough in all our lives to make us ashamed of one murmuring word, if we are devout and wise and believing enough to lay hold of them by that one. Remember that you can make your view of your life either a bright one or a dark one, and there will be facts for both; but the facts that feed melancholy are partial and superficial, and the facts that exhort, ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice,’ are deep and fundamental.
3. So, lastly, note how blessed a thing it is when the last look is the happiest.
When we are amongst the mountains, or when we are very near them, they look barren enough, rough, stony, steep. When we travel away from them, and look at them across the plain, they lie blue in the distance; and the violet shadows and the golden lights upon them and the white peaks above make a dream of beauty. Whilst we are in the midst of the struggle, we are often tempted to think that things go hardly with us and that the road is very rough. But if we keep near our dear Lord, and hold by His hand, and try to shape our lives in accordance with His will-whatever be their outward circumstances and texture-then we may be very sure of this, that when the end comes, and we are far enough away from some of the sorrows to see what they lead to and blossom into, then we shall be able to say, It was all very good, and to thank Him for all the way by which the Lord our God has led us.
In the same conversation in which the patriarch, rising to the height of a prophet and organ of divine revelation, gives this his dying testimony of the faithfulness of God, and declares that he has been delivered from all evil, he recurs to the central sorrow of his life; and speaks, though in calm words, of that day when he buried Rachel by ‘Ephrath, which is Bethel.’ But the pain had passed and the good was present to him. And so, leaving life, he left it according to his own word, ‘satisfied with favour, and full of the blessing of the Lord.’ So we in our turns may, at the last, hope that what we know not now will largely be explained; and may seek to anticipate our dying verdict by a living confidence, in the midst of our toils and our sorrows, that ‘all things work together for good to them that love God.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v11The Consequences of the Severe Famine.
The Consequences of the Severe Famine.
v. 11. And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, he assigned them land where they might live, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, another name for Goshen, probably from its capital or chief city, as Pharaoh had commanded. Thus Joseph fulfilled all the obligations which his love for his father and for his brothers demanded of him, a shining example for our selfish age.
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v. 12. And Joseph nourished his father and his brethren and all his father’s household with bread, according to their families, literally, after the mouth of the little ones, in accordance with the needs of each family, depending upon the number of children. He provided well for them.
v. 13. And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine, they were wasting away for loss of strength. This fact is recorded to emphasize the greatness of the benefit which Joseph conferred upon his relatives.
v. 14. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan For the corn which they bought; and Joseph brought the money in to Pharaoh’s house. The actual cash in the hands of the people of both countries was consumed in the first years of the famine, finding its way into the treasury of the king of Egypt through the hands of Joseph.
v. 15. And when money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph and said, Give us bread; for why should we die in thy presence? For the money faileth. He surely could not bear to see them die before him, while he had the means to preserve their lives. There was simply no more money to pay out; their last bit of silver had been spent for food.
v. 16. And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.
v. 17. And they brought their cattle unto Joseph; and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses; and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year. He guided them according to his proposal, he provided for their needs, taking their entire possessions in herds and flocks in payment.
v. 18. When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, that is, the second year after they had spent their last money for food, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not aught left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands, they had been stripped bare of all their movable possessions, they had given up all their personal property.
v. 19. Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? They had stated their plight frankly, and now looked to Joseph for relief. Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh, they were willing to sell themselves into slavery or peonage; and give us seed that we may live and not die, that the land be not desolate. It was a last, but also the only, desperate resort.
v. 20. And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them; so the land became Pharaoh’s. Joseph bought it in exchange for the food which he gave to the people to keep them alive.
v. 21. And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof. Their lands being in possession of the crown, the people were ordered to settle in and near the cities, where the storehouses were located. This measure simplified the matter of feeding the great masses during the remaining years of famine.
v. 22. Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them; wherefore they sold not their lands. They were provided for at royal expense, and therefore were not placed before the alternative of selling their land or starving.
v. 23. Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh, they were now in servitude or serfdom to the crown; lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.
v. 24. And it shall come to pass in the increase that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones. Considering the fact that all the land had now been transferred to the king’s name, this tax, or rental, was really remarkably low, even if it included serfdom.
v. 25. And they said, thou hast saved our lives; let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants. The people declared themselves fully satisfied with this arrangement, since they felt the wisdom of Joseph’s rule. He had prevented wasteful squandering and had averted a universal famine. He had had their welfare in mind at all times and had introduced an economic system which was to the advantage of the entire nation.
v. 26. And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, twenty percent of the income going into the royal treasury as revenue; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s. It was a great blessing for Egypt that a man was ruler in those days who combined a high degree of wisdom with the fear of God, a combination for which any country has reasons to be thankful.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv7, 11Jacob blessed Pharaoh
Jacob blessed Pharaoh
Here "blessed" means to express a desire for positive and beneficial things to happen to that person.
