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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
G E N E S I S
CHAP. XLII.
We had, in the foregoing chapter, the fulfilling of the dreams which
Joseph had interpreted: in this and the following chapters we
have the fulfilling of the dreams which Joseph himself had
dreamed, that his father’s family should do homage to him.
The story is very largely and particularly related of what passed
between Joseph and his brethren, not only because it is an entertaining
story, and probably was much talked of, both among the
Israelites and among the Egyptians, but because it is very
instructive, and it gave occasion for the removal of Jacob’s
family into Egypt, on which so many great events afterwards
depended. We have, in this chapter,
I. The humble application
of Jacob’s sons to Joseph to buy corn,
II. The fright
Joseph put them into, for their trial,
III. The conviction
they were now under of their sin concerning Joseph long
before,
IV. Their return to Canaan with corn, and
the great distress their good father was in upon hearing the
account of their expedition,
&c.
| Jacob Sends to Egypt to Buy Corn. | B. C. 1706. |
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1 Now when Jacob saw that there
was corn in Egypt, Jacob said
unto his sons, Why do ye look one
upon another?
2 And he said, Behold,
I have heard that there is corn
in Egypt: get you down thither, and
buy for us from thence; that we may
live, and not die.
3 And Joseph’s ten
brethren went down to buy corn in
Egypt.
4 But Benjamin, Joseph’s
brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren;
for he said, Lest peradventure
mischief befal him.
5 And the sons
of Israel came to buy corn among
those that came: for the famine was
in the land of Canaan.
6 And Joseph
was the governor over the land,
and he it was that sold to all the people
of the land: and Joseph’s brethren
came, and bowed down themselves before
him with their faces to the earth.
Though Jacob’s sons were all married, and
had families of their own, yet, it should
seem, they were still incorporated in one society,
under the conduct and presidency of
their father Jacob. We have here,
I. The orders he gave them to go and buy
corn in Egypt,
Observe,
1. The
famine was grievous in the land of Canaan.
It is observable that all the three patriarchs,
to whom Canaan was the land of promise,
met with famine in that land, which was not
only to try their faith, whether they could
trust God though he should slay them,
though he should starve them, but to teach
them to seek the better country, that is, the
heavenly,
We have need
of something to wean us from this world,
and make us long for a better.
2. Still,
when there was famine in Canaan, there was
corn in Egypt. Thus Providence orders it,
that one place should be a succour and supply
to another; for we are all brethren. The
Egyptians, the seed of accursed Ham, have
plenty, when God’s blessed Israel want:
thus God, in dispensing common favours,
often crosses hands. Yet observe, The plenty
Egypt now had was owing, under God, to
Joseph’s prudence and care: if his brethren
had not sold him into Egypt, but respected
him according to his merits, who knows but
he might have done the same thing for
Jacob’s family which now he had done for
Pharaoh, and the Egyptians might then have
come to them to buy corn? but those who
drive away from among them wise and good
men know not what they do.
3. Jacob saw
that there was corn in Egypt; he saw the
corn that his neighbours had bought there
and brought home. It is a spur to exertion
to see where supplies are to be had, and to
see others supplied. Shall others get food
for their souls, and shall we starve while it is
to be had?
4. He reproved his sons for
delaying to provide corn for their families.
Why do you look one upon another? Note,
When we are in trouble and want, it is folly
for us to stand looking upon one another,
that is, to stand desponding and despairing,
as if there were no hope, no help,–to stand
disputing either which shall have the honour
of going first or which shall have the safety
of coming last,–to stand deliberating and
debating what we shall do, and doing nothing,–to
stand dreaming under a spirit of
slumber, as if we had nothing to do, and to
stand delaying, as if we had time at command.
Let it never be said, “We left that
to be done to-morrow which we could as
well have done to-day.”
5. He quickened
them to go to Egypt: Get you down thither.
Masters of families must not only pray for
daily bread for their families, and food convenient,
but must lay out themselves with
care and industry to provide it.
II. Their obedience to these orders,
v. 3.
They went down to buy corn; they did not
send their servants, but very prudently went
themselves, to lay out their own money.
Let none think themselves too great nor too
good to take pains. Masters of families
should see with their own eyes, and take
heed of leaving too much to servants. Only
Benjamin went not with them, for he was
his father’s darling. To Egypt they came,
among others, and, having a considerable
cargo of corn to buy, they were brought before
Joseph himself, who probably expected
they would come; and, according to the
laws of courtesy, they bowed down themselves
before him,
v. 6.
Now their empty sheaves
did obeisance to his full one. Compare this
with
| Joseph Speaks Roughly to His Brethren. | B. C. 1706. |
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7 And Joseph saw his brethren, and
he knew them, but made himself
strange unto them, and spake roughly
unto them; and he said unto them,
Whence come ye? And they said,
From the land of Canaan to buy food.
