Genesis 47

13. And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of 14 Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which 15 they bought; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house. And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread; for why should we die in thy presence? for our money fail- 16 eth. And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail. 17 And they brought their cattle unto Joseph; and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks, and for the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread 18 in exchange for all their cattle for that year. And when that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide from my lord, how that our money is all spent; and the herds of cattle are my lord’s; there is nought left in the sight of my 19 lord, but our bodies, and our lands: wherefore should we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: 20 and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land be not desolate. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because 21 the famine was sore upon them: and the land became Pharaoh’s. And as for the people, he removed them to the cities from one end of the border of Egypt even to the other end thereof. 22 Only the land of the priests bought he not: for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and 23 did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them; wherefore they sold not their land. Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: 24 lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. And it shall come to pass at the ingather- ings, that ye shall give a fifth unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones. 25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we 26 will be Pharaoh’s servants. And Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; only the land of the priests’ alone became not Pharaoh’s.

13-26. In the years of scarcity Joseph sold corn to the people, first for their money, then for their cattle, and, when both were done, for their land, which they spontaneously offered. Having thus gained possession of the whole country, he again disposed of it to the people on definite principles, making them the king’s vassals, and obliging them to pay annually the fifth part of the produce in lieu of ground-rent. Only the lands of the priesthood remained untouched, since their revenues from the royal treasury had protected them from the consequences of the famine. Profane writers and the monuments confirm the Biblical account, in so far as they distinctly state that the peasantry were not the landed proprietors, and that the priests possessed real property free of taxation. K.

The policy of Joseph was simply to economize during the seven years of abundance to such an extent that provision might be made against the seven years of famine. He calculated that one fifth of the produce of years so extraordinarily plenteous would serve for the seven scarce years. This fifth he bought in the king’s name from the people. When the years of famine came, the people were referred to Joseph; and, till their money was gone, he sold corn to them, probably not at famine prices. Next he acquired their cattle, and finally, in exchange for food, they yielded to him both their lands and their persons. So that the result of the whole was, that the people who would otherwise have perished were preserved, and in return for this preservation they paid a tax or rent on their farm-lands to the amount of one fifth of their produce. The people ceased to be proprietors of their own farms, but they were not slaves with no interest in the soil, but tenants sitting at easy rents—a fair enough exchange for being preserved in life. This kind of taxation is eminently fair in principle, securing, as it does, that the wealth of the king and government shall vary with the prosperity of the whole land. Dods.

It is somewhat remarkable, that amid the vicissitudes to which that country has been subject, the compact between the ruler and his subjects, entered into by Joseph, has always subsisted there in principle. To this day the fellah, or peasant, in Egypt, cultivates the land for his sovereign, and receives a portion of the produce for his own wants. But, amid the grasping exactions of our own age, and the harsh oppressions to which he is subject by the government and its officers, he has much reason to regret that the moderation of Joseph does not actuate its present rulers. Kit.

This whole transaction, which did not affect the Israelites themselves, is here mentioned so circumstantially, because afterward among them a similar right was introduced in reference to their highest King—God Himself. He had given and divided the land of Canaan to them. They were all His servants. They must pay to Him a double tithe. Of this God gave one part to the priests and Levites for their maintenance (as Pharaoh to the Egyptian priests), the other was consumed in high feasts at sacrificial meals, which were given to the Levites, the widows, orphans, and the poor. Those relations of dependence of person and property on the king, and of acknowledgment of his supreme right over all by the payment of the fifths, was Israel to transfer to its invisible King. The main principle of the whole outer life of the Israelites was always to be in subjection to Him. Gerl.

16. Give me your cattle. This was the wisest measure that could be adopted, both for the preservation of the people, and of the cattle also. As the people had not grain for their own sustenance, consequently they could have none for their cattle. The cattle being bought by Joseph, were supported at the royal expense, and very likely returned to the people at the end of the famine; for how else could they cultivate their ground, transport their merchandise? etc.

21. As for the people, he removed them to cities. Joseph was influenced merely by humanity and prudence. As the corn was laid up in the cities, it was more convenient to bring them to places where they might be within reach of an easy distribution. Thus the country, which could afford no sustenance, was abandoned for the time being that the people might be fed in places where the provision was deposited. A. C.