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How long have you lived?
"How old are you?"
The years of my travels are a hundred and thirty
The phrase "years of my travels" refers to how long he has lived on the earth traveling from one place to another. AT: "I have traveled on the earth for 130 years" (See: Numbers)
The years of my life have been few ... not been as long as those of my ancestors
Jacob means his life is short compared to the lives of Abraham and Isaac.
painful
Jacob has experienced much pain and trouble during his life.
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v747:7-10 When Jacob entered Pharaoh’s court and when he…
47:7-10 When Jacob entered Pharaoh’s court and when he left, he blessed Pharaoh, an indication of Jacob’s position as God’s representative (see Heb 7:7). God had promised that he would bless those who blessed Abraham’s family (Gen 12:2-3), so he now blessed Pharaoh and Egypt.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 9, 12 7. And Joseph brought in Jacob his father. Although…
7. And Joseph brought in Jacob his father. Although Moses relates, in a continuous narrative, that Jacob was brought to the king, yet I do not doubt that some time had intervened; at least, till he had obtained a place wherein he might dwell; and where he might leave his family more safely, and with a more tranquil mind; and also, where he might refresh himself, for a little while, after the fatigue of his journey. And whereas he is said to have blessed Pharaoh, by this term Moses does not mean a common and profane salutation, but the pious and holy prayer of a servant of God. For the children of this world salute kings and princes for the sake of honor, but, by no means, raise their thoughts to God. Jacob acts otherwise; for he adjoins to civil reverence that pious affection which causes him to commend the safety of the king to God. And Jeremiah prescribes this rule to the Jews, that they should pray for the peace of Babylon as long as they were to live in exile; because in the peace of that land and empire their own peace would be involved. (Jeremiah 29:7.) If this duty was enjoined on miserable captives, forcibly deprived of their liberty, and torn from their own country; how much more did Jacob owe it to a king so humane and beneficent? But of whatever character they may be who rule over us, we are commanded to offer up public prayers for them. (1 Timothy 2:1.) Therefore the same subjection to authority is required severally from each of us.
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.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 10, 11, 12 Hebrew, blessed.
Hebrew, blessed.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Gen 47:7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father,…
Gen 47:7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
Ver. 7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.] That is, he prayed God to bless him, both at meeting and parting. To salute is comely: but see that ye be hearty, not frothy; prayerful, not complimental. We are heirs of blessing, and must therefore be free of it. {1Pe 3:9}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 11, 12 Not in an authoritative way, as the greater blesseth…
Not in an authoritative way, as the greater blesseth the less, but in a general manner, i.e. he saluted him, thanked him for all his favours to him and his, and prayed to God to bless and recompense him for it. Thus blessing is put for saluting, 1Sa 13:10; 2Ki 4:29; for praying, Num 6:23,24; for thanksgiving, Mat 26:26, compare with Luk 22:19.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–12 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father,.... That is,…
And Joseph brought in Jacob his father,.... That is, some time after he had introduced his five brethren, and had gotten the grant of Goshen for them, when he sent, for his father from thence, or he came quickly after to Tanis or Memphis, where Pharaoh's court was:
and set him before Pharaoh; presented Jacob to him, and placed his father right before Pharaoh, perhaps in a chair, or on a seat, by Pharaoh's order, because of his age, and in honour to him:
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and Jacob blessed Pharaoh; wished him health and happiness, prayed for his welfare, and gave him thanks for all his kindness to him and his; and he blessed him not only in a way of civility, as was usual when men came into the presence of princes, but in an authoritative way, as a prophet and patriarch, a man divinely inspired of God, and who had great power in prayer with him: the Targum of Jonathan gives us his prayer thus,"may it be the pleasure (i.e. of God) that the waters of the Nile may be filled, and that the famine may remove from the world in thy days.''
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 On vv8–10 How old art thou? - A question usually put…
How old art thou? - A question usually put to old men, for it is natural to us to admire old age, and to reverence it. Jacob's countenance no doubt shewed him to be old, for be 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.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7, 9 Verse 7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.] Saluted him on his…
Verse 7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.] Saluted him on his entrance with Peace be unto thee, or some such expression of respect and good will. For the meaning of the term to bless, as applied to God and man, See Clarke on Ge 2:3.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 9, 12 Gen 47:7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh — Which is repeated,…
Gen 47:7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh — Which is repeated, Gen 47:10, as being a circumstance very remarkable. And remarkable surely it was that the greater, for such Pharaoh was in all external things, in wealth, power and glory, should be blessed of the less, Heb 7:7. But before God, and in reality, Jacob was much greater than Pharaoh. It is probable, therefore, that he not only saluted him, prayed for and thanked him for all his favours to him and his, all which the original word, here rendered blessed, often means; but that he blessed him with the authority of a patriarch and a prophet: and a patriarch’s blessing was a thing not to be despised, no, not by a potent prince.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv7, 9 Blessed him, Pharao; saying, perhaps, God save the king;…
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)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 9, 11 Joseph brought in Jacob his father--There is a pathetic…
Joseph brought in Jacob his father--There is a pathetic and most affecting interest attending this interview with royalty; and when, with all the simplicity and dignified solemnity of a man of God, Jacob signalized his entrance by imploring the divine blessing on the royal head, it may easily be imagined what a striking impression the scene would produce (compare Heb 7:7).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11–12 11. Rameses — See notes on Gen_47:6, and Exo_1:11.