8 And Joseph knew his brethren, but
they knew not him.
9 And Joseph
remembered the dreams which he
dreamed of them, and said unto them,
Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of
the land ye are come.
10 And they
said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to
buy food are thy servants come.
11 We are all one man’s sons; we are
true men, thy servants are no spies.
12 And he said unto them, Nay, but
to see the nakedness of the land ye
are come.
13 And they said, Thy
servants are twelve brethren, the sons
of one man in the land of Canaan;
and, behold, the youngest is this day
with our father, and one is not.
14 And Joseph said unto them, That is
it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye
are spies:
15 Hereby ye shall be
proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye
shall not go forth hence, except your
youngest brother come hither.
16 Send one of you, and let him fetch
your brother, and ye shall be kept in
prison, that your words may be proved,
whether there be any truth in you: or
else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye
are spies.
17 And he put them all
together into ward three days.
18 And Joseph said unto them the third
day, This do, and live; for I fear
God:
19 If ye be true men, let one of
your brethren be bound in the house
of your prison: go ye, carry corn for
the famine of your houses:
20 But
bring your youngest brother unto me;
so shall your words be verified, and
ye shall not die. And they did so.
We may well wonder that Joseph, during
the twenty years that he had now been in
Egypt, especially during the last seven years
that he had been in power there, never sent
to his father to acquaint him with his circumstances;
nay, it is strange that he who
so often went throughout all the land of
Egypt
never made an excursion
to Canaan, to visit his aged father,
when he was in the borders of Egypt, that
lay next to Canaan. Perhaps it would not
have been above three or four days’ journey
for him in his chariot. It is a probable conjecture
that his whole management of himself
in this affair was by special direction
from Heaven, that the purpose of God concerning
Jacob and his family might be
accomplished. When Joseph’s brethren
came, he knew them by many a satisfactory
token, but they knew not him, little thinking
to find him there,
v. 8.
He remembered the
dreams
(v. 9),
but they had forgotten them.
The laying up of God’s oracles in our hearts
will be of excellent use to us in all our conduct.
Joseph had an eye to his dreams,
which he knew to be divine, in his carriage
towards his brethren, and aimed at the accomplishment
of them and the bringing of
his brethren to repentance for their former
sins; and both these points were gained.
I. He showed himself very rigorous and
harsh with them. The very manner of his
speaking, considering the post he was in, was
enough to frighten them; for he spoke
roughly to them,
v. 7.
He charged them
with bad designs against the government
(v. 9),
treated them as dangerous persons,
saying, You are spies, and protesting by the
life of Pharaoh that they were so,
Some make this an oath, others make it no
more than a vehement asseveration, like that,
as thy soul liveth; however it was more than
yea, yea, and nay, nay, and therefore came of
evil. Note, Bad words are soon learned by
converse with those that use them, but not
so soon unlearned. Joseph, by being much
at court, got the courtier’s oath, By the life
of Pharaoh, perhaps designing hereby to
confirm his brethren in their belief that he
was an Egyptian, and not an Israelite. They
knew this was not the language of a son of
Abraham. When Peter would prove himself
no disciple of Christ, he cursed and swore.
Now why was Joseph thus hard upon his
brethren? We may be sure it was not from
a spirit of revenge, that he might now
trample upon those who had formerly
trampled upon him; he was not a man of
that temper. But,
1. It was to enrich his
own dreams, and complete the accomplishment
of them.
2. It was to bring them to
repentance.
3. It was to get out of them
an account of the state of their family, which
he longed to know: they would have discovered
him if he had asked as a friend,
therefore he asks as a judge. Not seeing his
brother Benjamin with them, perhaps he
began to suspect that they had made away
with him too, and therefore gives them occasion
to speak of their father and brother.
Note, God in his providence sometimes
seems harsh with those he loves, and speaks
roughly to those for whom yet he has great
mercy in store.
II. They, hereupon, were very submissive.
They spoke to him with all the respect imaginable:
Nay, my lord
(v. 10)–a
great change since they said, Behold, this dreamer comes.
They very modestly deny the charge: We
are no spies. They tell him their business,
that they came to buy food, a justifiable
errand, and the same that many strangers
came to Egypt upon at this time. They
undertake to give a particular account of
themselves and their family
(v. 13),
and this
was what they wanted.
III. He clapped them all up in prison for
three days,
Thus God deals with the
souls he designs for special comfort and
honour; he first humbles them, and terrifies
them, and brings them under a spirit of
bondage, and then binds up their wounds by
the Spirit of adoption.
IV. He concluded with them, at last, that
one of them should be left as a hostage, and
the rest should go home and fetch Benjamin.
