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lord's ears, and let not thy anger burn against thy servant: for thou art as Pharaoh. 19. My lord asked his servants, saying, Have you a father, or a brother? 20. And we said to my lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a young one; and his brother is dead; and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him. 21. And thou saidst to thy servants, Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes upon him. 22. And we said to my lord, The youth cannot leave his father: for if he should leave his father, his father would die. 23. And thou saidst to thy servants, Unless your youngest brother come down with you, you shall see my face no more. 24. And when we came up to thy servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. 25. And our father said, Go again, and buy us a little corn for food. 26. And we said, We cannot go down: if our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down: for we may not see the man's face, if our youngest brother be not with us. 27. And thy servant my father said to us, You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28. And the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces; and I saw him not since: 29. And if you take this one also from me, and an accident befall him, you will bring

sorrows, could no longer restrain his revolted sentiments; all the floods of his agitated mind rushed upon him like a mighty torrent; the nobleness of his nature stood aghast at the inhuman barbarity of the tyrant; but Judah, the lion, could never degrade his dignity by an outburst of impotent rage; the tempest of his feelings was checked by controlling reason; and the chaotic confusion of his emotions gave way to manly composure and lucid thought. Stepping forward towards the inexorable man, with the courage and modesty of the hero, he delivered that address which is one of the masterpieces of Hebrew composition. It is not distinguished by brilliant imagination or highly poetical diction; its inimitable charm and excellence consist in the power of psychological truth, easy simpli

city, and affecting pathos. It possesses the eloquence of facts, not of words; it is, in reality, scarcely more than a simple recapitulation of past incidents; but the selection, arrangement, and intrinsic emphasis of the facts produce an effect attainable only by consummate art. The deep and fervent love of the aged father for his youngest son, forms the centre, round which the other parts of the speech, the allusion to Joseph, to Rachel, and to the struggle of the brothers before their departure from Canaan, are skilfully grouped. Jacob would never survive the loss of Benjamin; and if the brothers returned without him, they would see their father expire in agony before their eyes. Was this not enough for the feelings of a son? Could Joseph still remain unmoved? One trait more com

down my grey hairs with sorrow into the grave. 30. Now therefore when I come to thy servant my father, and the youth be not with us, since his soul is bound up in the youth's soul; 31. It will happen, when he seeth that the youth is not with us, that he will die: and thy servants will bring down the grey hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow into the grave. 32. For thy servant became surety for the youth to my father, saying, If I do not bring him to thee, then I will have sinned to my father for ever. 33. Now, therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant remain instead of the youth as a bondman to my lord; and let the youth go up with his brothers. 34. For how shall I go up to my father, and the youth is not with me? lest perhaps I see the evil that will befall my father.

pleted the victory over his heart. Judah had not words only for his unhappy father; but anxious to seal his filial love by the greatest sacrifice he could possibly offer: he was ready to renounce his home, his wife and his children, and for ever to toil in the drudgery of Egyptian bondage. However, Judah's moderation was not the effect of mere helplessness. Almost certain that he would not be refused as a substitute for his brother Benjamin, and satisfied if this request only were granted to him, he was unwilling to force Joseph's decision; he

abstained even from touching upon the chief and most essential question of Benjamin's guilt or innocence; the fact alone that the goblet had been found in the possession of the latter was to him a certain proof that the whole embarrassment was so decreed and designed by the Lord: though he tried to interest the humanity of Joseph, he did not wish to interfere with the councils of God;-the grand doctrine of Divine Providence breathes through and animates every part of this narrative, as profound as it is beautiful.

CHAPTER XLV.

1. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all those who stood by him; and he cried, Let every man go out from me. And there stood no man with him, when

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1.-The thrilling tale, having fully realised all the ends for which it was conceived, and having " vindicated the ways of God to man," hastens to its conclusion. Joseph was rejoiced that he at last was permitted to resign the stern office of judge, to descend from the giddy and frigid height of superior to be an equal of his brothers, and to remove at once the worldly and the moral barriers which had so long sepa

rated him from his own beloved family. But though almost overwhelmed by the turbulence of his sentiments, his mind was still powerful enough to command and to govern them. Should the Egyptian officials witness the recognition? Should they hear or infer the crime of his brothers, and recoil at their ruthless barbarity? They would have perceived the guilt, but would have been unable to estimate the

Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2. And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it. 3. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brothers could not answer him; for they were confounded before him. 4. And Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 5. And now be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me hither: for God sent me before you for the preservation of life. 6. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and there are yet five years, in which there will neither be ploughing nor harvest. 7. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and He hath made me governor to Pharaoh, and lord of

atonement; they would have shuddered at the deed, but have failed to understand it as a means in the hand of Providence; their aversion against the foreigners and the nomads would have deepened into detestation; and their presence would have destroyed all the beautiful prospects which then filled Joseph's agitated mind. Absorbed by such thoughts, and, moreover, reluctant to profane so sacred a scene by the curious gaze of strangers, he ordered all Egyptians to leave him.