11. Rameses — See notes on Gen_47:6, and Exo_1:11.
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 On vv7, 9, 11, 12 7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh] Here and in Gen_47:10 Jacob…
7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh] Here and in Gen_47:10 Jacob is said to “bless” Pharaoh. We should understand by this the solemn and benevolent benediction which is the privilege of aged persons in addressing those of much higher rank. According to another interpretation, the word should be rendered “saluted”; cf. 1Sa_13:10; 2Ki_4:29.
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 On vv7, 9, 12 (7) Jacob blessed Pharaoh.—The presentation of Jacob to Pharaoh…
(7) Jacob blessed Pharaoh.—The presentation of Jacob to Pharaoh seems to have been a much more solemn matter than that of Joseph’s brethren. Pharaoh looks upon them with interest as the brothers of his vizier, grants their request for leave to dwell in Goshen, and even empowers Joseph to make the ablest of them chief herdsmen over the royal cattle. But Jacob had attained to an age which gave him great dignity: for to an Egyptian 120 was the utmost limit of longevity. Jacob was now 130, and Pharaoh treats him with the greatest honour, and twice accepts his blessing. More must be meant by this than the usual salutation, in which each one presented to the king prayed for the prolongation of his life. Pharaoh probably bowed before Jacob as a saintly personage, and received a formal benediction.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv7–12 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set…
And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh. It has been thought that Jacob"s presentation to the Egyptian king was deferred till after the monarch"s interview with his sons because of the public and political character of that interview, relating as it did to the occupation of the land, while Jacob"s introduction to the sovereign was of a purely personal and private description. And Jacob in reply probably to a request from Pharaoh (Tayler Lewis), but more likely sua sponteblessed Pharaoh. Not simply extended to him the customary salutation accorded to kings (Rosenm Kalisch, Alford, and others), like the "May the king live for ever!" of later times (2Sa_16:16; 1Ki_1:25; Dan_2:4 Dan_3:9, &c.); but, conscious of his dignity as a prophet of Jehovah, pronounced on him a heavenly benediction (Murphy, "Speaker"s Commentary," and others) hoe verbo non vulgaris et profana salutatio notatur, sed pia sanctaque servi Dei precatio (Calvin).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 9, 12 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father
Gen_47:7
And Joseph brought in Jacob his father
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Joseph and his father
I.
JOSEPH HONOURED HIS FATHER JACOB BY SHOWING HIM THE UTMOST RESPECT (Gen_46:29).
II. JOSEPH HONOURED HIS FATHER BY SHOWING HIS LOVE FOR HIM. One of our martyr-Presidents never stood higher in the nations eyes than when he turned around, after his inauguration, and, before all the assembled thousands, greeted his mother with a filial kiss.
III. JOSEPH HONOURED HIS FATHER BY HIS PURE AND NOBLE LIFE. Words of respect are comparatively worthless unless they have a life behind them.
IV. JOSEPH HONOURED HIS FATHER BY PRESENTING HIM SO PROMPTLY TO PHARAOH. He shows not a particle of shame of his rusticity, Jacobs homespun must have contrasted strangely with Pharaohs purple; Jacobs uncouth phrases of country-life with the kings polished diction. Joseph knew well enough how such people were ordinarily despised at the court, and yet how he omits no chance to show to Pharaoh how much he loved and honoured his father. The story is told of the Dean of Canterbury, afterwards Archbishop Tillotson, that one day after he had attained his churchly honours, an old man from the country, with uncouth manners, called at his door and inquired for John Tillotson. The foot man was about to dismiss him with scorn for presuming to ask in that familiar way for his master, when the Archbishop caught sight of his visitor and flew down the stairs to embrace the old man before all the servants, exclaiming with tones of genuine delight, It is my beloved father! We all admire such exhibitions of filial love, which overcomes the fear of the cool conventionalities of the world, and we find from our lesson that Pharaoh was touched by his prime ministers loyalty to his poor relations, for he gave him this royal token of his pleasure: The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and thy brethren to dwell; &c. (F. E. Clark.)
An interview with royalty
I desire to linger awhile on this thrilling scene. There are wise, good lessons in it.
