Rodzaju 47:9 Komentarz

In this chapter we have instances, I. Of Joseph's kindness and affection to his relations, presenting his brethren first and then his father to Pharaoh (Gen 47:1-10), settling them in Goshen, and providing for them there (Gen 47:11, Gen 47:12), and paying his respects to his father when he sent for him (Gen 47:27-31). II. Of Joseph's justice between prince and people in a very critical affair, selling Pharaoh's corn to his subjects with reasonable profits to Pharaoh, and yet without any wrong to them (Gen 47:13, etc.). Thus he approved himself wise and good, both in his private and in his public capacity.

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 47 This chapter gives an account of the presentation of five of Joseph's brethren, and then of his father, to Pharaoh, and of what passed between them, Gen 47:1; of Joseph's settlement of them, according to the direction of Pharaoh, in the land of Rameses in Goshen, and of his provision for them there, Gen 47:11; of his getting into his hands, for Pharaoh, the money, cattle, and lands, of the Egyptians, excepting the lands belonging to the priests, for corn he had supplied them with, Gen 47:13; of his giving them seed to sow with, on condition of Pharaoh's having a fifth part of the produce, Gen 47:23, of the increase of Jacob's substance in Egypt, and that of his children; of the time of his living there, and his approaching death, when he called Joseph to him, and obliged him by an oath to bury him in the burying place of his fathers, Gen 47:27.

Jacob said unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years,.... He calls his life a "pilgrimage"; as every good man's is; they are not at home in their own country, they are seeking a better, even an heavenly one: Jacob's life was very emphatically and literally a pilgrimage; he first dwelt in Canaan, from thence he removed to Padanaram, and sojourned there awhile, and then came to Canaan again; for some time he dwelt at Succoth, and then at Shechem, and after that at Hebron, and now he was come down to Egypt, and he had spent one hundred and thirty years of his life in this way: and with this perfectly agrees the account of Polyhistor from Demetrius (n), an Heathen writer, who makes the age of Jacob when he came into Egypt one hundred and thirty, and that year to be the third year of the famine, agreeably to Gen 45:6, few and evil have the days of the years of my life been; see Job 14:1; he calls his days but "few", in comparison of the long lives of the patriarchs in former times, and especially in comparison of the days of eternity: and "evil", because of the many afflictions he had met with; as from Esau, from whose face he was obliged to flee lest he should kill him, Gen 27:41; and in Laban's house, where he served for a wife fourteen years, and endured great hardships, Gen 31:41; and at Shechem, where his daughter was ravished, Gen 34:2, and his sons made that slaughter of the Shechemites, Gen 34:25, which he feared would cause his name to stink, Gen 34:30; and at Ephrath, where he buried his beloved Rachel, Gen 35:16; and at Hebron, where his sons brought him such an account as if they believed his beloved son Joseph was destroyed by a wild beast, Gen 37:32, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage; his grandfather Abraham lived to be one hundred amnd seventy five years of age, Gen 25:7, and his father Isaac lived to the age of one hundred and eighty, Gen 35:28. (n) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. p. 21. p. 425.

Joseph informs Pharaoh that his father and brethren are arrived in Goshen, Gen 47:1. He presents five of his brethren before the king, Gen 47:2, who questions them concerning their occupation; they inform him that they are shepherds, and request permission to dwell in the land of Goshen, Gen 47:3, Gen 47:4. Pharaoh consents, and desires that some of the most active of them should be made rulers over his cattle, Gen 47:5, Gen 47:6. Joseph presents his father to Pharaoh, Gen 47:7, who questions him concerning his age, Gen 47:8, to which Jacob returns an affecting answer, and blesses Pharaoh, Gen 47:9, Gen 47:10. Joseph places his father and family in the land of Rameses, (Goshen), and furnishes them with provisions, Gen 47:11, Gen 47:12. The famine prevailing in the land, the Egyptians deliver up all their money to Joseph to get food, Gen 47:13-15. The next year they bring their cattle, Gen 47:16, Gen 47:17. The third, their lands and their persons, Gen 47:18-21. The land of the priests Joseph does not buy, as it was a royal grant to them from Pharaoh, Gen 47:22. The people receive seed to sow the land on condition that they shall give a fifth part of the produce to the king, Gen 47:23, Gen 47:24. The people agree, and Joseph makes it a law all over Egypt, Gen 47:25, Gen 47:26. The Israelites multiply exceedingly, Gen 47:27. Jacob, having lived seventeen years in Goshen, and being one hundred and forty-seven years old, Gen 47:28, makes Joseph promise not to bury him in Egypt, but in Canaan, Gen 47:29, Gen 47:30. Joseph promises and confirms it with an oath, Gen 47:31.

The days of the years of my pilgrimage - מגורי megurai, of my sojourning or wandering. Jacob had always lived a migratory or wandering life, in different parts of Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, scarcely ever at rest; and in the places where he lived longest, always exposed to the fatigues of the field and the desert. Our word pilgrim comes from the French pelerin and pelegrin, which are corrupted from the Latin peregrinus, an alien, stranger, or foreigner, from the adverb peregre, abroad, not at home. The pilgrim was a person who took a journey, long or short, on some religious account, submitting during the time to many hardships and privations. A more appropriate term could not be conceived to express the life of Jacob, and the motive which induced him to live such a life. His journey to Padan-aram or Mesopotamia excepted, the principal part of his journeys were properly pilgrimages, undertaken in the course of God's providence on a religious account. Have not attained unto the - life of my fathers - Jacob lived in the whole one hundred and forty-seven years; Isaac his father lived one hundred and eighty; and Abraham his grandfather, one hundred and seventy-five. These were days of years in comparison of the lives of the preceding patriarchs, some of whom lived nearly ten centuries!

JOSEPH'S PRESENTATION AT COURT. (Gen. 47:1-31) Joseph . . . told Pharaoh, My father and my brethren--Joseph furnishes a beautiful example of a man who could bear equally well the extremes of prosperity and adversity. High as he was, he did not forget that he had a superior. Dearly as he loved his father and anxiously as he desired to provide for the whole family, he would not go into the arrangements he had planned for their stay in Goshen until he had obtained the sanction of his royal master.

The days of the years of my pilgrimage, &c.--Though a hundred thirty years, he reckons by days (compare Psa 90:12), which he calls few, as they appeared in retrospect, and evil, because his life had been one almost unbroken series of trouble. The answer is remarkable, considering the comparative darkness of the patriarchal age (compare Ti2 1:10).

When Joseph had announced to Pharaoh the arrival of his relations in Goshen, he presented five out of the whole number of his brethren (אחיו מקצה; on קצה see Gen 19:4) to the king.