It was a very encouraging word he said to
them
(v. 18):
I fear God; as if he had said,
“You may assure yourselves I will do you
no wrong; I dare not, for I know that, high
as I am, there is one higher than I.” Note,
With those that fear God we have reason to
expect fair dealing. The fear of God will be
a check upon those that are in power, to restrain
them from abusing their power to oppression
and tyranny. Those that have no
one else to stand in awe of ought to stand in
awe of their own consciences. See
So did not I, because of the fear of God.
| Reflections of Joseph’s Brethren. | B. C. 1706. |
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21 And they said one to another,
We are verily guilty concerning our
brother, in that we saw the anguish
of his soul, when he besought us, and
we would not hear; therefore is this
distress come upon us.
22 And Reuben
answered them, saying, Spake I
not unto you, saying, Do not sin
against the child; and ye would not
hear? therefore, behold, also his blood
is required.
23 And they knew not
that Joseph understood them; for he
spake unto them by an interpreter.
24 And he turned himself about from
them, and wept; and returned to them
again, and communed with them, and
took from them Simeon, and bound
him before their eyes.
25 Then Joseph
commanded to fill their sacks
with corn, and to restore every man’s
money into his sack, and to give them
provision for the way: and thus did
he unto them.
26 And they laded
their asses with the corn, and departed
thence.
27 And as one of them opened
his sack to give his ass provender in
the inn, he espied his money; for, behold,
it was in his sack’s mouth.
28 And he said unto his brethren, My
money is restored; and, lo, it is even
in my sack: and their heart failed
them, and they were afraid, saying one
to another, What is this that God
hath done unto us?
Here is,
I. The penitent reflection Joseph’s
brethren made upon the wrong they had formerly
done to him,
They talked the
matter over in the Hebrew tongue, not suspecting
that Joseph, whom they took for a
native of Egypt, understood them, much less
that he was the person they spoke of.
1. They remembered with regret the barbarous
cruelty wherewith they persecuted
him: We are verily guilty concerning our
brother. We do not read that they said this
during their three days’ imprisonment; but
now, when the matter had come to some
issue and they saw themselves still embarrassed,
now they began to relent. Perhaps
Joseph’s mention of the fear of God
(v. 18)
put them upon consideration and extorted
this reflection. Now see here,
(1.) The office
of conscience; it is a remembrancer, to bring
to mind things long since said and done, to
show us wherein we have erred, though it
was long ago, as the reflection here mentioned
was above twenty years after the sin
was committed. As time will not wear out
the guilt of sin, so it will not blot out the
records of conscience; when the guilt of this
sin of Joseph’s brethren was fresh they made
light of it, and sat down to eat bread; but
now, long afterwards, their consciences reminded
them of it.
(2.) The benefit of
affliction; they often prove the happy and
effectual means of awakening conscience, and
bringing sin to our remembrance,
(3.) The evil of guilt concerning our
brethren; of all their sins, it was this that
conscience now reproached them for. Whenever
we think we have wrong done us, we
ought to remember the wrong we have done
to others,
2. Reuben alone remembered, with comfort,
that he had been an advocate for his
brother, and had done what he could to prevent
the mischief they did him
(v. 22):
Spoke I not unto you, saying, Do not sin
against the child? Note,
(1.) It is an aggravation
of any sin that it was committed
against admonitions.
(2.) When we come
to share with others in their calamities, it
will be a comfort to us if we have the testimony
of our consciences for us that we
did not share with them in their iniquities,
but, in our places, witnessed against them.
This shall be our rejoicing in the day of evil,
and shall take out the sting.
II. Joseph’s tenderness towards them
upon this occasion. He retired from them
to weep,
Though his reason directed
that he should still carry himself as a stranger
to them, because they were not as yet humbled
enough, yet natural affection could not
but work, for he was a man of a tender
spirit. This represents the tender mercies of
our God towards repenting sinners. See
Since I spoke against him I do
earnestly remember him still. See
III. The imprisonment of Simeon,
He chose him for the hostage probably because
he remembered him to have been his
most bitter enemy, or because he observed
him now to be least humbled and concerned;
he bound him before their eyes to affect them
all; or perhaps it is intimated that, though
he bound him with some severity before
them, yet afterwards, when they were gone,
he took off his bonds.
IV. The dismission of the rest of them.
They came for corn, and corn they had; and
not only so, but every man had his money
restored in his sack’s mouth. Thus Christ,
our Joseph, gives out supplies without money
and without price. Therefore the poor are
invited to buy,
This put
them into great consternation
(v. 28):
Their
heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying
one to another, What is this that God hath
done to us?
1. It was really a merciful event; for I
hope they had no wrong done to them when
they had their money given them back, but
a kindness; yet they were thus terrified by
it. Note,
(1.) Guilty consciences are apt to
take good providences in a bad sense, and to
put wrong constructions even upon those
things that make for them. They flee when
none pursues.