1. I look upon it first of all and see an attractive picture of venerable old age. The hoary head is a crown of glory, says Solomon, if it he found in the way of righteousness. Age invests many things with a beauty of its own. An aged oak, wide-spread, gnarled, and weather-warped, stalwart, green, and stately; or an ancient castle, weatherworn and storm-swept, moss-clad and ivy-covered, its grey towers still standing bold and brave to all the winds of heaven; but of all attractive pictures that old time can draw, nothing is more winsome than the silver locks and mellowed features of godly old age. They remind me of some retired Greenwich or Chelsea veteran who can tell the tale of scars and wounds, of hair-breath escapes, of brave comrades, of stirring campaigns, of hard-fought battles; only this has been a holier war, followed by a dearer peace and more sweet reward and victories than ever followed Trafalgar or Waterloo. So with the godly character. It is beautiful in all its stages from youth to manhood; hut surely, fairest of all when age, experience, and grace hath ripened it into saintliness, and something of the heavenly shines outward from the soul within. As I look upon this aged patriarch confronting all the splendours of Pharaohs court, I see him standing on the utmost border, waiting to be ushered into the presence of a grand Monarch, into a fairer palace, and among a richer and nobler throng, and where he himself will be the wearer of a richer crown. As I look upon this strange scene in Pharaohs palace, I see that there is something grander and more powerful in moral worth than in any kind or amount of material power or possessions. In the epistle to the Hebrews I find this sentence, Without contradiction, the less is blessed of the greater. Jacob has something and can procure something which makes the monarch less than he, something which makes him better and greater than the king. It is the blessing of God. It is power with God. It is that influence from heaven and with heaven which belongs to moral goodness and virtue, and especially to aged piety everywhere and at all times. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Never forget that righteousness is far away greater than the riches.
2. And once more, as I look upon that striking scene in Pharaohs palace and listen to the aged patriarchs words, I think of his testimony concerning life. He calls it a pilgrimage. Young men! have you ever thought of that? Behind you there is a stern uncompromising power that is always muttering, Move on! Move on! March through the moments! hurry through the hours! tramp along the days! tread through the mouths! stride along the years! You cant halt! You cant step backward. Move on! Oh, but this is a tremendous view of human life! God help us from this hour to walk aright; to keep the path of duty, the ways of the Lord, lest the later stages of our pilgrimage find us in swamp and quagmire, scorching desert or thorny jungle when our strength is exhausted and the dull night winds blow!
3. I notice, too, that Jacob calls his days evil days. He means by that they had been sorrowful, full of trouble and care. Well, his was a hard life, he had had disappointment and distress beyond the common. If you will read his history you will find that his own conduct had to answer largely for his cares; his sins were the seed of his sorrows; his wrong-doing caused the very most of his rough usage, and nobody knew that better than Jacob did himself. Sin is the mother of sorrow, and its seeds sown in the life are sure to bring a harvest of pain. There is an Australian weapon called the boomerang, which is thrown so as to describe a series of curves and comes back at last to the feet of the thrower. Sin is a boomerang which we throw off into space, but it turns upon its author, and strikes the soul that launched it.
4. Learn another lesson from this striking picture--a lesson of Gods sure faithfulness. Jacob with all his faults had served and trusted God. His troubles and distresses had helped to bring him more fully into pious confidence and patient faith; and his trust in God brought about all things right at last. (J. J. Wray.)
Jacob and Pharaoh
1. The chief value of this narrative is that it affords one of the most impressive of all illustrations of the providential purposes of God.
2. We gain here some insight into the business regulations of a successful government. Pharaoh appears to have been a model king. He managed the state on business principles. The first question he asked these strangers who had come to settle in his kingdom was, What is your occupation? Such a government expects its subjects to be men of business. No idlers were wanted there in time of famine; none but men of ability, active habits, prudence, capacity.
3. We find in this scene an example of courtesy. There is a touching simplicity and an air of vivid reality in this picture, which leads to intuitive recognition of its genuineness. Jacob respected Pharaohs office, and Pharaoh respected Jacobs age.
4. We have here also a model for conversation.
5. This scene suggests a sad retrospect. Jacob as a prince had prevailed with God. He had gained the birthright, but he had not escaped the consequences of his own sins. Men do not escape the fruits of sin by receiving honours in the kingdom of God. Gods grace may brighten the future, but nothing else than righteous living can make happy memories; and the shadows of youthful transgression stretch across a long life.
6. We have in this scene a remainder of our eternal relations with God. (A. E. Dunning.)
Jacob and Pharaoh
I. A STRANGE MEETING. Meetings of historical characters and their results an interesting study (Diogenes and Alexander, Columbus and Ferdinand, Luther and Charles V., Milton and Galileo, &c.). None more remarkable than this.
1. Strange circumstances led to it.
2. A strange introduction given to it. Joseph presented five of his brethren to the king. These probably were the five eldest, who were at this time advanced in life.
