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at the same time with so much discernment of their respective ages.

Verse 34. Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs.] Sir John Chardin observes that "in Persia, Arabia, and the Indies, there are several houses where they place several plates in large salvers, and set one of these before each person, or before two or three, according to the magnificence of each house. This is the method among the Hindoos; the dishes are not placed on the table, but messes are sent to each individual by the master of the feast or by his substitute. The great men of the state are always served by themselves, in the feasts that are made for them; and with greater profusion, their part of each kind of provision being always double, treble, or a LARGER proportion of each kind of meat." The circumstance of Benjamin's having a mess FIVE times as large as any of his brethren, shows the peculiar honour which Joseph designed to confer. upon him. Sec several useful observations on this subject in Harmer's Observ., vol. ii., p. 101, &c., Edit. 1808.

into Benjamin's sack.

1. THE scarcity in Canaan was not absolute; though they had no corn, they had honey, nuts, almonds, &c. In the midst of judgment, God remembers mercy. If there was scarcity in Canaan, there was plenty in Egypt; and though his providence had denied one country corn, and accumulated it in the other, his bounty had placed in the former money .enough to procure it from the latter. How true is the saying, "It is never ill with any but it might be worse!" Let us be deeply thankful to God that we have any thing, seeing we deserve no good åt his hands.

2. If we examine our circumstances closely, and call to remembrance the dealings of God's providence towards us, we shall find that we can sing much both of mercy and of judgment. For one day of absolute unavoidable want, we shall find we had three hundred and sixty-four, if not of fulness, yet of a competency. Famines, though rarely happening, are everywhere recorded; innumerable years of abundance are scarcely ever registered! Such is the perverseness and ingratitude of man!

CHAPTER XLIV.

Joseph commands his steward to put his cup secretly into Benjamin's sack, 1, 2. The sons of Jacob depart with the corn they had purchased, 3. Joseph commands his steward to pursue them, and charge them with having stolen his cup, 4–6. The brethren excuse themselves, protest their innocence, and offer to submit to be slaves should the cup be found with any of them, 7-9. Search is made, and the cup is found in Benjamin's sack, 10-12. They are brought back and submit themselves to Joseph, 13-16. He determines that Benjamin alone, with whom the cup is found, shall remain in captivity, 17. Judah, in a most affecting speech, pleads for Benjamin's enlargement, and offers himself to be a bondman in his stead, 18-34. 4 And when they were gone out A. M. 2297. of the city, and not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward, Up, follow after the men and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?.

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A. M. 2207. AND he commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth;

2 And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did according to the word

that Joseph had spoken.

3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses.

a Heb. him that was over his house.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLIV. Verse 2. Put my cup-in the sack's mouth of the youngest] The stratagem of the cup seems to have been designed to bring Joseph's brethren into the highest state of perplexity and distress, that their deliverance by the discovery that Joseph was their brother might have its highest effect.

Verse 5. Whereby he divineth?] Divination by cups has been from time immemorial prevalent among the Asiatics; and for want of knowing this, commentators have spent a profusion of learned labour upon these words, in order to reduce them to that kind of meaning which would at once be consistent with the scope and design of the history, and save

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5 Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? ye have done evil in so doing.

6 And he overtook them, and he spake unto them these same words."

b Or, maketh trial. Joseph from the impeachment of sorcery and divination. I take the word w nachash here in its general acceptation of to view attentively, to inquire. Now there, has been in the east a tradition, the commencement of which is lost in immemorial time, that there was a cup, which had passed successively into the hands of different potentates, which possessed the and all the things which were then doing in it. The strange property of representing in it the whole world, cup is called jami Jemsheed, the cup of Jemsheed, a very ancient king of Persia, whom late historians and poets have confounded with Bacchus, Solomon, Alexander the Great, &c. This cup, filled with the elixir of immortality, they say was discovered

The embarrassed situation

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CHAP. XLIV.

