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Genesis 46:3. I am God, the God of thy father— That is, I am what thou ownest me to be: thou shalt find me a God of divine wisdom and power engaged for thee; and thou shalt find me "the God of thy father," true to the covenant made with him.

Fear not to go down into AEgypt— Which he might well have done, without this encouragement; not only because his forefathers Abraham and Isaac had in some degree been injured there, but because it had been foretold that their seed should be afflicted by the AEgyptians; an event which he might conceive would probably happen, if Joseph, their protector, should die before their return. He might also fear that, by this means, his posterity would be deprived of the land of Canaan; and, indeed, the encouragement which God gives him seems principally calculated to obviate this apprehension. I will there make of thee a great nation; I will go down with thee, to preserve and protect thee and thy family; and I will surely bring thee up again; that is, in thy posterity; for the Scripture frequently speaks of parents and children as one person.

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Genesis 46:4. I will go down with thee into AEgypt— Those who go where God sends them, shall certainly have God with them. And I will also surely bring thee up again.—Whatever low and darksome valley we are called into, we may be confident, if God go down with us, he will surely bring us up again to glory.

Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes— Shall do the last tender office for thee of closing thine eyes; he shall survive thee; and thou shalt die in peace in his arms. The custom of closing the eyes of persons departed is very ancient; and they were usually the nearest and dearest friends who performed this last office. This descent into AEgypt was in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of Jacob's life, two hundred and fifteen years after the promise made to Abraham, ch. Genesis 12:2-3. and in the year of the world two thousand two hundred and ninety-eight.

REFLECTIONS.—We have here Jacob removing to AEgypt, with some singular events in the way.

1st. His solemn sacrifice offered at Beer-sheba. It was a place where his fathers had enjoyed sweet communion with God; and he hoped there to enjoy the pretence of the God of his fathers. With thankfulness thus he acknowledges the past, and particularly his late mercies, and begs the continuance of Jehovah's blessing on his removal. Note; (1.) We must not neglect to worship God on a journey; as we need then peculiarly his care, we have a new cause to entreat his protection. (2.) Thanks for past mercies are an earnest of greater in store for us.

2nd. God graciously meets him there. Observe, If our communion with God be interrupted, we must lay it at the door of our sloth and negligence. He calls him by his name, with the most gracious condescension, and speaks to him in terms of heart-reviving confidence. He is his Covenant-God, and will take care of him. 1. He silences his fears. Many fears might be expected to attend such a change: fear for himself, an old man, and little able to bear the journey; fear for his family, lest they should be so well pleased with AEgypt as to forget Canaan; or, remembering Abraham's vision, fearing this land of plenty might become a house of bondage. But one word from God quiets all. Note; If God says, Fear not, we may well be at rest, whatever our difficulties are. 2. He encourages him with promises. His family shall increase; God's presence shall be with him; and he will surely bring him back again; his bones shall lie in Canaan, his seed return to this land of their possession, and Joseph shall close his dying eyes. Note; (1.) It is an unspeakable comfort to a servant of Jesus going down to the grave to have his promises to preserve him there, and bring him up thence on the resurrection-day. (2.) It is pleasing even in death, when filial piety is at hand to pay the last kind office to the beloved departing parent. It is a wish as natural as innocent, Ille meos oculos comprimat, Let him close my dying eyes.

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Genesis 46:7. His daughters— As he had only one daughter, we must suppose that his daughters-in-law are here meant; see ch. Genesis 37:35. Bishop Warburton, according to his usual manner, observes, that "the promise God had made to Abraham, to give his posterity the land of Canaan, could not be performed till that family was grown strong enough to take and keep possession of it. In the mean time, therefore, they were necessitated to reside among idolaters, and to reside unmixed: but whoever examines their history will see that the Israelites ever had a violent propensity to join themselves to Gentile nations, and to practise their manners. God, therefore, in his infinite wisdom, brought them into AEgypt, and kept them there during this period, the only place where they could remain for so long a time safe, and unconfounded with the natives; the ancient AEgyptians being, by numerous institutions, forbidden all fellowship with strangers, and bearing, besides, a particular aversion to the profession of the Israelites, who were shepherds. Thus the natural dispositions of the Israelites, which in AEgypt occasioned their superstitions, and in consequence the necessity of a burdensome ritual, would, in any other country, have absorbed them into Gentilism, and confounded them with idolaters. From the Israelites going into AEgypt, arises a new occasion to adore the footsteps of Eternal Wisdom, in his dispensations to his chosen people." Divine Legation, vol. 3: p. 415.

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Genesis 46:8. Jacob and his sons— Jacob himself is to be reckoned in the number of those who went into AEgypt, as in Gen 46:10 the sons of Simeon include Simeon, with his sons; and so of the other patriarchs.

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Genesis 46:10. Jachin— 1Ch 4:24 he is called Jarib. The same is to be observed of several others here named, it being common to give different names to the same person, and to pronounce the same name differently.

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Genesis 46:12. The sons of Pharez were Hezron, &c.— As Pharez could not be above ten years old when Jacob went into AEgypt, I approve of St. Augustine's interpretation of the words came into AEgypt, Gen 46:8 which he supposes to include the whole time that Jacob lived in AEgypt, which was seventeen years; during which time Pharez may well be supposed to have had these two sons.

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Genesis 46:15. These be the sons of Leah, &c.— That is, the sons, together with their offspring, as the context plainly shews. When it is said, all the souls were thirty-three, Jacob is plainly reckoned among the number.

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Genesis 46:20. Unto Joseph in the land of AEgypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, &c.— Here the LXX adds: "Manasseh had sons, whom his concubine, a Syrian, bore: Machir. And Machir begat Gilead. The sons of Ephraim, Manasseh's brother: Sutalaam and Taam, and the sons of Sutalaam, Edom." None of this is in the Hebrew or Samaritan Pentateuch; and the putting it in here must have been an interpolation; for Moses is here reckoning up the names and the number of the persons who went down at this time to AEgypt, or were in being then in AEgypt. Now Joseph himself was then in AEgypt, and his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim; but their children, or grandchildren, here named in the LXX, could not be then born; for Joseph was at this time thirty-nine years old, as was shewn before; and it was after the age of thirty that he married. In nine years time he had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, as in the Hebrew; but no grandsons by them, much less a great-grandson, as in the LXX. Somebody, in very early times, found these grandchildren of Joseph mentioned in 1 Chronicles 7:14-20. (where they are mentioned as the chief of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim in their several times, but not as having been in being at the going down into AEgypt,) and inserted that mention of them in the margin of some copies of Genesis in the Septuagint, which afterwards came into the text. This insertion was either the cause or the consequence of another difference at 1Ch 7:27 of the number of the souls of Jacob's family: either somebody, finding the number in the LXX, added these five to make up that number; or else, somebody finding these five, increased the number, which is in Hebrew seventy, to seventy-five. Wall.

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