3. Strange conversation marked it. Pharaoh, apparently overwhelmed by the venerable aspect of Jacob, inquired his age. Jacob, talking to a much younger man, calls his own life short.
4. Strange consequences flowed from it. Nearly 400 years ago this meeting left its mark on history, never to be effaced. Consequences to Israel and Egypt.
5. After the farewell was spoken they appear to have never seen each other again.
II. A STRANGE CONTRAST,
1. A patriarch, and a prince. The one the head of Gods chosen people, now numbering a few souls, to become a nation; the other the head of a mighty people, already a great nation.
2. A servant of God, and a worshipper of idols. The one the head of a people who were to become great and powerful; the other the king of a nation that should afterwards be humbled.
3. An Israelitish shepherd, and an Egyptian monarch. The occupation of the one an abomination to the other.
4. A poor man, and a rich man. The one, through his son, the benefactor and the deliverer of the other.
5. A very aged man, and a man in the prime of life. Age of Pharaoh uncertain, but the age of Jacob 130 years.
III. A STRANGE COMMENT, i.e., on life.
1. It is a pilgrimage. Not a settled, permanent, certain ,state. A journey from the cradle to the grave. Among strange people, scenes, trials, and joys. Over hills of prosperity and across plains of content, down valleys of sorrow and poverty.
2. Counted by days. The unit of measurement very short. Know not what a day may bring forth.
3. Few. Yet 130 years. How few are our years! Few as compared with eternity; or even with life of many (Methuselah, &c.). Few, compared with hopes, projects, &c.
4. Evil. Full of sin, sorrow, &c. Little done that is good. Man born to trouble. Uncertain. Full of changes.
5. Yet the longest life only a pilgrimage, and reckoned by days. Learn:
1. The best meeting for us is the meeting of the penitent sinner with the merciful Saviour. Arrangements are made for it, good results will inevitably flow from it. The closet is the audience-chamber.
2. The best contrast for us is between the old state of nature and the new state of grace. May we all realize it, and enjoy its blessings.
3. Then our new life, hopes, &c., will be a comment on the Saviours power, and on the work of the Holy Spirit (written epistles, &c.). And when this short pilgrimage is over, we shall, in eternity, comment upon the wonderful love of God, and the blessed life in heaven. (J. C. Gray.)
Joseph introduces Jacob and his family to Pharaoh
I. THE INTRODUCTION.
1. Of Josephs brethren. In this appears--
(1) Josephs character for fidelity to his promise.
(2) Josephs respect for constituted authority.
(3) The straightforwardness of Josephs brethren (Gen_47:3-4).
2. Of Josephs father.
(1) The reverence due to age.
(2) The priesthood of age.
II. THE RECEPTION.
1. Of the brethren.
2. Of Jacob. (T. H. Leale.)
Josephs filial conduct
I. SEEKING ROYAL FAVOUR.
1. Approaching the king.
2. Speaking for others.
3. Presented to the king.
II. SECURING ROYAL AID.
1. Kindly inquiry (Gen_47:3).
2. Truthful statement (Gen_47:4).
3. Generous permission (Gen_47:6).
III. DISPENSING ROYAL BOUNTY.
1. The father honoured (Gen_47:7).
2. A home bestowed (Gen_47:11).
3. The family nourished (Gen_47:12). (American Sunday School Times.)
Growth by transplanting
I. 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 monarchs 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 utilize the prejudice against that occupation, to insure separation in Goshen. All goes as he had arranged. 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.
II. WE MAY SEE IN JOSEPHS CONDUCT ALSO AN INSTANCE OF A MAN IN HIGH OFFICE AND NOT ASHAMED OF HIS HUMBLE RELATIONS. 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 in America and England, who have made their way in the world, would be nobler and more esteemed if they learned.
III. The brothers word to Pharaoh is another instance of THAT IGNORANT CARRYING OUT OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES WHICH WE HAVE ALREADY HAD TO NOTICE. 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 Gods business to see to.
IV. We may also observe HOW TRIVIAL INCIDENTS ARE WROUGHT INTO GODS 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.
V. THE INTERVIEW OF JACOB WITH PHARAOH IS PATHETIC AND BEAUTIFUL. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Jacob before Pharaoh
I. THE IMPRESSIVE SPECTACLE OF A VENERABLE OLD AGE.
1. Picture the old mans attitude of soul toward God, and death, and the world to come.
2. His retrospect of life, and how he now sees events in their true proportions and bearings.
3. His own subdued passions and amiable spirit.
4. His concern for, and interest in, the rising generation.
II. THE SUPERIORITY OF MORAL OVER MATERIAL GREATNESS AND WORTH. Jacob blessed Pharaoh (Heb_8:7).
III. A LESSON ON LIFES EVANESCENCE AND VANITY (Gen_47:9).
1. A natural reflection.
2. It may be a morbid and evil reflection. Better to imitate the Psalmists thankful hopefulness (Psa_23:1-6).
IV. A LESSON OF TRUST IN GOD TO BRING ABOUT ALL THINGS RIGHT AT LAST. (T. G. Horton.)
Jacob and Pharaoh
I. THE PATRIARCH JACOB, IN HIS OLD AGE, A SOJOURNER IN EGYPT.
II. JACOB AND THE PHARAOH OF EGYPT.
III. JOSEPH, THE AFFECTIONATE SON AND NOBLE BROTHER.
1. The reality of Josephs love for his brothers, as well as for his lather, is found in the abundant provision he made for them all.