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of Joseph's brethren. A. M. 2297. And they said unto him, Where- 13 Then they rent their clothes, A. M. 2297. fore saith my lord these words? and laded every man his ass, and God forbid that thy servants should do accord- returned to the city.. ing to this thing:

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14 And Judah and his brethren came to 8 Behold, the money, which we found in Joseph's house; for he was yet there and our sacks' mouths, we brought again unto thee they fell before him on the ground. out of the land of Canaan: how then should '15 And Joseph said unto them, What deed we steal out of thy lord's house silver or gold? is this that ye have done? wot ye not that 9 With whomsoever of thy servants it be such a man as I can certainly divine? found, both let him die, and we also will be 16 And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord's bondmen.. my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, h we are my lord's servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found.

10 And he said, Now also let it be according unto your words: he, with whom it is found, shall be my servant; and ye shall be blameless..

11 Then they speedily took down every man his sack to the ground, and opened every man his sack.

12 And he searched, and began at the eldest, and left at the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.

Chap. xliii. 21.

17 And he said, God forbid that. I should do so: but the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant; and, as for you, get you up in peace unto your father.

18 Then Judah came near unto him, and said, O, my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, Or, make trial; verse 5.i Prov. xvii. 15.

d Chap. xxxi. 32. Chap. xxxvii. 29, 34; Chap. xxxvii. 7. Num. xiv. 6; 2 Sam. i. 11. when digging to lay the foundations of Persepolis. The Persian poets are full of allusions to this cup, which, from its property of representing the whole world and its transactions, is styled by them

jam jehan nima, "the cup showing the universe;" and to the intelligence received by means of it they attribute the great prosperity of their ancient monarchs, as by it. they understood all events, past, present, and to come. Many of the Mohammedan princes and governors affect still to have information of futurity by means of a cup. When Mr. Norden was at Derri in the farthest part of Egypt, in a very dangerous situation, an ill-natured and powerful Arab, in a threatening way, told one of their people whom they sent to him that "he knew what sort of people they were, for he had consulted his cup, and found by it that they were those of whom one of their prophets had said, that Franks (Europeans) would come in disguise; and, passing everywhere, examine the state of the country; and afterwards bring over a great number of other Franks, conquer the country, and exterminate all." By this we see that the tradition of the divining cup still exists, and in the very same country too in which Joseph formerly ruled, Now though it is not at all likely that Joseph practised any kind of divination, yet probably, according to the superstition of those times, (for I suppose the tradition to be even older than the time of Joseph,) supernatural influence might be attributed to his cup; and as the whole transaction related here was merely intended to deceive his brethren for a short time, he might as well affect divination by his cup, as he affected to believe they had stolen it. The steward therefore uses the word nachash in its proper meaning: Is not this it out of which my lord drinketh, and in which he inspecteth accurately? ver. 5. And hence

Verse 9.

Joseph says, ver. 15: Wot ye not-did ye not know, that such a person as I (having such a cup) would accurately and attentively look into it? As I consider this to be the true meaning, I shall not trouble. the reader with other modes of interpretation.

Verse 16. What shall we say, &c.] No words.can more strongly mark confusion and perturbation of mind. They, no doubt, all thought that Benjamin had actually stolen the cup; and the probability of this guilt might be heightened by the circumstance of his having that very cup to drink out of at dinner; for as he had the most honourable mess, so it is likely he had the most honourable cup to drink out of at the entertainment.

Verse 18. Thou art even as Pharaoh.] As wise, as powerful, and as much to be dreaded as he. In the Asiatic countries, the reigning monarch is always considered to be the pattern of all perfection; and the highest honour that can be conferred on any person, is to resemble him to the monarch; as the monarch himself is likened, in the same complimentary way, to an angel of God. See 2 Sam. xiv. 17, 18. Judah is the chief speaker here, because it was in consequence of his becoming surety for Benjamin that Jacob permitted him to accompany them to Egypt. See chap. xliii. 9.

