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A. M. 2276. A. C. 1728; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3548. A. C. 1863. GEN. CH. xxxvii,TO THE END.

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their cattle, their houses, their lands, and at length, their very selves, for provisions. All these Joseph purchased of the people in the king's name, and for the king's use; and to let them see that the purchase was in earnest, and that their liberties and properties were now become the king's, he transplanted them from their former places of abode, into distant and different parts of the

With this caution he took five of his brothers along with him; and having informed Pharaoh that his father and family were come as far as Goshen, he presented his brothers to the king, who for his sake received them very graciously; and when he asked them what profession they were of, they told him that they were shepherds, as their family for many generations had been; that want of pasture for their cattle, and of sustenance for them-kingdom, that they might in time lose the very rememselves, had made them leave Canaan; but that since, as they understood, his majesty had been so hospitable, as to give them reception in his dominions, they humbly prayed, that they might be allowed to settle in Goshen, as a country most convenient for their purpose: which he readily granted, and offered moreover to make any one of them, whom Joseph should appoint, his royal shepherd.

Not long after this, Joseph, in like manner, presented his father to Pharaoh, who seeing him look very hale and hearty, and desiring to know of what age he might be, was informed by Jacob, that he was a an hundred and thirty; which, when the king seemed to wonder at, he told him moreover, that his life was not as yet, near so long as that of some of his ancestors, because his fate had been to have too large a share of troubles and fatigues to harass and wear him out; and so, wishing his majesty abundance of health and prosperity, he returned to Goshen, where Joseph took care to supply him, and all his family, with such a plentiful provision of corn, and other necessaries, from the king's storehouses, as in the time of the greatest scarceness made him insensible of any want.

But while Jacob and his family lived in plenty, the Egyptians found the sad effects of the famine, which increased daily upon them, and Joseph holding up his corn at a high rate, in a short time brought all their money into the king's coffers; and when their money was gone, they were all, except the priests, who were furnished from the king's stores, obliged to part with

instructed his brothers to have concealed their way or business of life; or if he was aware that they would follow the same in Egypt that they had done in Canaan, he might nevertheless have put into their mouths the high dignity of their descent, and the wonderful history of their family, namely, that Abraham was their great-grandfather, a prince renowned for his defeat of four confederate monarchs; that Isaac was their grandfather, whose amity and alliance had been courted by kings; and that Israel was their father, who once gained a victory even over a mighty prince of the celestial host; all great men in their generations, and dignified with the conversation of God himself. This, and a great deal more, had Joseph been minded to serve the purposes of vanity, he might have suggested to his brethren; but by this open declaration, we may perceive, that his pleasure and ambition was, that the wonderful chain of the divine measures and counsels, in bringing him from an humble condition of life, to such a sublimity of power and figure, might be as conspicuous as possible.-Poole's Annotations, Patrick's Commentary, and Bibliotheca Biblica in locum.

a Pharaoh's question to Jacob, and Jacob's answer, we may suppose, were not all the discourse that passed between them, but only what most deserved to be mentioned; because as the learned Pererius observes this answer of Jacob's is the very hinge upon which the whole chronology of the patriarchal times turns. The same excellent commentator remarks, that though Jacob lived seventeen years after this, yet, even at last, he did not attain to the days of the years of the life of his father,' since his father Isaac lived an hundred and fourscore years, and his grandfather Abraham to an hundred and seventy-five.-Bibliotheca

Biblica.

brance of their ancient possessions. c

This, in another person, might have been thought an immoderate zeal for an absolute power in the king, and an advantage unjustly taken of the necessities of the subject; but Joseph so managed the matter as to gain the commendation of both prince and people; for when the seventh and last year of famine was come, he acquainted them that they might now expect a crop against next year; that the Nile would overflow, and the earth would bring forth her fruits as usual. Hereupon he distributed fresh lands, cattle and corn to them, that they might return to their tillage as before; but upon this condition he did it, that from thenceforth the fifth part of all the product of their lands should go to the king, and the rest be theirs. To these conditions the people willingly consented, as imputing the preservation of their lives entirely to Joseph's care; and from that time it passed into a law, that the fifth part of the product of the land of Egypt should always belong to the crown.

