Mga Komentaryo sa Bibliya

Verse 3. - And Pharaoh said unto his (i.e. Joseph's) brethren, What is your occupation? (vide Genesis 46:33). And they said unto Pharaoh, - as directed (Genesis 46:34) - Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers.

Verse 4. - They said moreover (literally, and they said) unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; - an unconscious fulfillment of an ancient prophecy (Genesis 15:13) - for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks (it was solely the extreme drought that had caused them for a season to vacate their own land); for the famine is sore (literally, heavy) in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell (literally, and now might thy servants dwell, we pray, the future having here the force of an optative) in the land of Goshen.

Verses 5, 6. - And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee: the land of Egypt is before thee (cf. Genesis 20:15); in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell. Wilkinson thinks it possible that Jacob's sons "may have asked and obtained a grant of land from the Egyptian monarch on condition of certain services being performed by themselves and their descendants" ('Ancient Egyptians,' vol. 1. Genesis 2. p. 35). In the land of Goshen let them dwell. Robinson (Genesis 1:78, 79) speaks of the province of es-Shar-Kiyeh, which corresponds as nearly as possible with ancient Goshen, as being even in modern times (1736) exceedingly productive and thickly populated. And if thou knowest any men of activity among them, - literally, and if thou knowest, and there be among them, men of strength - chayil, from chul, to twist (εἰλύω ἐλίσσω), the idea being that of strength as of twisted rope - then make them rulers over my cattle - literally, and thou shelf make them masters of cattle over that which belongs to me. "The shepherds on an Egyptian estate were chosen by the steward, who ascertained their character and skill previous to their being appointed to so important a trust" (Wilkinson, 'Ancient Egyptians,' vol. 2. p. 445, ed. 1878).

Verse 7. - 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 sponte - blessed Pharaoh. Not simply extended to him the customary salutation accorded to kings (Rosenmüller, Kalisch, Alford, and others), like the "May the king live for ever!" of later times (2 Samuel 16:16; 1 Kings 1:25; Daniel 2:4; Daniel 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).

Verses 8, 9. - And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? - literally, How many are the days of the years of thy life? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage (literally, of my sojournings, wanderings to and fro without any settled condition) are an hundred and thirty years. Since Joseph was now thirty-seven years of age (Genesis 45:6), it is apparent that he was born in his father's ninety-first year; and since this event took place in the fourteenth year of Jacob's residence in Padan-aram (Genesis 30:25), it is equally apparent that Jacob was seventy-seven years of age when he left Beersheba after surreptitiously securing the patriarchal blessing (Genesis 28:1). 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. As Jacob s life fell short of that of his ancestors in respect of duration (witness the 175 years of Abraham, and the 180 of Isaac), so it greatly surpassed theirs in respect of the miseries that were crowded into it.

Verse 10. - And Jacob blessed Pharaoh (as he had done on entering the royal presence), -

CHAPTER 47:11:27

Verse 11. - And Joseph placed his father and his brethren (i.e. gave them a settlement, the import of which the next clause explains), and gave them a possession (i.e. allowed them to acquire property) in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, - either that district of Goshen in which Jacob and his family first settled (Michaelis, Rosenmüller), or, what seems more probable, the land of Goshen itself (LXX., Keil, Hengstenberg, Kalisch, et alii), being so named proleptically from the town Rameses, which was subsequently built (Exodus 1:11), or, if the town existed in the time of Joseph, and was only afterwards fortified by the Israelites, deriving its designation from the name of its chief city' - as Pharaoh had commanded.

Verse 12. - And Joseph nourished - ἐσιτομέτρει (LXX.), i.e. gave them their measure of corn - his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according to their families - literally, to, or according to, the mouth of the little ones, meaning either in proportion to the size of their families (LXX., Keil, Kalisch, Murphy), or with all the tenderness with which a parent provides for his offspring (Murphy), or the whole body of them, from the greatest even to the least (Calvin), or completely, down even to the food for their children ('Speaker's Commentary').