"EVERY man who reads," says Dr. Dodd, "to the close of this chapter, must confess that Judah acts here the part both of the affectionate brother and of the dutiful son, who, rather than behold his father's misery in case of Benjamin's being left behind, submits to become a bondman in his stead: and indeed there is such an air of candour and generosity running through the whole strain of this speech, the sentiments are so tender and affecting, the expressions so passionate, and flow so much from artless nature, that it is no wonder if they

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19 My lord asked his servants, saying, Have said, a Surely he is torn in pieces: and I saw ye a father, or a brother? him not since :

20 And we said unto my lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him.

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29 And if ye take this also from me, and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

30 Now therefore, when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us;

21. And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring (seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's him down unto me, that I may set mine eyes life ;) upon him.

22 And we said unto my lord, The lad cannot leave his father: for if he should leave his father, his father would die.

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23 And thou saidst unto thy servants, Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more.

24 And it came to pass when we came up unto thy servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

25 And our father said, Go again, and buy us a little food.

26 And we said, We cannot go down: if our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down for we may not see the man's face, except our youngest brother be with us.

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31 It shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die; and thy servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to the grave.

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32 For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever.

33 Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad, a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren.

34 For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall Y come on my father.

Chap. xlii. 36, 38. 1 Sam. xviii. 1.- Chap. xliii. 9. "Exod. xxxii. 32. Heb. find my father; Exod. xviii. 8; Job xxxi. 29; Psa. cxvi. 3; cxix. 143.

To two such able and accurate testimonies I may be permitted to add my own. No paraphrase can heighten the effect of Judah's address to Joseph. To add would be to diminish its excellence; to attempt to explain would be to obscure its beauties; to clothe the ideas

came home to Joseph's heart, and forced him to throw off the mask." "When one sees," says Dr. Jackson, "such passages related by men who affect no art, and who lived long after the parties who first uttered them, we cannot conceive how all particulars could be so naturally and fully recorded, unless they had been sug-in other language than that of Judah, and his translagested by His Spirit who gives mouths and speech unto men; who, being alike present to all successions, is able to communicate the secret thoughts of forefathers to their children, and put the very words of the deceased, never registered before, into the mouths or pens of their successors born many ages after; and that as exactly and distinctly as if they had been caught, in characters of steel or brass, as they issued out of their mouths. For it is plain that every circumstance is here related with such natural specifications, as if Moses had heard them talk; and therefore could not have been thus represented to us, unless they had been written by His direction who knows all things, fore-past, present, or to come."

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tors in our Bible, would ruin its energy, and destroy its influence. It is perhaps one of the most tender, affecting pieces of natural oratory ever spoken or penned; and we need not wonder to find that when Joseph heard it he could not refrain himself, but wept aloud. His soul must have been insensible beyond what is common to human nature, had he not immediately yielded to a speech so delicately tender, and so powerfully impressive. We cannot but deplore the unnatural and unscientific division of the narrative in our common Bibles, which obliges us to have recourse to another chapter in order to witness the effects which this speech produced on the heart of Joseph.

Joseph, deeply affected, makes

CHAP. XLV.

himself known to his brethren.

CHAPTER XLV.

Joseph, deeply affected with the speech of Judah, could no longer conceal himself, but discovers himself to his brethren, 1-4. Excuses their conduct towards him, and attributes the whole to the providence of God, 5–8. Orders them to hasten to Canaan, and bring up their father and their own families, cattle, &c., because there were five years of the famine yet to come, 9-13. He embraces and converses with all his brethren, 14, 15. Pharaoh, hearing that Joseph's brethren were come to Egypt, and that Joseph had desired them to return to Canaan and bring back their families, not only confirms the order, but promises them the best part of the land of Egypt to dwell in; and provides them carriages to transport themselves and their households, 16-20. Joseph provides them with wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh; and having given them various presents, sends them away with suitable advice, 21-24. They depart, arrive in Canaan, and announce the glad tidings to their father, who for a time believes not, but being assured of the truth of their relation, is greatly comforted, and resolves to visit Egypt, 25-28.