While Joseph was enjoying the fruits of his great success and policy, his family at Goshen, which he failed not frequently to visit, became very wealthy, and very numerous, till at length his father Jacob, finding himself grow old and feeble, and perceiving that his latter end was near approaching, sent for him, and to this purpose addressed himself to him: "Though the desire of seeing a son, so dear to me as you are, raised to the height of Egyptian glory, joined to the raging famine which then visited our land, made me willingly come down into this strange country; yet Canaan being the inheritance which God promised to Abraham and his posterity, and where he lies interred with my father Isaac, and some others of our family, in the ground which he purchased of the inhabitants for that purpose; my last, and dying request to you is, d that you will not suffer me to be

6 When the Egyptians were driven to this last extremity, in our translation it is said to be in the second year;' but this must not be understood to be the second year of the seven years of famine, but the second after that last mentioned, wherein they had sold their cattle, which was in reality the last year of the famine; because he now gave them corn for seed, as well as for food; whereas in the first years, there was neither sowing nor reaping. Gen. xlv. 6.-Poole's Annotations.

c See note on this subject in the following chapter.-ED. d Though there be something of a natural desire in most men to be buried in the places where their ancestors lie; yet Jacob's aversion to have his remains deposited in Egypt seems to be more earnest than ordinary, or otherwise he would never have imposed an oath upon his sons, and charged them all with his dying breath, not to suffer it to be done. For he very well knew, that had his body been buried in Egypt, his posterity, upon that very account, would have been too much wedded to the country, ever to attempt the acquisition of the promised land; and therefore, to wean them from the thoughts of continu ing in Egypt, and fix their minds and affections in Canaan, be ordered his body to be carried thither beforehand, in testimony that he died in full persuasion of the truth of the promises which were given to him and his ancestors: nor was it inconvenient,

A. M. 2276. A. C. 1728; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3548. A. C. 1863. GEN. CH. xxxvii. TO THE END.

Your great power with the king will easily obtain that favour, which is the last I have to ask." Joseph was not long before he gave his father a satisfactory answer. He promised, and he swore to him, that he would fulfil his desire, which pleased the good old man to that degree, that a he bowed, and made his acknowledgment for this kind

baried here, but swear to see me carried to Machpelah, |"How tenderly I loved her," continued he, "all my and there deposited with my ancestors. family can testify; but this farther proof I design to give you of my affection to her. You have two sons born in a foreign country, and who, according to the usual order of inheritance, should have only the portion of grandchildren, in the division of the promised land; but from this day forward, they shall be called by my name, be esteemed my sons, and as heads of two distinct tribes (for they shall not be called the tribe of Joseph, but the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh) receive a double portion in that allotment. But it must not be so with the other sons which you beget after these: they come in only for the portion of grandchildren: and to you in particular, I bequeath that tract of ground, which, by force of arms, I took from the Amorites, that it may descend to your tribe for ever."

assurance.

Joseph, who could not be long absent from court, took his leave of his father, but not without giving strict charge to some of the family, that upon the very first appearance of danger, they should immediately send for him. Accordingly, as soon as word was brought him, that his father was a dying, he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim with him, and went to visit him; who when he heard that his favourite son was come, summoned all his spirits together, and was so far revived as to be able to sit up in his bed.

Here he began with recapitulating all the glorious promises which God had formerly made him, concerning his numerous posterity's inhabiting the land of Canaan, and concluded with the death of his dear Rachel.

that future generations, after their return to Canaan, should have before their eyes the sepulchre of their forefathers, for a record of their virtues, and an incitement to the imitation of them. But the strongest motive of all for Jacob's desiring to be buried in Canaan, supposing that he foreknew that our Saviour Christ was to live and die, and with some others, rise again in that country, was, that he might be one of that blessed number; as it was indeed an ancient tradition in the church, that among those who came out of their graves after our Lord's resurrection,' Matth. xxvii, 53, the patriarch Jacob was one.-Poole's Annotations, and Bibliotheca Biblica.

