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Ver. 6. And they took their cattle, and their goods.] Though Pharaoh sent to them they should not, yet, not willing to be much chargeable, they brought that they had. It is a happiness so to live with others as not to be much beholden; but rather helpful, than burdensome. He that receives a courtesy, we say, sells his liberty: and “the borrower is servant to the lender.” (Proverbs 22:7) St Paul glories in this to the liberal Corinthians, that when he was present with them he was “chargeable to no man.” (2 Corinthians 11:9) Ου κατεναρκησα ουδενος; dunned no man, I was no man’s parasite. He was not of those that “served not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies.” (Romans 16:18) The Duke of Bavaria’s house is so pestered with friars and Jesuits that, notwithstanding the greatness of his revenue, he is very poor; as spending all his estate upon these Popish parasites. Such among the Turks are the Dervislars and Imailers, that under pretence of religion, live, like body lice, upon other men’s sweat and labours. Ναρκη, torpedo piscis, cuius ea est natura ut propius accedentes seque tangentes obstupefaciat. Hinc καταναρκεω obstupeo cum alicuius incommodo. Pasor. Turk. Hist., fol. 477, 950. Heyl., Geog., p. 291.
Ver. 7. His daughters, and his sons’ daughters.] That is, by a synecdoche, integri; his niece Serah, and his daughter Dinah, who came down with the rest into Egypt; and therefore was not Job’s wife, as the Jews would persuade us.
Ver. 12. And the sons of Pharez were Hezron.] Hezron and Hamul, not yet born, are reckoned instead of Er and Onan, who were dead before the descent into Egypt. See Funccius’s Chronolog. Comment., A.M. 2273.
Ver. 26. Which came out of his loins.] Heb., e femore eius. A modest description of generation, by the instrumental and material cause thereof. And because it is said, that so many souls came out of Jacob’s body, Augustine moves the question here, whether souls also are not begotten, as well as bodies? And when the learned father demurred, and would not presently determine the point, a rash young man, one Vincentius Victor, as Chemnitius relates it, boldly censured the father’s unresolvedness, and vaunted that he would undertake to prove by demonstration that souls are created, de novo, by God; for which peremptory rashness the father returned the young man a sober reprehension. But souls are doubtless here put for persons, which the Latins call capita. Annon igitur animae propagentur ex traduce; argumenta post triduum demum solvo. -Melancthon.
Ver. 27. Threescore and ten.] St Stephen reckons seventy-five. (Acts 7:14) And so the Greek translateth here, which Stephen seemeth to follow; as doth likewise St Luke for Cainan; (Luke 3:36) that translation being then received, and they not willing to alter it. The Jews say, that these seventy souls were as much as all the seventy nations of the world. And Moses tells them, that whereas their fathers went down into Egypt with seventy souls, now Jehovah had made them “as the stars of heaven for multitude.” (Deuteronomy 10:22)
Ver. 28. And he sent Judah before him.] “A good man guides his affairs with discretion”; (Psalms 112:5) doth all things decently, and in order. It was great “joy” to the apostle to behold the Colossians’ “order.” (Colossians 2:5)
Ver. 29. Presented himself unto him.] Joseph, a prince, was no whit ashamed of the poor old shepherd his father, before so many his peers, and other courtiers, that accompanied him and loathed such kind of persons. Colonel Edmonds is much commended for his ingenuous reply to a countryman of his, recently come to him, into the Low Countries, out of Scotland. This fellow desiring entertaimnent of him, told him, my lord his father, and such knights and gentlemen his cousins and kinsmen, were in good health. Quoth Colonel Edmonds, Gentlemen (to his friends by), believe not one word he says; my father is but a poor baker; whom this knave would make a lord, to curry favour with me, and make you believe I am a great man born. [See Trapp on “Ge 22:10”] And he fell on his neck, and wept, &c.] For exceeding joy. What then shall be the meeting of saints in heaven! Christ shall say, “Come, ye blessed of my Father.” As if he should say, Where have ye been all this while, my dear brethren? It was a part of his joy, when he was on earth, “that we should be with him where he is, to behold his glory.” (John 17:24) And this he now prays not, but, “Father I will that they be with me”; as that which he had merited for them. And now, what joy will there be, to see them and suaviate them, for whose sake he shed his most precious blood; through which they may safely sail into the bosom of the Father! Surely, if Plotinus the philosopher could say, Let us make haste to our heavenly country; there is our Father, there are all our friends; how much more triumphantly may Christians say so! If Cicero could say, O praeclarum diem, cure ad illum animorum concilium caetumque proficiscar! &c.; Oh, what a brave day will that be, when I shall go to that council and company of happy souls! to my Cato, and other Roman worthies, dead before me; -how much more may Christians exult, to think of that glorious “nightless day” (ανεσπερον ημεραν), as Nazianzen calls it, when they shall be admitted into the congregation house (πανηγυριν) of the firstborn, (Hebrews 12:23) as the apostle calls heaven; and joyfully welcomed by Abraham, David, Paul, &c., who shall be no less glad of their, than of their own happiness! Who can conceive the comfort of Jacob and Joseph, -or of those two cousins, Mary and Elizabeth, -at their first meeting? But for the joys of heaven, it is as impossible to comprehend them, as to compass heaven itself with a span, or contain the ocean in a nut shell. They are such, saith Augustine, ut quicquid homo dixerit, quasi gutta de mari, quasi scintilla de foco. If the presence of Christ, though but in the womb, made John to spring, and dance a galliard, as the word imports (εσκιρτησεν εν αγαλλιασει, Luke 1:44); what shall it do when we come to heaven! Sermo non valet exprimere experimento opus est, saith Chrysostom. It is more fit to be believed, than possible to be discoursed, saith Prosper. Nec Christus nec caelum patitur hyperbolen, saith another. The apostle, after he had spoken of glorification, breaks forth by way of admiration, into these words; “What shall we say to these things?,” (Romans 8:31) these “wordless words!” as he phraseth it (αρρηστα ρηματα, 2 Corinthians 12:4); and ever uttereth himself, in a transcendent expression, as 2 Corinthians 4:17, where he calleth it “a weight of glory”; such as, if the body were not by the power of God upheld, it were not able to bear. Jacob could hardly hear the news of Joseph, and live: but when once he saw him; “Now let me die,” saith he. Peacham’s Complete Gentleman, p. 5. Fugiendum ad clarissimam patriam: ibi pater, ibi omnia. -Aug., De Civit. Dei., lib. ix. cap. 16. O praeclarum diem, cum ad illud animorum concilium caetumque proficiscar, ad Catonem meum, & c.— Cic., De Sen. Aug., De Triplici Habitu., cap. 4.
