Ver. 1. Now when Jacob saw that there was corn.] A sale of corn. Heb., A breaking: so called, either because corn breaks famine; or, because it is broken and ground to make bread of; or, for that they made their bread in thin cakes and so broke it. Or lastly, because he that selleth it breaks the heap and gives part to the buyer. Why look ye one upon another?] As hopeless and helpless; or, as at your wits’ ends, and not knowing whither to turn you. Youth is one while witless, another while shiftless. Let days speak, and multitude of years teach wisdom. (Job 32:7) As at feasts, so at other meetings, old men should be vowels, young men mutes; or at most, but semivowels. Convivium sit simile Alphabeto, & c.
Ver. 2. Get you down thither,] Here the divine decree of Israel’s sojourning and suffering in Egypt begins to be fulfilled, by a wonderful providence. The ruinous of Joseph’s barns invites Jacob, first to send, and then to go thither himself for relief. Shall not the fulness that is in Christ (John 1:16) incite and entice us to come to him; as bees to a meadow full of flowers; as merchants to the Indies full of spices and othex riches; as the Queen of Sheba to Solomon full of wisdom; as Jacob’s sons to Egypt full of corn, in that extreme famine; that we may return full fraught with treasures of truth and grace? “It pleased God, that in him should all fulness dwell.” (Colossians 1:19) And his fulnees is not only repletive, but diffusive; a fuiness of plenty and abundance, but of bounty also and redundance. He was “anointed with the oil of gladness,” not only “above,” but for “his fellows.” (Hebrews 1:9) That we may live, and not die.] Saints have their share in common calamities. Jacob tasted of the famine, as well as his neighbonrs the Canaanites; so had Abraham and Isaac done before him. Both the good figs and bad figs were carried captive; (Jeremiah 24:5) the corn as well as the weeds is cut down at harvest, &c.
Ver. 3. And Joseph’s ten brethren went.] Forty or fifty miles an end: Austin saith three hundred. Should we think much to go a few steps, say it be miles, to get food for our souls? Beware of that famine. (Amos 8:11,12) The seven churches of Asia, Bohemia, the Palatinate, and many other parts of Germany, are under it already. So is the large region of Nubia in Africa, which had from the apostles’ time, as it is thought, professed the Christian faith, but now embraced Mohammedanism through lack of ministers. For, as Alvarez hath recorded, at his being in the king of Habasaia’s court, there were ambassadors out of Nubia to entreat him for a supply of ministers, to instruct their nation, and repair Christianity, gone to ruin among them; but were rejected. Oh, fearful! Alvar., Hist. Aethiopic., cap. 137.
Ver. 4. But Benjamin Jacob sent not.] Because best beloved; as last born, and likeliest to live longest; and the least, and least able to shift for himself; and all that was left of his dearest Rachel; his only darling that had been always at hand, and in the father’s eye.
Ver. 5. And the sons of Israel came.] God could have fed them by a miracle, as he did Elijah by the ravens; and Israel in the wilderness, where he rained them down manna, and set the flint abroach; and Merlin, hid in a hay mow in the massacre of Paris, by a hen that came thither, and laid an egg by him every morning. But he worketh ordinarily by means, and will have them used, but not trusted to. Dedit eis pluviam escatilem, et petram aquatilem. -Tertul. Dike’s Mich. and the Drag.
Ver. 6. And Joseph was the governor.] Of the Hebrew word here used, is made in Arabic the title Sultan, given at this day to the great Turk by his subjects; among whom the Arabic is now the learned language. Their Koran is written in it, and prohibited to be translated; which both preserves the tongue, they say, and conceals religion. And Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed.] This those mockers little thought ever to have done to that dreamer. But the will of the Lord, that shall stand.
Ver. 7. Spake roughly unto them.] To bring them the sooner to a sight of their sin. God also, for like purpose, writes bitter things against his people, stands afar off, hides his love, as Joseph, out of increasement of love; fights against them with his own hand, as he threw his brethren into prison; -than the which there is no greater affliction, saith Luther; and all to show them their sin, and to bring them home to himself by repentance. Nihil est tentatio vel universi mundi et totius inferni in unum conflata, ad eam qua Deus contrarius homimi penitur. -Luther.
Ver. 8. But they knew not him.] As being now altered in stature, voice, visage, his present pomp, and haply also, by his former imprisonment and affliction. We read of a young man, that being condemned to die, was turned gray-headed in one night, through forethought and fear of death, and was thereupon spared.