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a The words in our translation are, he bowed himself upon the bed's head,' (Gen. xlvii. 31,) where some expositors, presuming, that his bowing was a religious action, will by no means have it directed to Joseph, but to God only, for the assurance which Joseph had given him, that he should be buried according to his desire. But if the word must be translated bowed,' there is no necessity to make it an act of adoration, but only a common form of civility, wherewith the father might comply, without any diminution to his superiority over his son. What led these expositors into this conception, was the version of the Septuagint, and the words of the apostle to the Hebrews, where Jacob is said, in allusion, as they suppose, to this passage, to have worshipped on the top of his staff,' Heb. xi. 21. But the plain truth is, that the apostle here speaks of another thing, not of what Jacob did now, when Joseph swore unto him, but of what he did when he blessed his other children. In the former case, he seems to have kept his bed; but in the latter, to have received fresh spirits, and sat upon it, though leaning perhaps upon his staff.' So that the apostle's words are not taken from those of Moses, but are a reflection of his own, whereby he signifies the strength of Jacob's faith, even when he was so weak as not to be able to bow himself and worship, without the help of his staff. This clearly removes the difficulty, and reconciles Moses and the apostle very perfectly. But there seems to be a more compendious way of doing this; for since the word Shacah, which signifies to bow the body, may, in like manner, be rendered to lie or fall down, the most easy translation seems to be, he laid himself down upon his pillow, as weak men are wont to do, after they have sat up a while, to despatch some business.-Patrick's and Le Clerc's Commentary.

Since Jacob had so strictly insisted upon his being buried with his fathers, and bound Joseph with an oath to see it done, it was proper for him to explain and clear himself, as to what might be secretly objected to his not interring Rachel, Joseph's own mother, and his best beloved consort, in that burying-place, where he so earnestly desired to lie himself; and for his excuse in this respect he had two things to offer: 1st, That he was then upon his journey, and in his return from Padan; and, 2dly, That he had erected a monumental pillar upon her grave, in a very public

All this while Jacob, whose sight was very much decayed, talked to his son concerning his children, as if they had been absent; but when he perceived that they were in the room, he rejoiced not a little, and ordered them to be brought near him. Joseph placed them in a position according to the order of their age, to receive | his father's blessing; but Jacob, crossing his hands, laid his right, which carried with it the preference, upon the younger, and his left upon the elder of them; which and frequented place: to which a right reverend commentator has added a further apology,-That, as she died in childbed, and Jacob in his travels might not have all things necessary to preserve her body long, he was constrained to bury her sooner perhaps than otherwise he would have done,-Patrick's Commentary, and Bibliotheca Biblica in locum.

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c Gen. xlviii. 14. And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head.' Imposition of hands was a Jewish ceremony, introduced, not by any divine authority, but by custom: it being the practice among these people, whenever they prayed to God for any person, to lay their hand on his head, Our Saviour observed the same custom, both when he conferred his blessing on children, and when he healed the sick, adding prayer to the ceremony. The apostles likewise laid hands upon those upon whom they bestowed the Holy Ghost. The priests observed the same custom when any one was received into their body. And the apostles themselves underwent the imposition of hands afresh every time they entered upon any new design. In the ancient church imposition of hands was even practised upon persons when they married, which custom the Abyssinians still observe. The ceremony of the imposition of hands on the head of the victim, has been usually considered, in the case of piacular sacrifices, as a symbolical translation of the sins of the offender upon the head of the sacrifice; and as a mode of deprecating the evil due to his transgressions. So we find it represented by Abarbinel, in the introduction to his commentary on Leviticus, (De Viel, p. 301,) and so the ceremony of the scape-goat, in Levit. xvi. 21, seems directly to assert. And it is certain that the practice of imprecating on the head of the victim, the evils which the sacrificer wished to avert from himself, was usual amongst the heathen, as appears particularly from Herodotus, (b. ii. c. 39.) who relates this of the Egyptians, and at the same time asserts that no Egyptian would so much as taste the head of any animal, but under the influence of this religious custom, flung it into the river. Confession of sin was always connected with piacular sacrifices. (Levit. v. 5.; xvi. 21.; Numb. v. 7.) The particular forms of confession used in the different kinds of piacular sacrifices are handed down to us by the Jewish writers, and are given by Outram, (De Sacr. b. 1. c. 15, 10, 11.) The form prescribed for the individual presenting his own sacrifice, seems particularly significant. "O God, I have sinned, I have done perversely, I have trespassed before thee, and have done so and so. Lo, now I repent, and am truly sorry for my misdeeds. Let then this victim be my expiation.' These last words were accompanied by the action of laying hands on the victim; and were considered by the Jews as equivalent to this, "Let the evils which in justice should have fallen on my head, light upon the

A. M. 2276. A. C. 1728; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3548. A. C. 1863. GEN. CH. xxxvii. TO THE END.