22. Only the land of the priests bought he not. The Egyptian priests were obliged to provide all sacrifices and to bear all the charges of the national religion; and religion was in those days a matter of very great expense to them. The numerous sacrifices that were offered in these times could not be provided, nor the preparations and ceremonies in offering them performed except at a very great charge. The priests of Egypt were the king’s counsellors and assistants: they were the professors and cultivators of astronomy, without which even agriculture itself could not have proceeded: they were the keepers of the public registers, memoirs, and chronicles of the kingdom: in a word, under the king, they were the magistrates, and filled all the prime offices. So that Pharaoh might well think that they had not too much to support the stations they were to act in; and for that reason he ordered that no tax should be laid upon them. Shackford.

23. Behold, I have bought you this day. The bargain could not be denied; but he would not insist upon it strictly. He requires only a fifth part of the increase of their ground for the king; and tells them the rest shall be their own. Herein he showed himself both a good man and a wise statesman, in taking away all matter of complaint from the people. Bp. Patrick.

It fully appears that the kingdom of Egypt was, previous to the time of Joseph, a limited monarchy. The king had his estates; the priests had their lands; and the common people their patrimony, independently of both. We may conclude from those purchases, that Pharaoh had no power to levy taxes upon his subjects to increase his own revenue, until he had bought the original right which each individual had in his possessions. 24. And when Joseph bought this for the king, he raised the crown an ample revenue (though he restored the lands), by obliging each to pay one fifth of the product to the king. A. C.—Long after this it was observed by an ancient writer and traveller in Egypt (Diodorus), that the kings were enabled, by the abundant revenues derived from the crown lands, to defray the expenses of wars and of their own regal state, and to reward those who distinguished themselves in the public service, without overwhelming the common people with taxes. T. J. C.—Joseph certainly had in view no less the good of the country than the interest of the king; inasmuch as he converted the disproportionate division of the landed property into an equable leasing of it in small portions, for an annual rent. Delit.

In all these respects, his political measures have been strongly vindicated, not only as being directed by God, but as being obviously the best, everything considered, for the safety, honor, and welfare of his sovereign and the kingdom. It is true, he bought the lands of the people for the king; but he farmed them to the original occupiers again, at the moderate and fixed crown rent of one-fifth part of the produce. A. C.—Thus did he provide for the liberty and independence of the people, while he strengthened the authority of the king by making him sole proprietor of the lands. And to secure the people from further exaction, Joseph made it a law over all the land of Egypt, that Pharaoh (the king) should have only the fifth part: which law subsisted to the time of Moses. By this wise regulation the people had four fifths of the produce of the lands for their own use, and were exempted from any further taxes, the king being bound to support his civil and military establishment out of the crown rents. Hales.

25. The peculiar nature of the land, its dependence on the overflow of the Nile, and the unthrifty habits of the cultivators, made it desirable to establish a system of centralization, perhaps to introduce some general principle of irrigation; in modern phraseology, to promote the prosperity of the country by great government works, in preference to leaving all to the uncertainty of individual enterprise. If this were so, then the saying “Thou hast saved our lives” was no language of Eastern adulation, but the verdict of a grateful people. E. H. B.—Besides being indebted to Joseph for their preservation, the Egyptians owed to him an extension of their influence; for, as all the lands round about became dependent on Egypt for provision, they must have contracted a respect for the Egyptian administration. They must also have added greatly to Egypt’s wealth, and during these years of constant traffic many commercial connections must have been formed which in future years would be of untold value to Egypt. But above all, from the confidence Joseph won with the people, there seems every reason to believe that the permanent alterations he made on their tenure of land were considered as competent as certainly they were bold. Dods.

25,26. The result of all this was that at the close of the seven years the people and all that belonged to them were the property of the king. Egypt under its Shepherd Pharaoh was precisely in the condition England would have been in under her Norman conquerors, if we suppose the barons swept away, and no middle class left between the Norman king and the Saxon serfs, except the priests. But Joseph was far too enlightened, and too humane, to intend to leave the whole population in a state of villenage or serfdom. From the vantage-ground of the position in which the famine had left him he proposed to restore to the people their freedom, and restore to them their lands, only on a new tenure. They were not to have them as freeholders, but as tenants of the crown, paying one-fifth portion to the king as rent forever.

Thus Joseph had effected two things: first, he had saved the people from starvation; and, secondly, he had consolidated the power of the Pharaohs, and secured to them an ample revenue wherewith they might effect important improvements in the agriculture of the country. For it seems that the system of artificial irrigation described upon the monuments, supplementing most beneficially the natural action of the river, dated from this epoch. That the people thankfully accepted these changes, and fully understood that but for Joseph’s measures they would have perished, is clear from their own words: “Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.” This willing acceptance of the Pharaoh as their king seems to imply a disaffection in previous years that must have been a source of continual danger to the country’s peace. All this Joseph’s wisdom effected; and it had a yet further result, far more important to the world’s destiny—it enabled him, under God’s providence, to preserve the Chosen Family, in whose promised seed all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. J. P. N.