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THEN Joseph could not refrain | brethren could not answer him; A. M. 2207 himself before all them that for they were c troubled at his stood by him; and he cried, Cause every presence. man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.

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4 And Joseph, said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother,

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2 And he wept aloud and the Egyptians whom ye sold into Egypt. and the house of Pharaoh heard.

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5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

Heb. gave forth his voice in weeping; Num. xiv. 1. vii. 13. Or, terrified; Job iv. 5; xxiii. 15; Matt. xiv. 26; your eyes. Mark vi. 50. 4 Chap. xxxvii. 28.

NOTES ON CHAP. XLV. Verse 1. Joseph could not refrain himself] The word pas hithappek is very emphatic; it signifies to force one's self, to do something against nature, to do violence to one's self. Joseph could no longer constrain himself to act a feigned part-all the brother and the son rose up in him at once, and overpowered all his resolutions; he felt for his father, he realized his disappointment and agony; and he felt for his brethren, "now at his feet submissive in distress ;" and, that he might give free and full scope to his feelings, and the most ample play to the workings of his affectionate heart, he ordered all his attendants to go out, while he made himself known to his brethren, The beauties of this chapter," says Dr. Dodd, “are so striking, that it would be an indignity to the reader's judgment to point them out; all who can read and feel must be sensible of them, as there is perhaps nothing in sacred or profane history more highly wrought up, more interesting or affecting."

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Verse 2. The Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.] It seems strange that Joseph should have wept so loud that his cries should be heard at some considerable distance, as we may suppose his dwelling was not very nigh to the palace! "But this," says Sir John Chardin, "is exactly the genius of the people of Asia-their sentiments of joy or grief are properly transports, and their transports are ungoverned, excessive, and truly outrageous. When any one returns from a long journey, or dies, his family burst into cries that may be heard twenty doors off; and this is renewed at different times, and continues many days, according to the vigour of the passion. Sometimes

* Isa. xl. 2; 2 Cor. ii. 7.-Heb. neither let there be anger in Chap. I. 20; Psa. cv. 16, 17; see 2 Sam. xvi. 10, 11; Acts iv. 24. they cease all at once, and then begin as suddenly, with a greater shrillness and loudness than one could easily imagine." This circumstance Sir John brings to illustrate the verse in question. See Harmer, vol. iii. p. 17. But the house of Pharaoh may certainly signify Pharaoh's servants, or any of the members of his household, such as those whom Joseph had desired to withdraw, and who might still be within hearing of his voice. After all, the words may only mean that the report was brought to Pharaoh's house. See ver. 16.

Verse 3. I am Joseph] Mr. Pope supposed that the discovery of Ulysses to his son Telemachus bears some resemblance to Joseph's discovery of himself to his brethren. The passage may be seen in Homer, Odyss. 1. xvi., ver. 186-218,

A few lines from Cowper's translation will show much of the spirit of the original, and also a consider able analogy between the two scenes:

"I am thy father, for whose sake thou lead'st
A life of wo by violence oppress'd.

So saying, he kiss'd his son; while from his cheeks
Tears trickled, tears till then perforce restrain'd.
Then threw Telemachus

His arms around his father's neck, and wept.
Pangs of soft sorrow, not to be suppress'd,
Seized both.-

So they, their cheeks with big round drops of wo
Bedewing, stood."

Verse 5. Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves] This discovers a truly noble mind; he not only forgives and forgets, but he wishes even those who had wronged him to forget the injury they had done, that

Joseph directs his brethren

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GENESIS.

A. M. 2297. 6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land; and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.

7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me i a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt..

9 Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not.