Joseph supposing to proceed from a mistake, he was going to rectify, but was told by his father, that what he did was by divine direction, and so made Ephraim not only the first in nomination, but gave him a blessing much more extensive than what he gave his brother.

By this time Jacob, finding himself grow faint, and the hour of his departure near approaching, called the rest of his sons together, to take his farewell of them, and distribute his blessing, or rather to foretell what should befall them and their posterity in future ages: and so directing his speech to them severally, he began with Reuben the eldest, and told him,-That for the crime of incest, in polluting his father's bed, he and his tribe were degraded a from the privileges of his birthright. He told Simeon and Levi, whom he joined together upon this occasion, that for their impious massacre of Hamor and his people, their tribes should for ever be separated and dispersed among the other; but then turning to Judah, he prophesied of him, that to his tribe should the sovereignty belong, e and they be d situated in a very fruitful country; that from his name head of this victim."-See Outram De Sacr. b. 1. c. 22. 5, 6, 9. Magee on Atonement and Sacrifice, vol. 1. p. 341.

b

a The prerogatives of the birthright consisted chiefly in the honour of the priesthood, in the rule and government of the family, and in a double portion of the inheritance, which at this time were all taken away from Reuben, and divided severally; since it appears, in the sequel of the history, that the tribe of Reuben continued all along in obscurity, while the priesthood was conferred on Levi, the government on Judah, and the double portion on Joseph, to descend to their respective tribes.-Howell's History of the Bible.

b Jacob's words, in this place, may imply a double dispersion, namely, of the two tribes from each other; and of their being interspersed among the rest: and accordingly that of Levi had no inheritance among his brethren in the land of Canaan, but only a certain number of cities assigned to them in every tribe. And as for that of Simeon, they had properly no more than a portion of Judah's inheritance, (Josh. xix. 1.) if we except some few places which they got upon mount Seir, and in the wilds of the valley of Gedor, 1 Chron. vi. 39, &c.—Universal History,

b. 1. c. 7.

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should the whole nation of the Jews derive their appellation; and that the form of government which he then instituted, should endure among them until the Messiah came. e Of Zebulun he foretold that his tribe should be planted near the sea-coasts; and of g Issachar, that his should prove a pusillanimous people, and be lovers of inglorious ease, more than of liberty and renown. From Leah's sons the patriarch passes to those of his two concubinary wives; and of Dan's posterity he foretells, that though they were descended from an handmaid, yet they should have the same privileges with the other tribes, should become a politic people, and greatly versed in the stratagems of war; of Gad's, that they should be frequently infested with robbers, but overcome them at last; of Asher's, that they should be situated in a fruitful and exuberantly rich soil; and of Naphtali's, that they should spread their branches like an oak, and multiply exceedingly.

along whose banks were the most delicious pasture-grounds for cattle; and, as modern travellers tell us, here are very large grapes still to be met with, especially in the valley of Hebron, which in all probability is that through which this torrent runs-Poole's Annotations, Bibliotheca Biblica, and Universal History, b. 1. c. 7.

e Gen. xlix. 10. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah.' Sceptres, or staves of some kind or other, have been among almost all nations the ensigns of civil authority, as they are to this day, being in themselves very proper emblems of power extended, or acting at a distance from the person. Achilles, who was the chief of a Grecian tribe or clan, is described in Homer as holding a sceptre or staff, which

The delegates of Jove, dispensing laws,

Bear in their hands.