According to Herodotus, an ancient king had divided the whole land among the Egyptians, giving to each a square portion of equal excellence, and receiving from each a yearly rent in return. According to Diodorus, all the land in Egypt belonged either to the kings, or the priests, or the military caste. According to Strabo, the Egyptians, who were engaged in agriculture, held their land of the sovereign, and paid rent. According to the monuments, as we learn from Wilkinson, only kings, priests, and the military order were land-owners. All these profane authorities concur with holy writ in the main fact, viz. : that the cultivators were not the owners of the soil. On one point, indeed, there is an apparent disagreement. The Pentateuch limits the ownership of land to the kings and the priests ; Strabo extends it to the military order as well ; and herein his authority is confirmed by the sculptures. But Herodotus furnishes a key, whereby this apparent discrepancy can be reconciled. It is in the statement made by him, that the land of the soldiers differed from that of the peasants in being free of rent ; otherwise, he says, it belonged to the kings, and was given by them in fee to the soldiery. But there is still another point of disagreement between the Pentateuch and these profane authors. Moses asserts an original possession of the soil of Egypt by the cultivators, and a transfer of the title to the king under extraordinary circumstances ; Herodotus knows nothing of this, but represents the king as the original proprietor. Now this contradiction, so far from invalidating the credibility of the Pentateuch, serves rather to confirm it, since it presents in a strong light the superior knowledge of the author, which extends back to a period not even approached by the knowledge of profane writers. Here is an historical fact, stated by the Pentateuch, and vouched in the most ample manner by these writers, viz. : the possession by the king of all the land of Egypt not owned by the priests. E. C. W.

If a man only wishes that his own conceptions of prosperity be realized, then let him keep his land in his own hand and work his material irrespective of God’s demands ; for certainly if he yields himself to God, his own ideas of prosperity will not be realized. But if he suspects that God may have a more liberal conception of prosperity and may understand better than he what is eternally beneficial, let him commit himself and all his material of prosperity without doubting into God’s hand, and let him greedily obey all God’s precepts ; for in neglecting one of these, he so far neglects and misses what God would have him enter into. Dods.—Joseph showed the Egyptians that plenty and famine were themselves sent to cultivate self-discipline and providence in men. He used the experience of their wants and sufferings as a means of leading them to acquiesce in an arrangement which made them for the first time conscious that they were under a government which was caring for them, and watching over them ; a government not arbitrary, not seeking its own ends, but confessing obligations to its subjects, while it demanded obedience from them. He organized a community,—he made the king feel that he stood in an actual living relation to his subjects, and his subjects in an actual relation to him and to each other. Scripture represents this as a divine work, for which a man must have a divine vocation. Maurice.

47 : 27 And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen ; and they gat them possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years : so the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were an hundred forty and seven years. And the time drew near that Israel must die : and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me ; bury me not, I pray

30 thee, in Egypt : but when I sleep with my fathers, thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and 31 bury me in their buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said. And he said, Swear unto me : and he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head. 48 : 1 And it came to pass after these things, that one said to Joseph, Behold, thy father is 2 sick : and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee : and Israel strengthened himself, and 3 sat upon the bed. And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz 4 in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, and said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruit- ful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a company of peoples ; and will give this 5 land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. And now thy two sons, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine ; 6 Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simeon, shall be mine. And thy issue, which thou begetest after them, shall be thine ; they shall be called after the name of 7 their brethren in their inheritance. And as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some way to come unto Ephrath : and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath (the same is Beth-lehem). 8 And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons, and said, Who are these ? And Joseph said unto his 9 father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me here. And he said, Bring them, I 10 pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him ; and he kissed them, and 11 embraced them. And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face : and, 12 lo, God hath let me see thy seed also. And Joseph brought them out from between his 13 knees ; and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward 14 Israel’s right hand, and brought them near unto him. And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon 15 Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly ; for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph, and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, 16 the God which hath fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads ; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac ; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the 17 earth. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him : and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head 18 unto Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father : for this is 19 the firstborn ; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it : he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great : how- beit his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of 20 nations. And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God 21 make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh : and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die : but God shall be with you, and bring you again 22 unto the land of your fathers. Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.