(2.) Wealth sometimes brings
as much care along with it as want does, and
more too. If they had been robbed of their
money, they could not have been worse
frightened than they were now when they
found their money in their sacks. Thus he
whose ground brought forth plentifully said,
What shall I do?
Luke xii. 17.
2. Yet in their circumstances it was very
amazing. They knew that the Egyptians
abhorred a Hebrew
and therefore,
since they could not expect to receive
any kindness from them, they concluded
that this was done with a design to pick a
quarrel with them, and the rather because
the man, the lord of the land, had charged
them as spies. Their own consciences also
were awake, and their sins set in order before
them; and this put them into confusion.
Note,
(1.) When men’s spirits are
sinking every thing helps to sink them.
(2.) When the events of Providence concerning
us are surprising it is good to enquire what
it is that God has done and is doing with us,
and to consider the operation of his hands.
| The Report Made to Jacob. | B. C. 1706. |
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29 And they came unto Jacob their
father unto the land of Canaan, and
told him all that befell unto them;
saying,
30 The man, who is the lord
of the land, spake roughly to us, and
took us for spies of the country.
31 And we said unto him, We are true
men; we are no spies:
32 We be
twelve brethren, sons of our father;
one is not, and the youngest is this
day with our father in the land of Canaan.
33 And the man, the lord of
the country, said unto us, Hereby
shall I know that ye are true men;
leave one of your brethren here with
me, and take food for the famine of
your households, and be gone:
34 And bring your youngest brother unto
me: then shall I know that ye are no
spies, but that ye are true men: so
will I deliver you your brother, and
ye shall traffic in the land.
35 And
it came to pass as they emptied their
sacks, that, behold, every man’s bundle
of money was in his sack: and when
both they and their father saw the
bundles of money, they were afraid.
36 And Jacob their father said unto
them, Me have ye bereaved of my
children: Joseph is not, and Simeon
is not, and ye will take Benjamin
away: all these things are against me.
37 And Reuben spake unto his father,
saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring
him not to thee: deliver him into my
hand, and I will bring him to thee
again.
38 And he said, My son shall
not go down with you; for his brother
is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief
befal him by the way in the
which ye go, then shall ye bring down
my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
Here is,
1. The report which Jacob’s sons
made to their father of the great distress
they had been in in Egypt; how they had
been suspected, and threatened, and obliged
to leave Simeon a prisoner there, till they
should bring Benjamin with them thither.
Who would have thought of this when they
left home? When we go abroad we should
consider how many sad accidents, that we
little think of, may befal us before we return
home. We know not what a day may bring
forth; we ought therefore to be always ready
for the worst.
2. The deep impression this
made upon the good man. The very bundles
of money which Joseph returned, in kindness
to his father, frightened him
(v. 35);
for he
concluded it was done with some mischievous
design, or perhaps suspected his own sons
to have committed some offence, and so to
have run themselves into a præmunire–a
penalty, which is intimated in what he says
(v. 36):
Me have you bereaved. He seems to
lay the fault upon them; knowing their characters,
he feared they had provoked the
Egyptians, and perhaps forcibly, or fraudulently,
brought home their money. Jacob is
here much out of temper.
(1.) He has very
melancholy apprehensions concerning the
present state of his family: Joseph is not,
and Simeon is not; whereas Joseph was in
honour and Simeon in the way to it. Note,
We often perplex ourselves with our own
mistakes, even in matters of fact. True
griefs may arise from false intelligence and
suppositions,
Jacob gives
up Joseph for gone, and Simeon and Benjamin
as being in danger; and he concludes,
All these things are against me. It proved
otherwise, that all these were for him, were
working together for his good and the good
of his family: yet here he thinks them all
against him. Note, Through our ignorance
and mistake, and the weakness of our faith,
we often apprehend that to be against us
which is really for us. We are afflicted in
body, estate, name, and relations; and we
think all these things are against us, whereas
these are really working for us the weight of
glory.
(2.) He is at present resolved that
Benjamin shall not go down. Reuben will
undertake to bring him back in safety
(v. 37),
not so much as putting in, If the Lord will,
nor expecting the common disasters of travellers;
but he foolishly bids Jacob slay his
two sons (which, it is likely, he was very
proud of) if he brought him not back; as if
the death of two grandsons could satisfy
Jacob for the death of a son. No, Jacob’s
present thoughts are, My son shall not go
down with you. He plainly intimates a distrust
of them, remembering that he never
saw Joseph since he had been with them;
therefore, “Benjamin shall not go with you,
by the way in which you go, for you will bring
down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.”
Note, It is bad with a family when children
conduct themselves so ill that their parents
know not how to trust them.
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