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The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 41:55
And when (literally, and) all the land of Egypt was famished (literally, and), the people cried to Pharaoh for bread:—cf. the famine in Samaria (2 Kings 6:26)—and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; wha…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:1-38
EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:1
Now when Jacob saw—literally, and Jacob saw, i.e. perceived by the preparations of others for buying corn in Egypt (Lange), but more probably learnt by the report which others brought from. Egypt (Genesis 42:2)—that the…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:1-38
God's trials of his people. The trial of Joseph is over. Now comes the trial of his brethren and of Jacob. The Spirit of God is at work in all their hearts. True men they were and yet sinful men. Before they can be made…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:1-38
The first visit of Joseph's brethren to Egypt. I. THE JOURNEY TO EGYPT (Genesis 42:1-5). 1. The famishing household. Although Canaan was the land of promise, and the family of Jacob the Church of God, yet neither was th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:2
And he said, Behold, I have heard (this does not imply that the rumor had not also reached Jacob's sons, but only that the proposal to visit Egypt did not originate with them) that there is corn— שֶׁבֶר ut supra, σῖτος…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:3
And Joseph's ten brethren went down—either it was for safety that all the ten went, or because, the corn being sold to individuals, the quantity received would depend on their numbers (Lange)—to buy corn—the word for co…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:4
But (literally, and) Benjamin, Joseph's brother (vide Genesis 35:18), Jacob sent not with his brethren. Not because of his youth (Patrick, Lange), since he was now upwards of twenty years of age, but because he was Jose…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:5
And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came—literally, in the midst of the comers; not as being desirous to lose themselves in the multitudes, as if troubled by an alarming presentiment (Lange), which…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:6
And Joseph was the governor over the land. The word שָׁלִּיט from שָׁלַט, to rule, describes one invested with despotic authority, or a sultan (Gesenius), in which character the early Shemites appear to have regarded Jo…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:7
And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but (literally, and) made himself strange unto them. The root נָכַר, to be marked, signed, by indentation, hence to be foreign (Furst), or simply to be strange (Gesenius),…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:8
And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. The lapse of time since the tragedy of Dothan, twenty years before, the high position occupied by Joseph, the Egyptian manners he had by this time assumed, and the st…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:9
And Joseph remembered (i.e. the sight of his brethren prostrating themselves before him recalled to his mind) the dreams which he dreamed (or had dreamed) of them (vide Genesis 37:5) and said unto them, Ye are spies (li…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:10-12
And they said unto him. Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. "They were not filled with resentment at the imputation" cast upon them by Joseph; "or, ff they were angry, their pride was swallowed up by fe…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:13
And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest—literally, the little one (cf. Genesis 9:24)—is this day with our father, and one—literally, the one,…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:14-16
And Joseph said unto them (betraying his excitement in his language), That is it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies. But Joseph knew by this time that they were not spies. Hence his persistent accusation of the…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:17
And he put them all together into ward (literally, and he assembled them into prison) three days. Ostensibly in consequence of their unwillingness to agree to his proposal, but in reality to give them an experience of t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:18-20
And Joseph (whose bowels of mercy were already yearning towards them) said unto them the third day, This do, and live;—i.e. this do that ye may live—for I fear God—literally, the Elohim I fear; the term Elohim being emp…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:21
And they said one to another (Joseph's treatment of them beginning by this time to produce its appropriate and designed result by recalling them to a sense of their former guilt), We are verily guilty—"this is the only…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:22
And Reuben—who had not consented to, but had been altogether unable to prevent, the wickedness of his brethren (Genesis 37:22, Genesis 37:29)—answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the c…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:23
And they knew not (while they talked in what they imagined to be a foreign dialect to the Egyptian viceroy) that Joseph understood them;—literally, heard (so as to understand what was said)—for he spake unto them by an…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:24
And he turned himself about from them (in order to hide his emotion), and wept (as he reflected on the wonderful leadings of Divine providence, and beheld the pitiful distress of his brethren); and returned to them agai…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:25
Then (literally, and) Joseph commanded to fill—literally, commanded, and they (i.e. Joseph's men) filled—their sacks (rather, vessels or receptacles, כְּלִי) with corn, and to restore every man's money (literally, their…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 42:26
And they laded their asses with the corn (literally, put their grain upon their asses), and departed (or went) thence.