TEXT: BIB   |   AUDIO: MISLR - DAVIS   |   VIDEO: BIB - COMM

HELPS: KJS - KJV - ASV - DBY - DOU - WBS - YLT - ORIG - BBE - WEB - NAS - SEV - TSK - CRK - WES - MHC - GILL - JFB

CHAPTER XLII

Jacob sends his ten sons to Egypt to buy corn, 1-3; but refuses to permit Benjamin to go, 4. They arrive in Egypt, and bow themselves before Joseph, 5, 6. He treats them roughly and calls them spies, 7-10. They defend themselves and give an account of their family, 11-13. He appears unmoved, and puts them all in prison for three days, 14-17. On the third day he releases them on condition of their bringing Benjamin, 18-20.Being convicted by their consciences, they reproach themselves with their cruelty to their brother Joseph, and consider themselves under the displeasure of God, 21-23. Joseph is greatly affected, detains Simeon as a pledge for Benjamin, orders their sacks to be filled with corn, and the purchase money to be put in each man's sack, 24, 25. When one of them is going to give his ass provender he discovers his money in the mouth of his sack, at which they are greatly alarmed, 26-28. They come to their father in Canaan, and relate what happened to them in their journey, 29-34. On emptying their sacks, each man's money is found in his sack's mouth, which causes alarm both to them and their father, 35. Jacob deplores the loss of Joseph and Simeon, and refuses to let Benjamin go, though Reuben offers his two sons as pledges for his safety, 36-38.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLII

Verse 1. "Jacob saw that there was corn" - That is, Jacob heard from the report of others that there was plenty in Egypt. The operations of one sense, in Hebrew, are often put for those of another. Before agriculture was properly known and practiced, famines were frequent; Canaan seems to have been peculiarly vexed by them. There was one in this land in the time of Abraham, chap. xii. 10; another in the days of Isaac, Genesis xxvi. 1; and now a third in the time of Jacob. To this St. Stephen alludes, Acts vii. 11: there was great affliction, and our fathers found no sustenance.

Verse 6. "Joseph was the governor" - fyl shallit, an intendant, a protector, from fl skalat, to be over as a protector; hence µyfl shelatim, shields, or arms for protection and defense, 2 Samuel viii. 7; and wfl shilton, power and authority, Eccles. viii. 4, 8; and hence the Arabic sultan, a lord, prince, or king, from salata, he obtained and exercised dominion, he ruled. Was it not from this very circumstance, Joseph being shallit, that all the Mohammedan governors of Egypt, &c., took the title of sultan? Bowed down themselves before him] Thus fulfilling the prophetic dream, chap. xxxvii. 7, 8, which they had taken every precaution to render null and void. But there is neither might nor counsel against the Lord.

Verse 9. "Ye are spies" - µta µylgrm meraggelim attem, ye are footmen, trampers about, footpads, vagabonds, lying in wait for the property of others; persons who, under the pretense of wishing to buy corn, desire only to find out whether the land be so defenceless that the tribes to which ye belong (see ver. 11) may attack it successfully, drive out the inhabitants, and settle in it themselves; or, having plundered it, retire to their deserts. This is a frequent custom among the Arabs to the present day. Thus Joseph spake roughly to them merely to cover that warmth of affection which he felt towards them; and that being thus brought, apparently, into straits and dangerous circumstances, their consciences might be awakened to reflect on and abhor their own wickedness.

Verse 11. "We are all one man's sons" - We do not belong to different tribes, and it is not likely that one family would make a hostile attempt upon a whole kingdom. This seems to be the very ground that Joseph took, viz., that they were persons belonging to different tribes. Against this particularly they set up their defense, asserting that they all belonged to one family; and it is on the proof of this that Joseph puts them, ver. 15, in obliging them to leave one as a hostage, and insisting on their bringing their remaining brother; so that he took exactly the same precautions to detect them as if he had had no acquaintance with them, and had every reason to be suspicious.

Verse 13. "One is not." - An elliptical sentence, One is not alive.

Verse 15. "By the life of Pharaoh" - h[rp yj chey Pharaoh, Pharaoh liveth. As if he had said, As surely as the king of Egypt lives, so surely shall ye not go hence unless your brother come hither. Here therefore is no oath; it is just what they themselves make it in their report to their father, chap. xliii. 3: the man did solemnly protest unto us; and our translators should not have put it in the form of an oath, especially as the original not only will bear another version, but is absolutely repugnant to this in our sense of the word.

Verse 18. "I fear God" - ary yna µyhlah ta eth haelohim ani yare, literally translated the passage runs thus, I also fear the gods; but the emphatic h ha is probably added by Joseph, both here and in his conversation with Pharaoh, the more particularly to point out the eminence and perfection of the Supreme Being as contradistinguished from the gods of Egypt. He seems to say to his brethren, I am a worshipper of the true God, and ye have nothing to fear.

