and Ephraim, who of course ranked with those of the sons of Jacob, namely, Machir, the son of Manasseh, and Galeed (Gilead), the son of Machir (2); Sutalaam (Shutelah) and Taam (Tathath), the sons of Ephraim, and Edom, the son of Sutalaam (3), making 5 in all." St. Stephen naturally quotes the LXX., the version commonly used, especially by the Hel lenistic Jews, with whom his discussion began. 40 Thus, instead of any real difficulty, we have in this appar ent difference an example of those undesigned coincidences amid variety, which are among the strongest internal evidences of the truth of Scripture. It is most interesting to compare these numbers with those to which the family of Israel had grown at the Exodus.* 42 § 10. On their arrival in Egypt, Joseph, after a most affecting meeting with his father, presented five of his brethren to Pharaoh; and the king being informed that they were shepherds, a class held in abomination by the Egyptians, gave them for their separate abode the land of Goshen or Rameses, which was the best pasture-ground in all Egypt, and intrusted to them his own flocks, while Joseph supplied them with bread during the remaining five years of famine. That they were tillers of the land, as well as shepherds, is clear from their being employed "in all manner of service in the field" (Exod. i. 14,) and from the allusion of Moses to "Egypt, where thou sowedst thy seed and wateredst it" (Deut. x. 11). Joseph next brought his father before Pharaoh, and the aged patriarch bestowed his blessing on the mighty king. In reply to Pharaoh's inquiry about his age, he said:-"The days of my pilgrimage are 130 years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage." Besides their testimony to the gradual decline of human life, and their affecting allusion to his trials, these words are a memorable example of how the patriarchs "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth," and how "they desired a better country, that is, a heavenly," even the "city" which their God had " pared for them."44 30 Gen. xlvi. 20, IXX. compare 1 Chron. vii. 14, 20. 40 Acts vii. 14. pre 41 Numb. i. See chap. xi. p. 118. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. (A.) FAMINES IN EGYPT. extremities, eating offal, and even their own dead, and mentions, as an instance of the dire straits to which they were driven, that persons who were burnt alive for eating human flesh were themselves, thus ready roasted, eaten by others. Multitudes fled the country, only to perish in the desert-road to Palestine. |great severity, following a deficient rise of the Nile, in the year of the FEGYPT owes all its fertility to its Flight 597 (A.D. 1200), is recorded mighty river, whose annual rise in- by 'Abd-El-Lateef, who was an eyeundates nearly the whole land and witness, and is regarded justly as a renders its cultivation an easy certain- trustworthy authority. He gives a ty. But this very bounty of nature most interesting account of its horhas not unfrequently exposed the rors, states that the people throughout country to the opposite extreme of the country were driven to the last drought. With scarcely any rain, and that only on the Mediterranean coast, and with wells only supplied by filtration from the river through a nitrous soil, a failure in the rise of the Nile almost certainly entails a degree of scarcity. The causes of dearth and famine in Egypt are occasioned by defective inundation,preceded and accompanied and followed by prevalent But the most remarkable famine easterly and southerly winds. Both was that of the reign of the Fátimee these winds dry up the earth, and the Khaleefeh, El-Mustansir-billáh, which latter, keeping back the rain-clouds is the only instance on record of one from the north, are perhaps the chief of seven years' duration in Egypt cause of the defective inundation, as since the time of Joseph (A.H. 457they are also by their accelerating 464, A.D. 1064–1071). This famine the current of the river—the norther- exceeded in severity all others of modly winds producing the contrary ef- ern times. Vehement drought and fects. Famines in Egypt and Pales- pestilence, says a contemporary writtine seem to be effected by drought ex- er, continued for seven consecutive tending from Northern Syria, through years, so that the people ate corpses. the meridian of Egypt, as far as the and animals that died of themselves; highlands of Abyssinia. the cattle perished; a dog was sold The modern history of Egypt throws for 5 deenárs, a cat for 3 deenárs, and 'some curious light on these ancient an ardebb (about 5 bushels) of wheat records of famines; and instances of for 100 deenárs. He adds that all their recurrence may be cited to assist the horses of the Khaleefeh, save us in understanding their course and three, perished, and mentions organThey have not been of very ized bands of kidnappers who infested rare occurrence since the Mohamme- Cairo and caught passengers in the dan conquest, according to the testi- streets by ropes furnished with hooks mony of Arab historians: one of and let down from houses. extent. (B.) THE LAND OF GOSHEN. The reached the Red Sea. At the starting-point two routes lay before them, "the way of the land of the Philistines some of Pharaoh's cattle were kept. The clearest indications of the exact The "land of Goshen," also called position of Goshen are those afforded Goshen simply, appears to have borne by the narrative of the Exodus. another name, "the land of Rameses" Israelites set out from the town of (Gen. xlvii. 