Observe the many incidents and suggestive topics presented in these 27 verses : Israel’s set- tlement and great prosperity in Egypt ; Jacob’s serene old age ; the approach of his time of de- parture ; his summons to Joseph in order that he might bind him by an oath to bury his re- mains in the burying place of his fathers ; his sickness reported to Joseph ; Joseph’s visit with his two sons to Jacob ; Jacob’s recital of God’s covenant with him at Bethel ; his adoption of Joseph’s two sons as his own ; his touching reminiscence of Rachel’s death and burial ; his notice of Joseph’s sons and question respecting them, followed by his embrace and blessing of both ; the discriminate laying on of his hands, so that Ephraim the younger was placed before the elder, Manasseh ; the special gift to Joseph of the region around Shechem, the only land on earth of which he claimed the ownership ; and last, most beautiful and impressive of all, his threefold reference to the God of his fathers, who had fed and kept him life-long and deliv- ered him from evil. Alike full of impressive facts and suggestive truths, these few verses do but emphasize the richness, breadth and helpfulness of this whole inspired History, and strongly commend its thoughtful continuous study. B.

47 : 27, 28. While the Egyptians were impoverished in their own land, Jacob was replenished in a strange land. He lived seventeen years after he came into Egypt, far beyond his own expectation; seventeen years he had nourished Joseph (for so old he was when he was sold from him), and now, by way of requital, seventeen years Joseph nourished him. So that when he was old and least able to bear care and fatigue, he had least occasion for it, being well provided for by his son. H.—“And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt and had possessions therein, and grew and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years.” Such is the brief statement which sketches for us the delightful picture of rest and enjoyment after the long years of trouble and sorrow. The intricate plot is at last unravelled; and its tragic acts have evolved this beautiful scene of quiet rest to the chosen family, secure in their own settled homes and possessions, their own institutions of social order and worship. These last seventeen years of his life were enough to make him forget all the trouble of the former days of evil. He begins now to see the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham of the posterity innumerable as the stars of heaven. And his home is happy now, for his household is a loving household now. For we cannot imagine that the lessons of the scenes through which they have passed have been lost upon them. They have learned doubtless “not to fall out by the way.” Joseph has taught them the lesson of love by showing them what true love is. This is to Jacob a blessed seventeen years, and to our human view it would seem the highest kindness of God to allow them to be prolonged indefinitely. Yet this is not Jacob’s rest—“here is no continuing city,” as we are all too apt to feel when God, in his providence, surrounds us so bountifully with these home joys. Just at the height of this enjoyment comes the announcement, “The time drew near when Israel must die.” It is a representative picture which finds its counterpart more or less complete in every Christian community at this day. S. R.

29. Israel, as he is here again characteristically named, was preparing for another great act of faith. On his dying bed, he still held fast by the promises of God concerning the possession of Canaan, and all that was connected with it. (It is most instructive to notice in this history the frequent change of the names of Jacob and Israel.) A. E.—30. Jacob’s desire that his body should be laid in Machpelah had a deeper root than nature. The land of

Canaan was his by God’s covenant. He was to die without entering on its possession; but in his death he would show that he still believed that his children would have its ownership, and therefore he made Joseph swear that he would bury him in the sepulchre of his fathers. W. M. T.

The Apostle acquaints us with the secret of his injunction when he tells us (Heb. 11 : 22), that “by faith Jacob gave commandment concerning his bones.” He believed the promise, that the land of Canaan should be given to him in the persons of his seed. By having his dead body conveyed to that land, he published to his seed and to the world that he believed and embraced the promise. Bush.

31. And Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed. On receiving the solemn promise of Joseph, he turns toward the head of the bed, and assumes the posture of adoration, rendering thanks to God for all the mercies of his past life, and for this closing token of filial duty and affection. The Septuagint has the rendering “on the top of his staff,” which is given in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This is obtained by a mere change in the vowel pointing of the last word. M.—The Hebrew word without the vowel points means either “bed” or “staff.” It is impossible to decide with certainty which was the original sense of the word. It is possible that the meaning is, as the Apostle quotes the passage, that after Joseph had sworn to bury him in Canaan, Jacob bowed himself upon the staff which had gone with him through all his wanderings, and so worshipped God. E. H. B.