Verse 21. "We are verily guilty" - How finely are the office and influence of conscience exemplified in these words! It was about twenty-two years since they had sold their brother, and probably their conscience had been lulled asleep to the present hour. God combines and brings about those favourable circumstances which produce attention and reflection, and give weight to the expostulations of conscience. How necessary to hear its voice in time, for here it may be the instrument of salvation; but if not heard in this world, it must be heard in the next; and there, in association with the unquenchable fire, it will be the never-dying worm. Reader, has not thy sin as yet found thee out? Pray to God to take away the veil from thy heart, and give thee that deep sense of guilt which shall oblige thee to flee for refuge to the hope which is set before thee in the Gospel of Christ.

Verse 23. "For he spake unto them by an interpreter." - Either there was a very great difference between the two languages as then spoken, or Joseph, to prevent all suspicion, might affect to be ignorant of both. We have many evidences in this book that the Egyptians, Hebrews, Canaanites, and Syrians, could understand each other in a general way, though there are also proofs that there was a considerable difference between their dialects.

Verse 24. "Took-Simeon and bound him before their eyes." - This was retaliation, if, as the rabbins suppose, it was Simeon who bound Joseph, and put him into the pit. A recollection of this circumstance must exceedingly deepen the sense he had of his guilt.

Verse 25. "Commanded to fill their sacks" - µhylk keleyhem, their vessels; probably large woollen bags, or baskets lined with leather, which, as Sir John Chardin says, are still in use through all Asia, and are called tambellet; they are covered with leather, the better to resist the wet, and to prevent dirt and sand from mixing with the grain. These vessels, of whatever sort, must have been different from those called q sak in the twenty-seventh and following verses, which was probably only a small sack or bag, in which each had reserved a sufficiency of corn for his ass during the journey; the larger vessels or bags serving to hold the wheat or rice they had brought, and their own packages. The reader will at once see that the English word sack is plainly derived from the Hebrew.

Verse 26. "They laded their asses" - Amounting, no doubt, to several scores, if not hundreds, else they could not have brought a sufficiency of corn for the support of so large a family as that of Jacob.

Verse 27. "One of them opened his sack" - From ver. 35 we learn that each of the ten brethren on emptying his sack when he returned found his money in it; can we suppose that this was not discovered by them all before? It seems not; and the reason was probably this: the money was put in the mouth of the sack of one only, in the sacks of the others it was placed at or near to the bottom; hence only one discovered it on the road, the rest found it when they came to empty their sacks at their father's house.

"In the inn" - wlmb bammalon, from l lan, to lodge, stay, remain, &c. The place at which they stopped to bait or rest themselves and their asses. Our word inn gives us a false idea here; there were no such places of entertainment at that time in the desert over which they had to pass, nor are there any to the present day. Travellers generally endeavour to reach a well, where they fill their girbahs, or leathern bottles, with fresh water, and having clogged their camels, asses, &c., permit them to crop any little verdure there may be in the place, keeping watch over them by turns. This is all we are to understand by the malon or inn in the text, for even caravanseries were not then in use, which are generally no more than four walls perfectly exposed, the place being open at the top.

Verse 28. "Their heart failed them" - mbl axyw valyetse libbam, their heart went out. This refers to that spasmodic affection which is felt in the breast at any sudden alarm or fright. Among the common people in our own country we find an expression exactly similar, "My heart was ready to leap out at my mouth," used on similar occasions.

"What is this that God hath done unto us?" - Their guilty consciences, now thoroughly awakened, were in continual alarms; they felt that they deserved God's curse, and every occurrence served to confirm and increase their suspicions.

Verse 35. "As they emptied their sacks" - See on "Genesis xlii. 27".

Verse 36. "All these things are against me." - hnlk wyh yl[ alai hayu cullanah; literally, All these things are upon me. Not badly translated by the Vulgate, In me haec omnia mala reciderunt, "All these evils fall back upon me." They lie upon me as heavy loads, hastening my death; they are more than I can bear.

Verse 37. "Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee" - What a strange proposal made by a son to his father, concerning his grandchildren! But they show the honesty and affection of Reuben's heart; he felt deeply for his father's distress, and was determined to risk and hazard every thing in order to relieve and comfort him. There is scarcely a transaction in which Reuben is concerned that does not serve to set his character in an amiable point of view, except the single instance mentioned Genesis xxxv. 22, and which for the sake of decency and piety we should wish to understand as the Targumists have explained it. See the notes.

Verse 38. "He is left alone" - That is, Benjamin is the only remaining son of Rachel; for he supposed Joseph, who was the other son, to be dead.

"Shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow" - Here he keeps up the idea of the oppressive burden mentioned ver. 36, to which every occurrence was adding an additional weight, so that he felt it impossible to support it any longer.