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And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.</div><span class= "bld">XLV.<p>JOSEPH IS RECONCILED TO HIS BRETHREN, AND ENCOURAGES THEM AND HIS FATHER TO MAKE EGYPT THEIR HOME.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">Joseph could not refrain himself.</span>—The picture which Judah had drawn of his father’s love for Benjamin, the thought that by separating them he might have made his father die of grief, and the sight of his brethren, and especially of Judah offering to endure a life of slavery in order that Benjamin might go free, overpowered Joseph’s feelings, and he commanded all his attendants to quit the apartment in order that there might be no restraint upon himself or his brethren when he made known to them that he was the brother whom they had so cruelly years ago condemned to be a slave.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-2.htm">Genesis 45:2</a></div><div class="verse">And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">And the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.</span>—Not the sound of Joseph’s weeping, but the news that his brethren had come, as in <a href="/genesis/45-16.htm" title="And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brothers are come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.">Genesis 45:16</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-4.htm">Genesis 45:4</a></div><div class="verse">And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I <i>am</i> Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">I am Joseph your brother.</span>—There is much force in the assurance that he was still their brother. For they stood speechless in terrified surprise at finding that the hated dreamer, upon the anguish of whose soul they had looked unmoved, was now the ruler of a mighty empire. But with magnanimous gentleness he bids them neither to grieve nor be angry with themselves; for behind their acts there had been a watchful Providence guiding all things for good.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-6.htm">Genesis 45:6</a></div><div class="verse">For these two years <i>hath</i> the famine <i>been</i> in the land: and yet <i>there are</i> five years, in the which <i>there shall</i> neither <i>be</i> earing nor harvest.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Earing.</span>—An old English word for ploughing, derived from the Latin <span class= "ital">arare, </span>Anglo-Saxon <span class= "ital">erian, </span>to plough.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-7.htm">Genesis 45:7</a></div><div class="verse">And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">To preserve you a posterity in the earth.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">To put for you a remnant in the land, </span>that is, to preserve a remainder for you, as the word is translated in <a href="/2_samuel/14-7.htm" title="And, behold, the whole family is risen against your handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the heir also: and so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the earth.">2Samuel 14:7</a>. During the seven years’ famine many races probably dwindled away, and the Hebrews, as mere sojourners in Canaan, would have been in danger of total extinction.<p><span class= "bld">By a great deliverance.</span>—That is, by a signal interference on your behalf. But the word rendered “deliverance,” more exactly signifies <span class= "ital">that which escapes </span>(see <a href="/2_kings/19-31.htm" title="For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.">2Kings 19:31</a>, where, as here, it is joined with the word <span class= "ital">remnant, </span>and <a href="/2_kings/19-30.htm" title="And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.">2Kings 19:30</a>, where it is itself rendered <span class= "ital">remnant</span>)<span class= "ital">. </span>The two nouns really signify the same thing; but whereas in the first clause the words seem to forebode that only few would escape, in the second there is the assurance of their surviving in such numbers as to be able to grow into a great nation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-8.htm">Genesis 45:8</a></div><div class="verse">So now <i>it was</i> not you <i>that</i> sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">But God.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">but the God. </span>The article is. rarely found with Elohim in the history of Joseph, but wherever it is added it is a sign of deep feeling on the speaker’s part. (Comp. <a href="/genesis/48-15.htm" title="And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long to this day,">Genesis 48:15</a>.) It was <span class= "ital">the Elohim, </span>who had been the object of the worship of their race, that had now interposed to save them.<p>A <span class= "bld">father.</span>—This was a not uncommon title of the chief minister or vizier of Oriental kings.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-10.htm">Genesis 45:10</a></div><div class="verse">And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:</div>(10) <span class= "bld">The land of Goshen.</span>—This land, also called “the laud of Rameses” (<a href="/genesis/47-11.htm" title="And Joseph placed his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.">Genesis 47:11</a>), probably from the city “Raamses,” which the Israelites were compelled to build there (<a href="/exodus/1-11.htm" title="Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.">Exodus 1:11</a>), was situated on the eastern bank of the Nile, and apparently commencing a little to the north of Memphis extended to the Mediterranean, and to the borders of the Philistines’ land (<a href="/exodus/13-17.htm" title="And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt:">Exodus 13:17</a>). In <a href="/psalms/78-12.htm" title="Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.">Psalm 78:12</a>; <a href="/psalms/78-43.htm" title="How he had worked his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.">Psalm 78:43</a>, it is called the “field of Zoan,” or Tanis. It probably was an unsettled district, but rich in pastures, and belonged in a very loose way to Egypt. In the LXX. it is called “Gesem of Arabia,” to which country both Herodotus and Strabo reckoned all the district on the east of the Nile towards the Isthmus of Suez as belonging. And here the Israelites were constantly joined by large numbers of Semitic immigrants, who were enrolled in their “tafs,” and swelled the rapidly increasing number of their dependants. For, as we have seen before, not merely the lineal descendants of Abraham were circumcised, but all his household and his slaves; and being thus admitted into the covenant became members of the Jewish church and nation (<a href="/genesis/17-23.htm" title="And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said to him.">Genesis 17:23</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-11.htm">Genesis 45:11</a></div><div class="verse">And there will I nourish thee; for yet <i>there are</i> five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Thy household.