Commentaires bibliques

Genesis 46:34. That ye may dwell in the land of Goshen — In this choice, Joseph showed both his prudence and his piety. As he was not ashamed to own himself the brother of shepherds, although they were contemptible among the Egyptians; so he does not seek to advance them higher, which he certainly might have done, but continues them in their employment. And by placing them in Goshen, 1st, He kept them together, which was very much for their convenience in many respects. 2d, He secured them against envy, and, as far as was in his power, from the corruption of their religion and manners which probably would have taken place, had they mixed with the Egyptians. Every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians — Probably because they killed, eat, and offered in sacrifice, those animals which the Egyptians adored. Hence these animal sacrifices are said to be an abomination to the Egyptian. Another probable reason also has been assigned for this, namely, that some Phœnician shepherds had lately made an irruption into Egypt, and had committed great cruelties and depredations, burning divers cities and temples, and barbarously murdering a multitude of people. It is no wonder, therefore, that the employment of shepherds was out of credit with the Egyptians, and odious in their eyes.

Genesis 47:1. They are in the land of Goshen — Either to abide there, or to remove thence to any other place which thou shalt appoint for them.

Genesis 47:2. He took some of his brethren — The original words here, literally translated, are, He took from the end, extremity, or tail of his brethren, five men — And some have thought the sense is, He took five of the meanest of them, as to their persons and appearance, as the word קצהis used, 1 Kings 12:31, lest, if he had presented the goodliest of them, Pharaoh should have required their attendance upon him either at court or in the camp.

Genesis 47:3. What is your occupation? — Pharaoh takes it for granted they had something to do. All that have a place in the world should have an employment in it according to their capacity, some occupation or other. Those that need not work for their bread, yet must have something to do to keep them from idleness.

Genesis 47:4. To sojourn in the land are we come — Not to settle there for ever; only to sojourn, while the famine prevailed so in Canaan, which lay high, that it was not habitable for shepherds, the grass being burned up much more than in Egypt, which lay low, and where the corn chiefly failed, but there was tolerably good pasture. But although Jacob and his sons intended only to sojourn in Goshen or Egypt till the famine should be over, yet first the kindness they received encouraged them to continue, and at last the Egyptians rendered their posterity slaves, and compelled them to stay.

Genesis 47:6. Any man of activity — Literally, according to the Hebrew, If thou knowest, and there is among them men of strength or vigour, (חיל,) namely, of body or mind, fit for the employment. From which expression it seems rather probable that those five presented to Pharaoh were of the meaner sort of them.

Genesis 47:7. Jacob blessed Pharaoh — Which is repeated, Genesis 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, Hebrews 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.

Genesis 47:8. 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, showed him to be old, for he had been a man of labour and sorrow. In Egypt people were not so long-lived as in Canaan, and therefore Pharaoh looks upon Jacob with wonder.