11), unless this be the Rameses in the land of Goshen, made name of a district of Goshen. It was two days' journey to "the edge of between Joseph's residence at the the wilderness," and in one day more time and the frontier of Palestine, and apparently the extreme province toward that frontier (Gen. xlvi. 29). Gen. xlvi. 33, 34, shows that Goshen that [was] near," and "the way of was scarcely regarded as a part of the wilderness of the Red Sea" (Ex. Egypt Proper, and was not peopled xiii. 17, 18). From these indications by Egyptians characteristics that we infer that the land of Goshen must would positively indicate a frontier have in part been near the eastern province. The next mention of Go- side of the ancient Delta, Rameses shen confirms the previous inference lying within the valley now called the that its position was between Canaan Wádi-t-Tumeylát, about thirty miles and the Delta (Gen. xlvii. 1, 5, 6, 11). in a direct course from the ancient Goshen was a pastoral country, where western shore of the Arabian Gulf. Egyptian Chief carried in a sort of palanquin, an attendant bearing a parasol behind him. CHAPTER X. THE LAST YEARS OF JACOB AND JOSEPH. A.M. 2298-2369. B.C. 1706-1635. § 1. Jacob's last years-His desire to be buried with his fathers. § 2. His blessing on Joseph and his sons. § 3. His prophetic address to his twelve sons, and their Blessings-i. Reuben-ii. iii. Simeon and Leviiv. Judah-Messianic sense-v. Zebulun-vi. Issachar-vii. Dan-viii. Gad-ix. Asher-x. Naphtali-xi. Joseph-Messianic sense-xii. Benjamin-The twelve tribes now constituted. § 4. Death, embalmment, and burial of Jacob. § 5. Joseph's kindness to his brethren. § 6. Joseph's last prophecy and injunction-His death and burial. § 7. Death and burial of the other patriarchs. § 8. Interval between Jo seph and Moses. § 9. Chronology of the pilgrimage in Canaan and Egypt. 1. THE few remaining years of Jacob's life were spent in tranquillity and abundance. He lived seventeen years in Egypt, and beheld his descendants "multiply exceedingly. The chief record of this period is his prophetic blessing on 1 Gen. xlvii. 27. 991 his sons one of the most important passages in the whole Bible. First, as his end approached, he sent for Joseph, and made him swear that he would not bury him in Egypt, but carry him to the sepulchre of his fathers. There is one point in this passage which must not be passed over. "Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head." An act of worship is certainly intended, doubtless a thanksgiving to God for the peaceful close of his troubled life, and for the assurance of being soon gathered to his fathers." 66 Whether in this act Jacob bent his head reverently as he raised himself on his bed, or whether he supported himself on the head of his bedstead, as in the next chapter (v. 2), or on the top of that shepherd's staff," which he had carried all his life," is in itself of little consequence. But the last, and probably the most natural interpretation, which is that given by the LXX., and followed by St. Paul, has been strangely perverted. The Vulgate, which in Genesis has adoravit Deum conversus ad lectuli caput, translates the passage in the Hebrews adoravit fastigium virga ejus (for έπì Tò акрov Tñs páßdov avτoũ), worshiped the top of his staff; and the text is cited as an authority for image worship! 5 He § 2. Soon after this, Joseph heard that his father was sick; and he went to visit him with his sons, Manasseh and Ephra im. The dying patriarch blessed Joseph and his sons, in the name of the "God, before whom his fathers Abraham and Isaac had walked, the God who had fed him all his life long, the Angel who had redeemed him from all evil.” claimed Ephraim and Manasseh for his own, placing them even before Reuben and Simeon, whose lust and violence had forfeited their birthright; and henceforth they were numbered among the heads of the tribes of Israel. Throughout the whole scene, he gave Ephraim the precedence over Manasseh; and, though unable to see, he crossed his hands, disregarding Joseph's opposition; so that in blessing them his right hand was on Ephraim's head, and his left on Manasseh's. Thus was added one more lesson of God's sovereign choice to the examples of Abel, Shem, Abram, Isaac, and himself, who were all younger sons. He foretold for them a prosperity which would make them the envy of the other tribes of Israel; and he ended by giving Joseph an extra portion above his brethren, thus marking him as his heir, in respect of property; for the royal power was given to Judah, and the priesthood was 2 Gen. xlvii. 29-31. 3 Gen. xxxii. 10. * Heb. xi. 21. Gen. xlviii. |