This remarkable prophecy fixes the date of the Saviour's coming, which was not to exceed the time that the descendants of Judah were to continue an united people,-that a king should rule over them-that they should be governed by their own laws, and that their judges were to be from among their brethren.-ED. f Had Jacob been present at the division of the land of Canaan he could hardly have given a more exact description of Zebulun's lot than we find him doing two hundred and fifty years before it happened. For it extended from the Mediterranean sea on the west, to the lake of Genezareth on the east, and lay therefore very commodiously for trade and navigation. The foretelling so precisely and distinctly the situation and employment of this tribe, though, at first appearance, it may seem a matter of no great moment, yet will be found to be quite otherwise, when it is considered, that such particularities as these could not but be very convincing to the Israelites that it was not chance, nor power, nor policy, that put them in possession of the land of Canaan, but God's right hand and his arm, and the light of his countenance, because he had a favour unto them.'

c Gen. xlix. 8. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies.' This expression denotes triumph over an enemy, and that Judah should subdue his adversaries. This was fulfilled in the person of David, and acknowledged by him. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me,' Ps. xviii. 40. Treading on the neck of a vanquished foe has been a very common practice. Amongst the Franks it was usual to put the arm round the neck as a mark of superiority on the part of him that did it. When Chrodin, declining the office of mayor of the palace, chose a young nobleman, named Gogen, to fill that place, he immediately took the arm of g No less remarkable is the description of Issachar's tribe, that young man, and put it round his own neck, as a mark of his since, though they were a very laborious people in all rural emdependance on him, and that he acknowledged him for his gene-ployments, yet they had no great inclination to war; and were ral and chief. "When a debtor became insolvent, he gave himself up to his creditor as his slave, till he had paid all his debt: and to confirm his engagement, he took the arm of his patron, and put it round his own neck. This ceremony invested as it were, his creditor in his person."-Stockdale's Manners of the Ancient Nations, vol. 1. p. 356. See Gen. xxvii. 40. Deut. xxviii. 48. Isa. x. 27. Jer. xxvii. 8. Josh. x. 24. Lam. v. 5.

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therefore frequently infested and subjected by strangers, especially in the time of the judges.

h The Jews think, that the prophecy of Dan's destroying his enemies by craft was more particularly fulfilled when Sampson, who was of that tribe, pulled down the temple, which crushed himself and the Philistines to death.

i Gad's lot happened on the other side of Jordan, where they d The country which the tribe of Judah was to inhabit is were continually exposed to the incursions of the bordering thus described by Jacob: Binding his foal unto the vine, and his Arabs; but, by their watchfulness and bravery, they not only ass unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his prevented them, but several times caught, and plundered them clothes in the blood of grapes,' (Gen. xlix. 11,) which are expres-in their turns, insomuch that, in one battle, they took from them sions somewhat hyperbolical: for they imply, that vines in this country should be as common as thorns in other places; and wine as plentiful as water; but were, in a great measure, answered in that fertile land which fell to the tribe of Judah's share. For here was the valley of Escol, a bunch of whose grapes was brought by the spies as a specimen of the fruitfulness of the land, Numb. xiii. 23. Here was a brook or torrent of the same name,

fifty thousand camels, two hundred and fifty thousand sheep, besides an hundred thousand men prisoners.-Deut. xxxiii. 22., &c.

The words in our translation, Naphtali is a hind let loose, he giveth goodly words,' are very obscure, and scarce intelligible, For though the former part of the prediction is commonly applied to Barak's overcoming Sisera, and the latter to that noble canticle

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A. M. 2276. A. C. 1728; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3548. A. C. 1863. GEN. CH. xxxvii. TO THE END. Jacob had reserved the sons of his beloved Rachel [ing to his children, according to the divine direction, to the last; and therefore turning to a Joseph at the and not according to his own inclination, reminded them same time that he recollects his past troubles, and sets all, but Joseph more especially, to bury him among forth the future greatness of his tribe, he pours down his ancestors, d in the cave of Machpelah; and so laying upon him, and in him, upon his posterity, benedictions of himself down in his bed again, in a short time expired, all kinds. "The Lord, even the God of thy father," after he had lived 147 years in all, and seventeen of says he, "shall bless thee with the dew of heaven,' these in Egypt. and with the fatness of the earth,' with the fruit of the womb,' that is, with a numerous posterity, and with the 'fruit of the breast,' with plenty of all sorts of cattle. May all the blessings promised to me and my forefathers be doubled upon Joseph's royal head; may they out-top and outstretch the everlasting mountains, and prove to him more fruitful and more lasting than they.' Whether Jacob might foresee no merit nor happiness extraordinary in the tribe of Benjamin, or that its being afterwards blended with the tribe of Judah might make it partake of the same blessing; but so it was, that he contented himself with describing its fierce and warlike disposition, which, like a ravenous 'wolf, would shed the blood of its enemies, and in the evening divide their spoil.'