7. There comes into the narrative here a touch of nature which is exceedingly affecting. He has been putting Ephraim and Manasseh into the birthright place forfeited by Reuben, because to them, as the sons of Joseph who was the firstborn of Rachel, after its forfeiture by the firstborn of Leah, it rightfully belonged; and that suggests to him his first, his early, his constant, his supreme love for Rachel, so that he goes on to speak of her—of the time, place, and manner of her death, and of her lonely grave, precisely as if the incidents had happened only a short while before. It is so like an old man in the apparent abruptness of the transition from his grandsons to Rachel, and in the fond circumstantiality of his references to his well-beloved. W. M. T.

14. Israel stretched out his right hand.** Laying hands on the head was always used among the Jews in giving blessings, designating men to any office, and in the consecration of solemn sacrifices. This is the first time we find it mentioned; but we often read of it afterward. But this preference has no concern with God’s conferring a greater measure of his love and approbation on one person more than another; for this we are assured can arise from nothing but men’s moral characters; it is the determination of truth that with God there is no respect of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him (Acts 10:34, 35). Dodd.

The younger. Grace observes not the order of nature, nor does God prefer those whom we think fittest to be preferred, but as it pleases him. It is observable, how often God, by the distinguishing favors of his covenant, advanced the younger above the elder; Abel above Cain, Shem above Japheth, Abraham above Nahor and Haran, Isaac above Ishmael, Jacob above Esau; Judah and Joseph were preferred before Reuben; Moses before Aaron; David and Solomon before their elder brethren. He tied the Jews to observe the birthright (Deut. 21:17), but he never tied himself to observe it. H.

There are providences of two sorts, seemingly good and seemingly bad; and those do usually as Jacob did when he blessed the sons of Joseph, cross hands and lay the blessing where we would not. There are providences unto which we would have the blessings entailed; but they are not. And there are providences that smile upon the flesh, such as cast into the lap health, wealth, plenty, ease, friends, and abundance of this world’s good: but the great blessing is not in them. There are providences again, that take away from us whatever is desirable to the flesh; such are sickness, losses, crosses, and affliction; and usually in these, though they shock us whenever they come upon us, blessing coucheth and is ready to help us. For God, as the name of Ephraim signifies, makes us fruitful in the land of affliction. He therefore, in blessing his people, lays his hands across, guiding them wittingly and laying the chiefest blessing on the head of Ephraim, or in that providence that sanctifies affliction. He that has skill to judge of providences aright, has a great ability in him “to comprehend with other saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height;” but he that has no skill as to discerning them, is but a child in his judgment in those high and mysterious things. Bunyan.

15, 16. “The God before whose face walked my fathers, Abraham and Isaac; the God who pastured me from my existence on unto this day; THE ANGEL who redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name, and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, be named upon them, and let them increase to a multitude in the midst of the land.” In this threefold reference to God as the covenant God, the Shepherd and the Angel-Redeemer, we have a distinct anticipation of the truth concerning the blessed Trinity. A. E.

Observe the beautiful humility of Jacob. He does not speak about his own walking before God, but, “God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk.” He knows that he himself has not walked very closely with God.

The God which fed me. The word fed is scarcely wide enough to express the meaning. It means God who has shepherded me; who has been my shepherd all my life long unto this day; who has been guiding me and restoring me and controlling me, as well as feeding me. The faith of the patriarch is seen especially in his acknowledging God as his shepherd through all his wanderings, and through all his sorrows too. He has recognized at last that all these things have worked together for his good. Gibson.

The Angel which redeemed me. The Angel cannot be a created angel, but the Angel of God’s presence; the Messenger who spake with divine authority and as himself divine. Alford.—The God who fed him, and the Angel who redeemed him, are but one undivided object of his prayers. It is not putting undue stress upon Jacob’s words to understand them as implying that Jacob was redeemed by this Angel from far worse evils than men had it in their power to inflict. He was redeemed from all his iniquities and from their consequences. The Angel-Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Saviour-Christ of the New, and who but he has been in every age the Redeemer of lost men? Bash.—It is impossible that the Angel thus identified with God can be a created Angel. Jacob alludes to the Angel who wrestled with him and whom he called God, the same as the Angel of the Covenant (Mal. 3:1). Luther observes that the verb “bless,” which thus refers to the God of his fathers, to the God who had been his Shepherd, and to the Angel who redeemed him, is in the singular, not in the plural, showing that these three are but one God, and that the Angel is one with the fathers’ God and with the God who fed Jacob like a sheep. E. H. B.