2. This evidence of Josephs forgiveness of his brothers great wrong to him, and of his care for them, completes the picture of one of the most beautiful characters presented in history.
3. And this perfection of character, combining so many qualities, presents him to us not only as a beautiful model of manliness, of filial and fraternal love, but also as one of the most perfect types of our great exemplar, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lessons:
1. Gods faithfulness to His people.
2. Notwithstanding the Divine love, Gods people are not exempt from suffering.
3. A good son maketh the heart of his father to rejoice.
4. Let us learn more perfectly the duty of loving one another. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv9–10
Genesis
GROWTH BY TRANSPLANTING
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TWO RETROSPECTS OF ONE LIFE
Gen 47:9. - Gen 48:15 - Gen 48:16.
These are two strangely different estimates of the same life to be taken by the same man. In the latter Jacob categorically contradicts everything that he had said in the former. ‘Few and evil,’ he said before Pharaoh. ‘All my life long,’ ‘the Angel which redeemed me from all evil,’ he said on his death-bed.
If he meant what he said when he spoke to Pharaoh, and characterised his life thus, he was wrong. He was possibly in a melancholy mood. Very naturally, the unfamiliar splendours of a court dazzled and bewildered the old man, accustomed to a quiet shepherd life down at Hebron. He had not come to see Pharaoh, he only cared to meet Joseph; and, as was quite natural, the new and uncongenial surroundings depressed him. Possibly the words are only a piece of the etiquette of an Eastern court, where it is the correct thing for the subject to depreciate himself in all respects as far inferior to the prince. And there may be little more than conventional humility in the words of my first text. But I am rather disposed to think that they express the true feeling of the moment, in a mood that passed and was followed by a more wholesome one.
I put the two sayings side by side just for the sake of gathering up one or two plain lessons from them.
1. We have here two possible views of life.
Now the key to the difference between these two statements and moods of feeling seems to me to be a very plain one. In the former of them there is nothing about God. It is all Jacob. In the latter we notice that there is a great deal more about God than about Jacob, and that determines the whole tone of the retrospect. In the first text Jacob speaks of ‘the days of the years of my pilgrimage,’ ‘the days of the years of my life,’ and so on, without a syllable about anything except the purely earthly view of life. Of course, when you shut out God, the past is all dark enough, grey and dismal, like the landscape on some cloudy day, where the woods stand black, and the rivers creep melancholy through colourless fields, and the sky is grey and formless above. Let the sun come out, and the river flashes into a golden mirror, and the woods are alive with twinkling lights and shadows, and the sky stretches a blue pavilion above them, and all the birds sing. Let God into your life, and its whole complexion and characteristics change. The man who sits whining and complaining, when he has shut out the thought of a divine Presence, finds that everything alters when he brings that in.
And, then, look at the two particulars on which the patriarch dwells. ‘I am only one hundred and thirty years old,’ he says; a mere infant compared with Abraham and Isaac! How did he know he was not going to live to be as old as either of them? And ‘if his days were evil,’ as he said, was it not a good thing that they were few? But, instead of that, he finds reasons for complaint in the brevity of the life which, if it were as evil as he made it out to be, must often have seemed wearisomely long, and dragged very slowly. Now, both things are true-life is short, life is long. Time is elastic-you can stretch it or you can contract it. It is short compared with the duration of God; it is short, as one of the Psalms puts it pathetically, as compared with this Nature round us-’The earth abideth for ever’; we are strangers upon it, and there is no abiding for us. It is short as compared with the capacities and powers of the creatures that possess it; but, oh! if we think of our days as a series of gifts of God, if we look upon them, as Jacob looked upon them when he was sane, as being one continued shepherding by God, they stretch out into blessed length. Life is long enough if it manifests that God takes care of us, and if we learn that He does. Life is long enough if it serves to build up a God-pleasing character.
It is beautiful to see how the thought of God enters into the dying man’s remembrances in the shape which was natural to him, regard being had to his own daily avocations. For the word translated ‘fed’ means much more than supplied with nourishment. It is the word for doing the office of shepherd, and we must not forget, if we want to understand its beauty, that Jacob’s sons said, ‘Thy servants are shepherds; both we and also our fathers.’ So this man, in the solitude of his pastoral life, and whilst living amongst his woolly people who depended upon his guidance and care, had learned many a lesson as to how graciously and tenderly and constantly fed, and led, and protected, and fostered by God were the creatures of His hand.