</span>—As the famine had lasted only two years, and as Jacob had preserved his flocks and herds, so probably he had lost few or none of the large number of men-servants and women-servants who belonged to him. He would thus go down to Egypt as head of a large tribe, who would be called Israelites after him, just as the Ishmaelites, to whom Joseph was sold (<a href="/genesis/37-25.htm" title="And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.">Genesis 37:25</a>), bore Ishmael’s name, not because they were lineally descended from him, but because he had made them subject to his authority and that of his race. In <a href="/genesis/45-18.htm" title="And take your father and your households, and come to me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.">Genesis 45:18</a> Joseph speaks of “their households,” showing that each of the patriarchs had now his own body of dependants, besides the still larger clan which belonged to Jacob.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-16.htm">Genesis 45:16</a></div><div class="verse">And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.</div>(16) I<span class= "bld">t pleased Pharaoh . . . —</span>It was of great importance, as regards the future position of the Israelites in Egypt, that they should go thither, not as men who had forced themselves on the country. but as invited guests. Hence the information that the arrival of Joseph’s brethren was a thing pleasing to Pharaoh, and hence also the fulness with which his commands are recorded.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-19.htm">Genesis 45:19</a></div><div class="verse">Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Wagons.</span>—Egypt being a flat country and carefully cultivated was adapted for the use of vehicles, and consequently they were brought into use there at an early period. Those depicted on the monuments had two wheels, and were drawn by oxen. The chariots of Pharaoh and Joseph were probably drawn by horses, which had about this time been introduced into Egypt.<p><span class= "bld">Your little ones.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">your “taf.” </span>(See Note on <a href="/genesis/34-29.htm" title="And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house.">Genesis 34:29</a>.) The “taf” included the whole mass of dependants; and while “the household” (<a href="/genesis/45-18.htm" title="And take your father and your households, and come to me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.">Genesis 45:18</a>) would have reference chiefly to the men, the “taf,” in opposition to it, would consist of the female slaves and the children.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-20.htm">Genesis 45:20</a></div><div class="verse">Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt <i>is</i> yours.</div>(20) R<span class= "bld">egard not your stuff.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">and let not your eye have pity </span>(<a href="/jonah/4-10.htm" title="Then said the LORD, You have had pity on the gourd, for the which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:">Jonah 4:10</a>) <span class= "ital">upon your vessels, </span>that is, upon your implements and household furniture.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-22.htm">Genesis 45:22</a></div><div class="verse">To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred <i>pieces</i> of silver, and five changes of raiment.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">Changes of raiment.</span>—Gifts of clothing were marks of special favour in the East (<a href="/genesis/41-42.htm" title="And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in clothing of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;">Genesis 41:42</a>). Joseph’s brethren would thus show by their very apparel how honourable had been their treatment.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-23.htm">Genesis 45:23</a></div><div class="verse">And to his father he sent after this <i>manner</i>; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">Meat.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">food, victual, </span>the usual meaning of <span class= "ital">meat </span>in our version.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-24.htm">Genesis 45:24</a></div><div class="verse">So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">See that ye fall not out by the way.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">do not get angry on the journey. </span>Joseph feared that they might reproach one another for their treatment of him, and try to throw the blame on the one or two chiefly guilty, and that so quarrels might ensue. This is the meaning given to the passage in all the versions, and agrees with Joseph’s efforts to quiet their fears, and convince them of his good intentions. Several modern commentators, however, translate “Be not afraid of the journey,” but on insufficient grounds.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-26.htm">Genesis 45:26</a></div><div class="verse">And told him, saying, Joseph <i>is</i> yet alive, and he <i>is</i> governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">Jacob’s heart fainted.</span>—Heb., <span class= "ital">grew cold. </span>This was not the effect of incredulity or suspicion, but of surprise. Jacob, crushed by the loss of the child who had taken the place of his beloved Rachel in his heart, had nothing left to interest him except Benjamin. When, therefore, the news come that Joseph still lives, his mind cannot open itself to receive the joyful tidings, and their first effect is to chill him with a renewed sense of his loss. It is only when he sees the wagons, and other clear proofs of the fact, that life returns to his benumbed faculties, and he becomes capable of joy.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/genesis/45-28.htm">Genesis 45:28</a></div><div class="verse">And Israel said, <i>It is</i> enough; Joseph my son <i>is</i> yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">And Israel said.</span>—We must not lay too much stress upon this change of name, as though it were a title appropriate to the patriarch only in his happier and triumphant hours; for in <a href="/genesis/45-6.htm" title="For these two years has the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be ripening nor harvest.">Genesis 45:6</a> it-is given him in the midst of his distress. It rather shows that the names were long both in use as regards the patriarch personally, but as the title of Israel was alone given to Jacob’s family, it is plain that a high significance was attached to it, and that the inheritance of the Abrahamic promises was at an early date connected therewith.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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