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Thus the good old patriarch having given his blesswhich Deborah made upon that occasion; yet the exposition which the learned Bochart gives us of this passage, 'He shall be like a tree that shooteth out pleasant branches,' is both more agreeable to the original, and more answerable to the event; since no tribe multiplied so wonderfully as this of Naphtali, who had but four sons when he came into Egypt, and yet could muster upwards of fifty-three thousand men fit to bear arms, when he came out of it, that is, in less than 220 years.-Essay towards a New Translation.

a In the benediction which Jacob gives his favourite Joseph, there are two remarkable titles which he confers upon him. 1st, 'That he was the shepherd, and the stone of Israel,' which seems to be a thankful recognition of Joseph's kindness to his father and family, in keeping and feeding them, even as a shepherd does his sheep; by which means he became the foundation or basis, as it were, of the house of Jacob, by preserving them from perishing by famine, and continuing them settled in the best part of the Egyptian kingdom, for a considerable time: though some refer it rather to his virtuous resisting the temptations of his mistress, and patiently enduring the master's severity, to both of which he remained as immoveable as a stone. 2d, The other title is, that he was 'separate from his brethren:' where, though the word nazir signifies to separate, as Joseph was certainly separated from his brethren, when he was sold into Egypt, yet, as it is hardly supposable, that Jacob would couch so cruel an action in 30 soft a term, it is rather to be thought that he used the word nazir, which signifies crowned, in allusion to the superintendents of the king's household in all the eastern countries, who were called nazirs, and wore probably some kind of diadem about their heads, by way of distinction and grandeur. And as for the fruitfulness promised to Joseph, this was exemplified in the large extent of his twofold tribe, Ephraim and Manasseh, which, at their first numbering, yielded seventy-two thousand seven hundred, Num. i., and at their second, eighty-five thousand and two hundred men, all able to go out to war. Num. xxvi.

How brave and warlike a body of men, and how very expert in feats of arms, this tribe became, we may conceive from what we are told of them, namely, that there were seven hundred chosen men among them, left-handed, every one of whom could sling stones at an hair's breadth, and not miss.' (Judges xx. 16.) And how pertinacious they were in their undertakings of this kind is manifest, both from the fierce battles which they fought against all the other tribes, though in a very bad cause, (Judges, xix.) wherein they twice came off conquerors; and from the long opposition which the house of Saul, descended from this tribe, made against the accession of David to the throne, and which could not be suppressed until Abner, the general of their forces, forsook them. Judges and 1 Sam. passim.

+ Besides these prophecies of Jacob, which were sufficiently

The loss of so good a father was doubtless lamented by all his family, but by none with more sincere expressions of filial sorrow than by Joseph. At length, remembering his dying charge, he ordered his physicians, e according to the custom of the country, to verified by their events, the Jews ascribe some other works to him, namely, a treatise entitled The Ladder to Heaven, and another called Jacob's Testament, which Pope Gelasius reckons among the Apocrypha; together with some forms of prayer, which the Jews use every night, and pretend that they were composed by him. As to the commendations which they so plentifully bestow upon this patriarch, these, in a great measure, are justified by the character which the author of Ecclesiasticus gives him, chap. xliv. 23. And as the Mahometans allow him not only to be a prophet, but the father likewise of all the prophets, except Job, Jethro, and Mahomet; so they believe, that the royal dignity did not depart from his posterity, until the times of John the Baptist, and Jesus Christ; and that from him the twelve tribes of the Jews did spring, even as their own twelve did from Ishmael.-Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Jacob.

d Gen. xlix. 29. And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people; bury me with my fathers.' Princes and persons of quality, who died in foreign parts, were usually carried into their own country, to be buried with their fathers. That this was practised in the patriarchal times, appears from the injunction which Jacob laid upon his children respecting his interment. It was also the custom of the Greeks. Homer represents Juno as thus speaking concerning Sarpedon:Give the bold chief a glorious fate in fight; And when th' ascending soul has wing'd her flight, Let sleep and death convey, by thy command, The breathless body to his native land.