It was he, I suppose, who first gave to religious thought that metaphor which has survived temple and sacrifice and priesthood, and will survive even earth itself; for ‘I am the Good Shepherd’ is as true to-day as when first spoken by Jesus, and ‘the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall lead them,’ and be their Shepherd when the flock is carried to the upper pastures and the springs that never fail. The life which has brought us that thought of a Shepherd-God has been long enough; and the days which have been so expanded as to contain a continuous series of His benefits and protections need never be remembered as ‘few,’ whatsoever be the arithmetic that is applied to them.
The other contradiction is equally eloquent and significant. ‘Few and evil’ have my days been, said Jacob, when he was not thinking about God; but when he remembered the Angel of the Presence, that mysterious person with whom he had wrestled at Peniel, and whose finger had lamed the thigh while His lips proclaimed a blessing, his view changed, and instead of talking about ‘evil’ days, he says, ‘The Angel that redeemed me from all evil.’ Yes, his life had been evil, whether by that we mean sorrowful or sinful, and the sorrows and the sins had been closely connected. A sorely tried man he had been. Far away back in the past had been his banishment from home; his disappointment and hard service with the churlish Laban; the misbehaviour of his sons; the death of Rachel-that wound which was never stanched; and then the twenty years’ mourning for Rachel’s son, the heir of his inheritance. These were the evils, the sins were as many, for every one of the sorrows, except perhaps the chiefest of them all, had its root in some piece of duplicity, dishonesty, or failure. But he was there in Egypt beside Joseph. The evils had stormed over him, but he was there still. And so at the end he says, ‘The Angel . . .redeemed me from evil, though it smote me. Sorrow became chastisement, and I was purged of my sin by my calamities.’ The sorrows are past, like some raging inundation that comes up for a night over the land and then subsides; but the blessing of fertility which it brought in its tawny waves abides with me yet. Joseph is by my side. ‘I had not thought to see thy face, and God hath showed me the face of thy seed.’ That sorrow is over. Rachel’s grave is still by the wayside, and that sorest of sorrows has wrought with others to purify character. Jacob has been tried by sorrows; he has been purged from sins. ‘The Angel delivered me from all evil.’ So, dear friends, sorrow is not evil if it helps to strip us from the evil that we love, and the ills that we bear are good if they alienate our affections from the ills that we do.
2. Secondly, note the wisdom and the duty of taking the completer and brighter view.
These first words of Jacob’s are very often quoted as if they were the pattern of the kind of thing people ought to say, ‘Few and evil have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage.’ That is a text from which many sermons have been preached with approbation of the pious resignation expressed in it. But it does not seem to me that that is the tone of them. If the man believed what he said, then he was very ungrateful and short-sighted, though there were excuses to be made for him under the circumstances. If the days had been evil, he had made them so.
But the point which I wish to make now is that it is largely a matter for our own selection which of the two views of our lives we take. We may make our choice whether we shall fix our attention on the brighter or on the darker constituents of our past.
Suppose a wall papered with paper of two colours, one black, say, and the other gold. You can work your eye and adjust the focus of vision so that you may see either a black background or a gold one. In the one case the prevailing tone is gloomy, relieved by an occasional touch of brightness; and in the other it is brightness, heightened by a background of darkness. And so you can do with life, fixing attention on its sorrows, and hugging yourselves in the contemplation of these with a kind of morbid satisfaction, or bravely and thankfully and submissively and wisely resolving that you will rather seek to learn what God means by darkness, and not forgetting to look at the unenigmatical blessings, and plain, obvious mercies, that make up so much of our lives. We have to govern memory as well as other faculties, by Christian principle. We have to apply the plain teaching of Christian truth to our sentimental, and often unwholesome, contemplations of the past. There is enough in all our lives to make material for plenty of whining and complaining, if we choose to take hold of them by that handle. And there is enough in all our lives to make us ashamed of one murmuring word, if we are devout and wise and believing enough to lay hold of them by that one. Remember that you can make your view of your life either a bright one or a dark one, and there will be facts for both; but the facts that feed melancholy are partial and superficial, and the facts that exhort, ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice,’ are deep and fundamental.
3. So, lastly, note how blessed a thing it is when the last look is the happiest.
When we are amongst the mountains, or when we are very near them, they look barren enough, rough, stony, steep. When we travel away from them, and look at them across the plain, they lie blue in the distance; and the violet shadows and the golden lights upon them and the white peaks above make a dream of beauty. Whilst we are in the midst of the struggle, we are often tempted to think that things go hardly with us and that the road is very rough. But if we keep near our dear Lord, and hold by His hand, and try to shape our lives in accordance with His will-whatever be their outward circumstances and texture-then we may be very sure of this, that when the end comes, and we are far enough away from some of the sorrows to see what they lead to and blossom into, then we shall be able to say, It was all very good, and to thank Him for all the way by which the Lord our God has led us.
