Commentari biblici

14–21. Joseph and his Brethren

15. It may be … hate us] Lit. “supposing Joseph were to hate us.” LXX μή ποτε μνησικακήσῃ ἡμῖν Ἰωσήφ. Joseph’s brethren fear lest, Jacob being dead, Joseph will no longer restrain his desire for revenge.

requite] Their conscience cannot leave them alone. Cf. their fear in Genesis 42:28, Genesis 44:16, Genesis 45:3.

16. sent a message] Lit. “charged” (Lat. mandaverunt), the same word as in Genesis 49:29, in the sense of “commissioned,” persons to go to Joseph. LXX παρεγένοντο and Syr. Pesh. follow a different reading, “they drew near unto.” Perhaps the original text contained the delegation of two or three brothers to go unto Joseph.

Thy father did command] An unrecorded dying charge.

17. the God of thy father] Cf. Genesis 49:26. They call themselves “the servants of the God of thy father,” as if it constituted a stronger appeal than “the sons of thy father.” They and Joseph serve one God.

Joseph wept] Cf. note on Genesis 45:1.

18. his brethren also went] These words agree with the sending of a message (Genesis 50:16), but hardly with the words of Genesis 50:17, “when they spake unto him.”

fell down] A final reminiscence of Joseph’s dreams, Genesis 37:7; Genesis 37:10.

19. am I in the place of God] i.e. “am I the person to punish for wrongdoing? God alone knows the hearts.” LXX mistakes the meaning, τοῦ γὰρ θεοῦ ἐγὼ εἰμί = “for do I belong to God”; Lat. Numbers Dei possumus resistere voluntati. Symmachus is correct, μὴ γὰρ ἀντὶ θεοῦ εἰμι ἐγώ. Cf. the occurrence of the same words in Genesis 30:2 and 2 Kings 5:7.

20. meant] i.e. devised or purposed. Joseph here, as in Genesis 45:7, points to the Divine purpose behind the petty schemes and wrong-doings of men.

as it is this day] According to P’s chronology (Genesis 47:28) the famine was long past. Here, however, in E’s narrative, it is evidently still raging; as is shewn also, in the next verse, by the words “I will nourish you.” The E narrative, therefore, must have recorded Jacob’s death as occurring not long after his arrival in Egypt.

21. nourish you] Cf. Genesis 45:11, Genesis 47:12.

kindly] Heb. to their heart. So LXX: cf. Genesis 34:3. The Latin gives the sense blande ac leniter.

22–26. Death of Joseph

22. an hundred and ten years] See Joshua 24:29. Attention has been called to passages in Egyptian records, in which this age is described as the ideal span of life.