A Help for the Understanding of the Holy Scriptures, Genesis · Chapter 47
CHAP. XLVII.
Verſ. 4. FOr to ſojourn in the land are we come.]
That is, not to ſettle our ſelves here, but onelyonly to ſtay here for a time for our ſuccour and relief in this time of famine; whereby it is evident that the purpoſe of Jacob and his ſonnes was not to leave Canaan, though afterward for Joſephs ſake they continued in Egypt even after the famine was ended: which is the rather to be noted, to diſcover the injuſtice of the following kings of Egypt, who, againſt all laws of hoſpitality, did afterward detain them there by force, and made very bondſlaves of thoſe that onelyonly came at firſt to ſojourn in their land.
Verſ. 9. The dayes of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years.]
Jacob called his life a pilgrimage, not onelyonly with reſpect to his travelling up and down, and living as a ſtranger firſt in Meſopotamia, afterwards in Canaan, now in Egypt; but alſo eſpecially with reſpect unto that heavenly inheritance which is the reſt of Gods people, to which they are ſtill travelling, eſteeming themſelves but pilgrimes here in this world: for ſo it is expreſſely ſaid of the patriarchs, Heb. 11. 13. that they confeſſed themſelves ſtrangers and pilgrimes on the earth, and ſought a better, even an heavenly countrey. As for the age of Jacob here expreſſely made known to Pharaoh, it helps much to the underſtanding of the time of other paſſages of this hiſtory: for Joſeph being now nine and thirty years old when Jacob was an hundred and thirty (for he was thirty years old when he was firſt exalted in Egypt, chap. 41. 46. and ſince that there had been ſeven years of plenty and two years of famine, chap. 45. 6.) it muſt needs follow that Jacob was ninety one when Joſeph was born in the fourteenth year of his ſervice with Laban, and conſequently that he was about ſeventy ſeven when he firſt went down into Meſopotamia, flying from the rage of his brother Eſau.
And have not attained unto the dayes of the years of the life of my fathers, &c.]
For Abraham lived an hundred ſeventy and five years, Gen. 25. 7. And theſe are the dayes of the years of Abrahams life which he lived, an hundred threeſcore and fifteen years, and Iſaac an hundred and foureſcore years, Gen. 35. 28. And the dayes of Iſaac were an hundred and foureſcore years.
Verſ. 15. And when money failed in the land of Egypt, &c.]
This is generally ſpoken, not with relation to each particular man; the Egyptians had for the moſt part ſpent all their money, and ſo were forced to ſell their cattel.
Verſ. 18. They came unto him the ſecond year.]
That is, after their cattel were ſold, which ſeems to have been the ſixth year of the famine.
Verſ. 21. He removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt, &c.]
This may be taken in a double ſenſe: 1. That he removed them from one end of Egypt to the other (that is all the land over) out of their countrey-dwellings into the cities, and ſo by this means, 1. They give up the poſſeſſion of their land to Pharaoh; 2. They are the more commodiouſly nouriſhed out of the kings granaries; 3. The deſolate places of the cities are filled up, and ſo many onelyonly as are neceſſary are ſent out to till the ground, the famine being ceaſed; or elſe (which I rather think) the meaning is onelyonly this, that he tranſplanted them from one town unto another, not leaving them in that which was their own, that ſo it might appear the land was his, and they onelyonly his ſervants.
Verſ. 29. And the time drew nigh that Iſrael muſt die.]
Which he knevv, happely not onelyonly as other men may, by the great decay of his naturall ſtrength, but alſo by ſpeciall revelation from God.
Put I pray thee thy hand under my thigh, &c.]
Concerning this cuſtome of putting the hand under the thigh when an oath vvas taken, ſee the note on Gen. 24. 2. Jacob being near his end made Joſeph ſvvear that he vvould not bury him in Egypt, but carry him into Canaan, not out of a ſuſpicion that Joſeph vvould not do this vvhichwhich he required of him, but 1. that Joſeph might alledge this to Pharaoh, and ſo decline the envie of the Egyptians, vvho might elſe have taken it ill, as if Joſeph had ſcorned and deſpi…ed the land vvherein he had been ſo highly eſteemed and advanced; and 2. eſpecially to ſhevv of vvhat great importance it vvas vvhichwhich he novv r…quired of him, not proceeding from any carnall or ambitious conceits, but from the aſſurance of faith, and to ſtrengthen the faith of his children herein, that God vvould undoubtedly bring them back to Canaan, and give them that land for a poſſeſſion as he had promiſed, and a ſigne of his expectation and deſire of that heavenly inheritance, vvhereof the land of Canaan vvas a type and pledge.
Verſ. 31. And Iſrael bowed himſelf upon the beds head.]
Namely to God, by vvay of thankfulneſſe, both for thoſe promiſes (in the faithfull expectation vvhereof he had deſired to be buried in the land of Canaan) and for this preſent mercy that novv by Joſeph he vvas aſſured that he ſhould be buried in the promiſed land. Novv becauſe he vvas bed-rid through vveakneſſe or age, or at leaſt lying upon his couch, Moſes ſhevveth hovv he bovved himſelf, to vvit, that turning his face to the bed, and ſo rearing himſelf upon the bolſter at his beds head, he then bovved himſelf and vvorſhipped the Lord. And indeed ſuch vvas the zeal of the good ſervants of God in thoſe times, that vvhen they vvere bed-rid, it ſeems they endeavoured in the beſt manner they could vvith ſome devotion and bovving of their bodies to vvorſhip the Lord: for ſo it is ſaid alſo of David vvhen he kept his bed by reaſon of vveakneſſe in his old age, 1. King. 1. 47. that the king bovved himſelf upon his bed. Indeed the Apoſtle renders this place othervviſe, Heb. 11. 21. to vvit, That Jacob when he was a dying worſhipped, leaning upon the top of his ſtaff; and the ground of this difference all Writers conceive to have been this, that the Hebrevv vvord in this place (vvhen the vovvel points are not added) ſignifieth both a bed and a ſtaff, and that the ſeptuagint Greek Tranſlatours making uſe of a copie that had not the vovvel points did miſtake the vvord, and tranſlated this place, And Iſrael bowed himſelf upon the top of his ſtaff, vvhichwhich tranſlation of the Septuagint the Apoſtle follovved in that place of his epiſtle to the Hebrevvs. But vvhereas it may ſeem improbable that the Apoſtle, vvho vvrote by the inſpiration of the holy Ghoſt, ſhould follovv a corrupt tranſlation; to this it is anſvvered, 1. That it is no impeachment to the Apoſtles divine illumination that he ſhould cite a place as it vvas in the Greek tranſlation vvhichwhich the Hebrevvs did moſt commonly uſe in thoſe times, conſidering that even according to that tranſlation it ſerved fitly to the purpoſe for vvhichwhich he alledged it; and 2. That it is true that Jacob, vvhen he raiſed up himſelf upon his pillovv tovvards his beds head that he might bovv …nto the Lord (as is here expreſſed) vvithall the better to help himſelf in his great vveakneſſe, he leaned upon the top of his ſtaff, and the Apoſtle knovving this alſo to be true, did not therefore ſtick to alledge the place according to the Greek tranſlation.