10 And thou shalt dwell in the land of Heb. to put for you a remnant.- iCh. xli. 43; Judg. xvii. 10; they might not suffer distress on the account; and with deep piety he attributes the whole to the providence of God; for, says he, God did send me before you to preserve life. On every word here a strong emphasis may be laid. It is not you, but God; it is not you that sold me, but God who sent me; Egypt and Canaan must both have perished, had not a merciful provision been made; you were to come down hither, and God sent me before you; death must have been the consequence of this famine, had not God sent me here to preserve life.

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to bring their father to him. Goshen, and thou shalt be near A. M. 2297. unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast :

11 And there will I nourish thee; (for yet. there are five years of famine;) lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.

12 And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you.

13 And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither..

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Acts vii. 14.

14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's Job xxix. 16.- Ch. xlvii. 1. Ch. xlii. 23.with me, and be unto me a FATHER and a priest. And Diodorus Siculus remarks that the teachers and counsellors of the kings of Egypt were chosen out of the priesthood:

Verse 10. Thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen】 Probably this district had been allotted to Joseph by the king of Egypt, else we can scarcely think he could have promised it so positively, without first obtaining Pharaoh's consent. Goshen was the most easterly province of Lower Egypt, not far from the Arabian Gulf, lying next to Canaan, (for Jacob went directly thither when he came into Egypt,) from whence it is supposed to have been about fourscore miles distant, though Hebron was distant from the Egyptian capital about three hundred miles. At Goshen, Jacob stayed till Joseph visited him, chap. xlvi. 28. It is also called the land of Rameses, chap. xlvii. 11, from a city of that name, which was the metropolis of the country. Josephus, Antiq., k ii., c. 4, makes Heliopolis, the city of Joseph's father-in-law, the place of the Israelites'

Verse 6. There shall neither be earing nor harvest.] EARING has been supposed to mean collecting the ears of corn, which would confound it with harvest: the word, however, means ploughing or seed-time, from the Anglo-Saxon epian erian, probably borrowed from the Latin aro, to plough, and plainly means that there should be no seed-time, and consequently no harvest; and why? Because there should be a total want of rain in other countries, and the Nile should not rise above twelve cubits in Egypt; see on chap. xli. 31. But the ex-residence. As D geshem signifies rain in Hebrew, pressions. here must be qualified a little, as we find from chap. xlvii. 19, that the Egyptians came to Joseph to buy seed; and it is probable that even during this famine they sowed some of the ground, particularly on the borders of the river, from which a crop, though not an abundant one, might be produced. The passage, however, in the above chapter may refer to the last year of the famine, when they came to procure seed for the ensuing year.

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St. Jerome and some others have supposed that Goshen comes from the same root, and that the land in question was called thus because it had rain, which was not the case with Egypt in general; and as it was on the confines of the Arabian Gulf, it is very probable that it was watered from heaven, and it might be owing to this circumstance, that it was peculiarly fertile, for it is stated to be the best of the land of Egypt. See chap. xlvii. 6, 11. See also Calmet and Dodd.

Verse 12. That it is my mouth that speaketh unto you.] The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel renders the place thus :-"Your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my own mouth that speaketh with you; in the language of the house of the sanctuary." Undoubtedly Joseph laid considerable stress on his speaking with them in the Hebrew tongue, without the assistance of an interpreter, as in the case mentioned chap. xlii. 23.

. Verse 8. He hath made me a father to Pharaoh] It has already been conjectured that father was a name of office in Egypt, and that father of Pharaoh might among them signify the same as prime minister or the king's minister does among us. Calmet has remarked that among the Phoenicians, Persians, Arabians, and Romans, the title of father was given to certain officers of state. The Roman emperors gave the name of father to the prefects of the Prætorium, as appears by the letters of Constantine to Ablavius. The caliphs Verse 14. He fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck] gave the same name to their prime ministers. In Among the Asiatics kissing the beard, the neck, and Judges xvii. 10, Micah says to the young Levite, Dwell | the shoulders, is in use to the present day; and probably

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