In the same conversation in which the patriarch, rising to the height of a prophet and organ of divine revelation, gives this his dying testimony of the faithfulness of God, and declares that he has been delivered from all evil, he recurs to the central sorrow of his life; and speaks, though in calm words, of that day when he buried Rachel by ‘Ephrath, which is Bethel.’ But the pain had passed and the good was present to him. And so, leaving life, he left it according to his own word, ‘satisfied with favour, and full of the blessing of the Lord.’ So we in our turns may, at the last, hope that what we know not now will largely be explained; and may seek to anticipate our dying verdict by a living confidence, in the midst of our toils and our sorrows, that ‘all things work together for good to them that love God.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v11 The Consequences of the Severe Famine.
The Consequences of the Severe Famine.
v. 11. And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, he assigned them land where they might live, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, another name for Goshen, probably from its capital or chief city, as Pharaoh had commanded. Thus Joseph fulfilled all the obligations which his love for his father and for his brothers demanded of him, a shining example for our selfish age.
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v. 12. And Joseph nourished his father and his brethren and all his father’s household with bread, according to their families, literally, after the mouth of the little ones, in accordance with the needs of each family, depending upon the number of children. He provided well for them.
v. 13. And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine, they were wasting away for loss of strength. This fact is recorded to emphasize the greatness of the benefit which Joseph conferred upon his relatives.
v. 14. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan For the corn which they bought; and Joseph brought the money in to Pharaoh’s house. The actual cash in the hands of the people of both countries was consumed in the first years of the famine, finding its way into the treasury of the king of Egypt through the hands of Joseph.
v. 15. And when money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph and said, Give us bread; for why should we die in thy presence? For the money faileth. He surely could not bear to see them die before him, while he had the means to preserve their lives. There was simply no more money to pay out; their last bit of silver had been spent for food.
v. 16. And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.
v. 17. And they brought their cattle unto Joseph; and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses; and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year. He guided them according to his proposal, he provided for their needs, taking their entire possessions in herds and flocks in payment.
v. 18. When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, that is, the second year after they had spent their last money for food, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not aught left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands, they had been stripped bare of all their movable possessions, they had given up all their personal property.
v. 19. Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? They had stated their plight frankly, and now looked to Joseph for relief. Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh, they were willing to sell themselves into slavery or peonage; and give us seed that we may live and not die, that the land be not desolate. It was a last, but also the only, desperate resort.
v. 20. And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them; so the land became Pharaoh’s. Joseph bought it in exchange for the food which he gave to the people to keep them alive.
v. 21. And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof. Their lands being in possession of the crown, the people were ordered to settle in and near the cities, where the storehouses were located. This measure simplified the matter of feeding the great masses during the remaining years of famine.
v. 22. Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them; wherefore they sold not their lands. They were provided for at royal expense, and therefore were not placed before the alternative of selling their land or starving.
v. 23. Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh, they were now in servitude or serfdom to the crown; lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.
v. 24. And it shall come to pass in the increase that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones. Considering the fact that all the land had now been transferred to the king’s name, this tax, or rental, was really remarkably low, even if it included serfdom.
v. 25. And they said, thou hast saved our lives; let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants. The people declared themselves fully satisfied with this arrangement, since they felt the wisdom of Joseph’s rule. He had prevented wasteful squandering and had averted a universal famine. He had had their welfare in mind at all times and had introduced an economic system which was to the advantage of the entire nation.
v. 26. And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, twenty percent of the income going into the royal treasury as revenue; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s. It was a great blessing for Egypt that a man was ruler in those days who combined a high degree of wisdom with the fear of God, a combination for which any country has reasons to be thankful.
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 On vv7, 11 Jacob blessed Pharaoh
Jacob blessed Pharaoh
Here "blessed" means to express a desire for positive and beneficial things to happen to that person.
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How long have you lived?
"How old are you?"
The years of my travels are a hundred and thirty
The phrase "years of my travels" refers to how long he has lived on the earth traveling from one place to another. AT: "I have traveled on the earth for 130 years" (See: Numbers)
The years of my life have been few ... not been as long as those of my ancestors
Jacob means his life is short compared to the lives of Abraham and Isaac.
painful
Jacob has experienced much pain and trouble during his life.
translationWords
Jacob
bless
year
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 On v7 47:7-10 When Jacob entered Pharaoh’s court and when he…
47:7-10 When Jacob entered Pharaoh’s court and when he left, he blessed Pharaoh, an indication of Jacob’s position as God’s representative (see Heb 7:7). God had promised that he would bless those who blessed Abraham’s family (Gen 12:2-3), so he now blessed Pharaoh and Egypt.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.