No thought now of his own schemes, his own efforts, his own successes. The preservation, the support, the provision all through life he attributes alone to God—he the source of all his strength, he the blesser of all his efforts, he the giver of all that he has got or gained—the all-providing God. The incidents of the bygone life no longer spoken of as of old—as “things that had been against him”—no longer thought of as a series of perils, and trials, and bereavements; but appearing now to the clear eye of faith as so many deliverances commanded and wrought out for him by that Angel of the covenant with whom he had that mysterious struggle at Peniel; over whom, through weakness, he had power, and who not merely from the common ills of life—out of the hands of a Laban and an Esau had rescued him—but from all evil had delivered him—the redeeming God, whose goodness and mercy had followed him all the days of his life, and into whose provided house and home he had so soon to enter. Such was the aspect in which the dying Jacob looked at God. W. H.

19. The fulness of the nations.** Such he became, when the tribe of Ephraim was the head of the northern kingdom of the ten tribes, representing them all (“the fulness of the nations”) in itself. See the numerous allusions to Ephraim, as not only representing, but mainly constituting, the kingdom of the ten tribes. T. J. C.

21. And then, at the close, comes this simple and pathetic “Behold, I die,” as short and calm as when, after a long interview, we take each other by the hand at parting, and say, We must away. “I die; but God shall be with you.” What a transition, but at the same time what a contrast! I die; but God! The creature of a day, and the Eternal; the child of dust, and the Father of spirits; the departing friend, and the ever-remaining Guide, of whom Jacob at this moment has nothing more to ask for himself, but this alone to assure his successors: “He shall bring you again into the land of your fathers.” Van O.—He left with him the promise of their return out of Egypt, as a sacred trust. Accordingly, Joseph, when he died, left it with his brethren (ch. 50 : 24). This assurance was given them and carefully preserved among them, that they might neither love Egypt too much when it favored them, nor fear it too much when it frowned upon them. These words of Jacob furnish us with comfort in reference to the death of our friends; they die. But God shall be with us, and his gracious presence is sufficient to make up the loss. They leave us, but he will never fail us. He will bring us to the land of our fathers, the heavenly Canaan, whither our godly fathers are gone before us. If God be with us while we stay behind in this world, and will receive us shortly to be with them that are gone before to a better world, we ought not to sorrow as those that have no hope. H.

He died away from the Land of Promise, but he “greeted it from afar,” and on his death-bed reaffirmed his faith that his children would possess it. “God will be with you;” yes, and on the other side of it “he would be with God,” in the true land of promise, the Canaan of the skies; for that, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews assures us, was at the moment in his desire. But what was seen by him only through type becomes a direct object of faith to the Christian. Dying he leaves the Lord with his friends, and goes himself to be with the Lord. So he has calmness and peace. W. M. T.

22. I have given to thee one portion.** There is little doubt but that this rendering is correct. The past tense is used by prophetic anticipation, and the meaning is, “I have assigned to thee one portion of that land, which my descendants are destined to take out of the hands of the Amorites.” The word rendered portion is Shechem, meaning literally “a shoulder,” thence probably a ridge or neck of land, hence here rendered by most versions and commentators “portion.” Shechem, the city of Samaria, was probably named from the fact of its standing thus on a ridge or shoulder of ground. E. H. B.

The accounts given in Scripture are the history, not so much of the intentions of man, as of the plans of God. Especially in the vernal sunshine of patriarchal days, we behold God’s hand, we feel his presence, we admit his agency, at every turn. And all the way through the tangled web of Judaic history, it is Jehovah who is the planner, it is Jehovah who is the hero of the story. Well were it for each of us, if we could transfer this spirit of the Bible to the explanation of our own lives. It would clear up many a day of clouds, and solve many an enigma. J. W. A.

under his especial protection, the descendants of Abraham. Hence their civil and religious history is inseparable. The God of the chosen people is their temporal as well as spiritual sovereign; he is not merely their legislator, but also the administrator of their laws. Their land is his gift, held from him, as from a feudal liege-lord, on certain conditions. He is their leader in war, their counsellor in peace. Their happiness or adversity, national as well as individual, depends solely and immediately on their maintenance or neglect of the divine institu-

tions. Such was the common popular religion of the Jews, as it appears in all their records, in their law, their history, their poetry, and their moral philosophy. Hence, to the mere speculative inquirer, the study of the human race presents no phenomenon so singular as the character of this extraordinary people; to the Christian, no chapter in the history of mankind can be more instructive or important than that which contains the rise, progress, and downfall of his religious ancestors. Milman.