For this reason, such as died in foreign countries had usually their ashes brought home, and interred in the sepulchres of their ancestors, or at least in some part of their native country; it being thought that the same mother which gave them life and birth was only fit to receive their remains, and afford them a peaceful habitation after death. Hence ancient authors afford us innumerable instances of bodies conveyed, sometimes by the command of oracles, sometimes by the good-will of their friends, from foreign countries to the sepulchres of their fathers, and with great solemnity deposited there. Thus Theseus was removed from Scyrus to Athens, Orestes from Tegea, and his son Tisamenes from Helice to Sparta, and Aristomenes from Rhodes to Messene.—ED.

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e Gen. 1. 2. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father.' Concerning the practice of physic in Egypt, Herodotus says that it was divided amongst the faculty in this manner-"Every distinct distemper hath its own physician, who confines himself to the study and care of that alone, and meddles with no other: so that all places are crowded with physicians; for one class hath the cure of the eyes, another of the head, another of the teeth, another of the region of the belly, and another of occult distempers," (b. 2. c. 84.) After this we shall not think it strange that Joseph's physicians are represented as a number. A body of these domestics would now appear an extravagant piece of state, even in a first minister. But then it could not be otherwise, where each distemper had its proper physician; so that every great family, as well as city, must needs, as Herodotus expresses it, swarm with the faculty. There is a remarkable passage in Jeremiah (chap. xlvi. 11.), where, foretelling the overthrow of Pharaoh's army at the Euphrates, he describes Egypt by this characteristic of her skill in medicine, 'Go up into Gilead, and take balm,' (or balsam,) ‘O virgin, the daughter of Egypt; in vain shalt thou use many medicines, for thou shalt not be cured.'-Warburton's Divine Legation, b. 4. sec. 3.

A. M. 2276. A. C. 1728; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3548. A. C. 1863. GEN. CH. xxxvii. TO THE END. a embalm his father's body, and all preparations for his funeral to be made. For the space of seventy days they continued their mourning for him; in which time it being improper for Joseph to appear at court, he desired some of the officers about the king, to acquaint his majesty, that his father, before his death, had obliged him, upon oath, to bury him in a sepulchre belonging to their family, in the land of Canaan; and that therefore he begged leave to go and fulfil his last commands, and would, without delay, return again. The king readily consented to his request, and ordered moreover the chief officers of his household, and some of the principal nobility of the kingdom, to attend the funeral, who, joined with his own and his father's whole family, some in chariots, and some on horseback, made a very large and pompous procession.

As soon as they were entered into the land of Canaan, they made an halt at d the thrashing-floor of Atad, and there continued mourning, and lamenting the death of their friend and father seven days; which made the Canaanites, perceiving that the company came from Egypt, call the place Abel-mizraim, or the mourning of the Egyptians, ever after. They thence continued their march till they came to the field of Machpelah, where they deposited Jacob in the cave with his ancestors, and so returned to Egypt again.

When a

a The manner of embalming among the Egyptians according to Herodotus, Diodorus, and others, was as follows. man died, his body was carried to the artificers, whose business it was to make coffins. The upper part of the coffin represented the person who was to be put in it, whether man or woman; and, if a person of distinction, was generally adorned with such paintings and embellishments as were suitable to its quality. When the body was brought home again, they agreed with the embalmers; but according to the quality of the person, the prices were different. The highest was a talent, that is, about three hundred pounds sterling: twenty mine was a moderate one; and the lowest a very small matter. As the body lay extended, one of them, whom they called the designer, marked out the place on the left side where it was to be opened, and then a dissector, with a very sharp Egyptian stone, made the incision, through which they drew all the intestines, except the heart and kidneys, and then washed them with palm wine, and other strong and binding drugs. The brains they drew through the nostrils, with an hooked piece of iron, made particularly for that purpose, and filled the skull with astringent drugs. The whole body they anointed with oil of cedar, with myrrh, cinnamon, and other drugs, for about thirty days; by which means it was preserved entire, without so much as losing its hair, and sweet, without any signs of putrefaction. After this it was put into salt about forty days; and therefore when Moses says, that forty days were employed in embalming Jacob, (Gen. 1. 3.) he must mean the forty days of his continuing in the salt of nitre, without including the thirty days that were spent in the other operations above mentioned; so that, in the whole, they mourned seventy days in Egypt, as Moses likewise observes. Last of all, the body was taker out of this salt, washed, and wrapped up in linen swaddling bands dipped in myrrh, and rubbed with a certain gum, which the Egyptians used instead of glue, and so returned to the relations, who put it into the coffin, and kept it in some repository in their houses, or in tombs, made particularly for that purpose.-Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Embalm, and Warburton's Divine Legation, vol. 2. b. 3.