2-15. After having silenced the first tumult of his emotions, he at once mentioned his name, and abruptly enquired after Jacob.-The haste with which he turned to the absent father, almost forgetting his present brothers, was but too natural: well aware that, as the instrument of Divine correction, he had tortured the heart of his aged parent by insisting upon Benjamin's journey; he felt a profound delight to be, at length, released from an ungrateful duty, and an anomalous position. But the brothers had been astounded and terrified rather than surprised by his announcement; and they trembled with undiminished awe before

the impenetrable man who had more than once shown them his severity and his favour. Joseph, therefore, desirous to gain their confidence, rose to the highest ideas which he was conscious of representing: repeating, without disguise or adornment, the ignominious fact that he was the brother they had so criminally sold, he entreated them henceforth to banish all pain and grief at that deed, since God had turned it into a means of deliverance, both for them and the heathen nations; they might, therefore, be consoled by the reflection, that it was God who had sent him into the strange land for great and beneficent ends, not to remain a slave, but to become the first adviser of the monarch. He recurs to this idea so emphatically, and so evidently for the encouragement of his brothers, as if he intended to assure them that their crime was atoned for by the sincerity of their repentance, and to cheer them with the beautiful doctrine: "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered: blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity" (Ps. xxxii. 1, 2).—But then his thoughts impatiently returned to his dis

all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. 9. Hasten, and go up to my father, and say to him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down to me, tarry not: 10. And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast: 11. And there will I nourish thee; for there are yet five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty. 12. And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh to you. 13. And you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen; and you shall hasten and bring down. my father hither. 14. And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15. And he kissed all his brothers, and wept upon

tant father; he wished him to live in his immediate neighbourhood, and considered it a precious privilege to protect and effectually to support him. So deep was his veneration for the man whose eventful destinies appeared to his clear-sighted intellect like the bold characters of Divine retribution.

The residence chosen by Joseph for his family was at Goshen. This district of Lower Egypt belonged to the most fertile parts of the land, was eminently favourable to the purposes of agriculture, but especially distinguished by rich pastures, and hence highly desirable for breeders of cattle. It was situated in the east of the Nile, since the Israelites at their departure from Egypt reached Succoth without crossing that river, from which, however, it could not have been distant, since, in the desert, they bitterly regretted the want of fishes, which they had eaten in Egypt "freely"; nor was it far from the residence of the Pharaohs, from where it could be easily reached by carriage; in the east, or rather north-east of it, since Joseph went up to meet his father at his arrival from Canaan; whether that resi

dence was at Tanis, or Memphis, or Heliopolis. It was also called Rameses, and included the towns Pithom and Raamses. It extended, no doubt, from the vicinity of the Nile considerably to the east, perhaps to the borders of the waste tracts; but not to the desert itself, to which the Hebrews, in Moses' time, asked permission to proceed for the performance of sacrifices. More than this, it is impossible to ascertain, either from Biblical notices or other sources; as, in fact, the name Goshen is not mentioned by any independent profane writer. Nor is it of any value, to fix at random upon any one district in the east of the Nile, and to represent it by a specious and partial description as the Goshen of Genesis. The "Hill or Tower of the Jews" (Tell or Turbet el Jehud), north-east of Cairo, on the Pelusiac arm of the Nile, dates unquestionably from a much later period, probably after the time of Ptolemæus Philometer, when Jews again settled in that district. - It needs scarcely to be remarked that the province of Goshen was not exclusively appropriated to the small colony of Hebrews settling there under Joseph's authoП п 2

them and after that his brothers spoke to him.-16. And the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brothers are come: and it pleased Pharaoh and his servants. 17. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to thy brothers, This do, load your animals, and go, come to the land of Canaan; 18. And take your father and your households, and come to me: and I will give you the best part of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land. 19. Now thou art commanded, this do; take you carriages out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. 20. And do not regard your utensils; for the good of all the land

rity; since, even in the time of the Exodus, after their prodigious increase, it was inhabited by Egyptians also; for both are introduced as neighbours, giving and receiving presents, and as living promiscuously in the same cities, so that the houses of the Hebrews were to be marked for the guidance of the destroying angel (Exod. xii. 23).

16-21. Although Joseph was inferior to Pharaoh only with regard to the throne, and although he was the governor, master, and ruler over all Egypt; he used his power with a moderation equally honourable to his intelligence and his character. He was, indeed, certain that arrangements made by him in favour of his family would not be opposed or reversed by the king; and he therefore, without previous consultation or permission, accorded to his brothers abodes in Goshen, in the choicest part of the land (ver. 10); but he afterwards most judiciously endeavoured to obtain the royal approbation. Having himself informed the king of the arrival of his relatives, of their pursuits, and their possession of numerous cattle; he took five of the brothers with him to present them to Pharaoh, and instructed them what to say at that interview (xlvi. 31-xlvii. 4). The king had before, of his own accord, promised that Joseph's family should live in a good part of the land, without, however, making mention of Goshen (vers. 18,20). The request

of the brothers implied, in fact, a certain boldness, because in Goshen the cattle of the king himself was kept (xlvii.6); and it appears that Pharaoh gave his consent only after some consideration; for he addressed the answer not to the brothers directly, but to Joseph, and with a certain formality (see on xlvii. 5, 6). How prudent, and perhaps necessary, the moderation of Joseph was, is evident, not only from the decided tone of Pharaoh in giving him the strictest commands with the superiority of a master (vers. 17—21), but from the independent position which even the other officials seem to have occupied at the royal court (ver. 16; comp. 1.4-6; xli. 37, 38). Thus disarming suspicion and jealousy, he could, without impediment, employ his genius and his energy in carrying out his great plans for the organisation of the land: for not his own greatness, but the mitigation of a fearful calamity was his aim; and far from coveting dominion, he never ceased to regard himself as an humble medium in the hands of Providence (ver. 5; 1. 19 20).

The order of Pharaoh to send carriages to Jacob from Egypt, is either based on the supposition that at that time vehicles for riding were not yet at all known or employed in Canaau; or leads to the inference, that they were essentially different from those used in Egypt; or what is more probable, that those sent by Joseph

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