성경 주석서

Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, i.e. whilst thou lookest upon us like an idle spectator, not pitying and relieving us? The land is said to die improperly, when it is desolate and barren, and when the fruits of it die, or, which is equivalent to it, do not live.

We and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh; Pharaoh shall be the sole proprietor, and we are content to be his tenants, to manage it for his use.

Give us seed, because this was the last year of famine, as Joseph informed them, and therefore they tilled and sowed the ground for the following year.

That the land be not desolate, without inhabitants, as it will be if thou sufferest us to die for want of bread.

1701 No text from Poole on this verse.

Under the cities are here comprehended the villages and lands belonging to the territory and government of each city; for the seed which he gave them was not to be sown in cities, but in the country: but the

cities only are here mentioned, because they were sent thither first, either for the conveniency of nourishing them during this famine out of the public storehouses which were there; or that they might all profess their subjection to the governments of the several cities, which was convenient for the management of that numerous and tumultuous people; or that the cities might be first and most replenished with inhabitants, as being the principal honour, and strength, and security of a kingdom, and that arts, and trades, and merchandise might flourish, without which the commodities of the country would have been of less price and use. But the cities being first supplied, the residue, which doubtless was vast, were dispersed in the country.

From one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof; far from their native soil and ancient patrimonies, that none of them might plead prescription, but that all might be forced to acknowledge that they owed their estates not to their own wit and industry, nor to their parents’ gift, but wholly to the king’s favour; and that the remembrance of their patrimonial lands might be worn out, and therewith the grief which would arise from their resentment of their loss of them, which probably would be matter of tumults and seditions, to which that people were very prone. And it is probable that he so disposed of this affair, that those who were apt, and likely, and used to unite together in seditious insurrections, whether kindred or others, should be separated one from another as far as might be. If any think that Joseph dealt hardly with them, and made an ill use of their necessity, he will see how moderately and mercifully he deals with them, Genesis 47:24.

The priests: under this name he understands chiefly those who administered the worship of the gods or idols of Egypt, and withal those who applied themselves to the study of the arts and virtues, called their wise men and magicians; though some understand it of the princes (as that word sometimes signifies) or officers of Pharaoh, who were nourished out of the king’s treasures. And possibly the same Hebrew word may here comprehend both, viz. the ministers of the king, and of their idols too, for both enjoyed the same privileges, as Diodorus Siculus relates. And that the priests are included, if not mainly intended here, will be evident enough to any one that considers the state of Egypt, how mad that people universally were upon their idols, how numerous their priests were, and in how great honour and veneration both with prince and people: besides, reason of state obliged Pharaoh to engage and secure to himself that sort of men, which bore so great sway with the old inhabitants of their several places, and were likely to have the same authority with the new inhabitants, to quiet and satisfy them at their first change, which must needs be very ungrateful to them.

Of this immunity of the priests, that ancient writer Diodorus Siculus makes mention. But this is not to be ascribed to Joseph’s will or choice; for he who abhorred their idolatry, could not have a kindness for, nor would have given encouragement to, the great upholders and promoters of it; but in this he was overruled either by Pharaoh’s express command, (it being not probable that so great an interest as that of the priests should not have friends at court, or that their friends should not plead for them, or that their pleas and desires should not be granted by an idolatrous king,) or by the laws of Egypt, or by their customs and usages in things of a like nature, which would have the force of a law among them.

For this was the last year of the famine, as was noted before.

Whereas he might have reserved four parts to Pharaoh, and have allowed them only the fifth. Herein he showed both his humanity and kindness, in mitigating that hard bargain which themselves had made, and were necessitated to make, and his prudence in composing, sweetening, and winning the hearts of the people to the king, and making them pay their tribute for the future with more cheerfulness.

Without thy care and providence we had all been dead men; and therefore if thou hadst kept us to the first bargain, thou hadst done us more kindness than wrong, much more when thou hast used us with so much equity and clemency. Be thou our friend with Pharaoh in this and upon all other occasions.

We will be Pharaoh’s servants, to manage his land for him upon the terms which thou hast proposed.

That Pharaoh should have the fifth part; that the propriety of the land should be Pharaoh’s; and that in token thereof the people should pay the fifth part of the products of it to Pharaoh.