It was against rule for any person, how great soever, in mourning apparel, to appear in public, and especially in the royal presence, because in that state they were looked upon as defiled; and therefore Joseph does not go himself, but desires some of the courtiers to carry his request to the king; and this request he was the rather bound to make, because the retinue and guard which the pomp of the funeral, and the danger of molestation from enemies, made necessary, could not be obtained without the king's leave.—Musculus,

As soon as their father was buried, Joseph's brethren began to reflect on the wrongs they had formerly done him, and were not a little apprehensive, that as he certainly had it in his power, he might now have it in his intention, to avenge himself of them: and therefore they consulted together, and framed this message,— That it was his father's earnest request, that he should forget all past injuries, and continue them under his protection, as formerly. This, when Joseph heard, such was his compassionate temper, that he could not refrain from weeping; and therefore, to remove their fears, he sent immediately for them, and receiving them with the same kind affection as when their father was alive, excused the actions committed against him, in such an obliging manner, and gave them such assurances of his future love, and adherence to them upon all occasions, as made them return to their families full of joy and satisfaction.

The sacred history gives us no further account of brethren, and his father's house, conducting their solemn sorrow for near three hundred miles into a distant country.-Bibliotheca Biblica, Occasional Annotations, 46.

d The words in the text are,- And they came to the thrashing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan,' Gen. 1. 10. Where this place was, we cannot determine from any account in Scripture; but it is very probable, that it lay not far from the place where Jacob was buried, and so not far from Hebron. For since it is absurd to suppose, that the corpse of Jacob was carried to the cave of Machpelah such a round about way as the Israelites went afterwards into the land of Canaan, namely, through Arabia Petræa, quite on the eastern side of Jordan, it remains to suppose, that these places are said to be beyond Jordan, not in respect of Egypt, from whence Jacob's corpse was brought, but in respect of the place where Moses was, when he wrote the history, that is, in a country on the east of Jordan; and consequently the places beyond Jordan must be such as lay on the west of Jordan; but why they made the thrashing-floor of Atad, rather than the place of interment, the scene of their lamentations, is not so easy to resolve. Perhaps it was a place more convenient to stay in for seven days, than the field of Machpelah; or perhaps it might be the custom, at the very entrance of the country, where they carried the corpse to be buried, to fall into lamentations, which they might repeat at the grave again, though no mention be made of it here.-Wells' Geography of the Old Testament, vol. 1.; and Patrick's Commentary.

• The Jewish doctors have a tradition of a bloody fight which Joseph had at his father's funeral, with one Tzepho, the son of Eliphaz, who would have opposed his burying him in the cave of Machpelah, as disputing his title to the ground, but that Joseph, and his men, having overcome him, carried him away with them into Egypt, and kept him there prisoner as long as Joseph lived; however, as soon as he was dead, Tzepho found means to escape

e The splendour and magnificence of our patriarch's funeral seems to be without a parallel in history. What hitherto has most affected me in the comparison, were indeed the noble obse-into Italy.- Universal History, in the notes, b. 1. c. 7. quies of Marcellus, as Virgil has described them, but how do even these, with all their parade of poetry about them, fall short of the plain and simple narrative before us? For what are the six hundred beds for which the Roman solemnities on this occasion were so famous, in comparison of that national itinerant multitude, which swelled like a flood, and moved like a river, to all Pharaoh's servants, to the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, that is, to the officers of his household, and deputies of his provinces, with all the house of Joseph, and his

ƒ The author of Ecclesiasticus has given us an encomium of the patriarch Joseph in these words, Of Jacob was this man of mercy born, who found favour in the eyes of all flesh. He was born to be the prince of his brethren, and the support of his family; to be the head of his kinsmen, and the firm support of his people. His bones were visited, and prophesied after his death,' (xlix. 15.) His meaning is, that his bones were removed out of Egypt, and that this fell out as a consequence of his prophecy, that God would visit the Hebrews, and bring them into

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