Ver. 30. Vow let me die.] What would this good old man have said, had he seen Christ in the flesh, which was one of Augustine’s three wishes? How merrily would he have sung out his soul, as Simeon did, (Luke 2:29,30) who had long looked for the consolation of Israel; and having now laid in his heart what he lapt in his arms, cries, “Nunc dimittis Domine”: I fear no sin, I dread no death (as one Englisheth it): I have lived enough, I have my life: I have longed enough, I have my love: I have seen enough, I have my light: I have served enough, I have my saint: I have sorrowed enough, I have my joy. Sweet babe! let this song serve for a lullaby to thee, and a funeral for me. Oh, sleep in my arms; and let me sleep in thy peace. Because thou art yet alive.] If this were so great a matter to Jacob, what should it be to us, that Christ was dead, and is alive; yea, that he ever lives to make request for us; and that he stands at the right hand of his Father, when any Stephen of his is stoned, (Acts 7:56) as ready prest to interpose between them and any harm that may thereby come unto them! If Seneca could say to his Polybius, Fas tibi non est, salvo Caesare de fortuna tun queri; how much less cause have we to complain, so long as Christ is alive! Can our hearts die within us, while our head is the Lord of life, yea, “our life,” as St Paul calls him? (Colossians 3:4) Optavit se videre potuisse Romam in flore, Paulum in ore, Christum in corpore.
Ver. 32. The men are shepherds.] The truly virtuous or valorous are no whit ashamed of their lowly parentage, but rather glory in themselves, that their merit hath advanced them above so many thousands far better descended. Dr Cox, almoner, and Sir John Cheek, tutor, to King Edward VI, were men of lowly birth, but so well esteemed, saith the historian, for virtue and learning, that they might well be said to be born of themselves. So were Iphicrates, that brave Athenian, the son of a cobbler; Eumenes, one of Alexander’s best captains, the son of a carter; Agathocles king of Sicily, of a potter, &c. And these would many times freely discourse of their beginning, and plainly relate their bringing up, and what their parents were. And they have brought their flocks.] As choosing rather a poor shepherd’s life in God’s service, than to ruffle it as courtiers, out of the Church. So did Moses afterwards; and David; (Psalms 84:10) and the poor prophet that died so deep in debt; and Micaiah; and those that “wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins,” (Hebrews 11:37) who haply might have rustled in silks and velvets, if they would have strained their consciences. Origen was contented to be a poor catechist at Alexandria, every day in fear of death, when he might have been with his fellow pupil Plotinus, in great authority and favour, if not a Christian. Luther was offered a cardinalship, to have held his tongue; Galeacius Caracciohs, a great sum of gold, to have returned to his marquesdom in Italy, &c. God takes it kindly when men will go “after him in the wilderness, in a land not sown”; (Jeremiah 2:2) that is, choose him and his ways in affliction, and with self-denial. Sir John Heywood in his Edward VI
Ver. 33. When Pharaoh shall call you.] At Athens every man gave a yearly account to the magistrate, by what trade, or course of life, he maintained himself; which if he could not do, he was banished. By the law, Mahomet, the great Turk, himself is bound to exercise some manual trade or occupation, for none must be idle: as Solyman the Magnificent’s trade was making of arrow heads; Achmat the Last’s, horn rings for archers, &c. Lex illa Solonis imprimis commendatur, ut quisque quotannis, & c.— Textor., Epist. Peacham.
Ver. 34. Thy servants’ trade hath been, &c.] They were not ashamed of their trade, though low and despicable. Malo miserandum quam erubescendum, saith Tertullian. No lawful calling, but hath an honour put upon it by God; unlawful only are shameful. Ask a poor scavenger what his occupation is, he will answer, I am a scavenger; water bearer, &c. Ask a usurer, gamester, &c., that question; and he will not say, I am a usurer, &c. That ye may dwell in the land of Goshen.] Which, as it was next to the land of Canaan, so it was most fat, fertile, and fit for their cattle. Sumen totius regionis, the like to Egypt, that Campania was to Italy; of which Florus thus writeth: Nihil mollius caelo, nihil uberius solo, nihil hospitalius mari, &c. Liberi, Cererisque certamen dicitur. For every shepherd is an abomination, &c.] An Israelite is still an abomination to an Egyptian, the righteous to the wicked, (Proverbs 29:27) and will be to the world’s end. And there is no love lost between them. The shepherds of Israel especially, are by profane great ones thought scarce worthy to wait upon their trenchers; the baser sort make songs of them, and the abjeets vilify them. Papists make more of hedge priests, than most among us do of powerful preachers: a sad forerunner of the departure of the gospel. If dishonour kept Christ from Nazareth, (John 4:44) much more will it it drive him thence when he is come. Tertul., De Fug. Persec. L. Flor., lib. i. cap. 16.