48443 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, how old [art] thou?] Or, "how many are the days of the years of thy life?" which way of speaking Jacob takes up, and very pertinently makes use of in his answer that follows: Dr. Lightfoot (m) thinks Pharaoh had never seen so old a man before, so grave a head, and so grey a beard, and in admiration asked this question....
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Jacob said unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage [are] an hundred and thirty years,.... He calls his life a "pilgrimage"; as every good man's is; they are not at home in their own country, they are seeking a better, even an heavenly one: Jacob's life was very emphatically and literally a pilgrimage; he first dwelt in Canaan, from...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh. When he took his leave of him, he blessed him, in like manner as when he came into his presence, by wishing all happiness to him, and giving him thanks for the honour he had done him, and the favours he had conferred on him and his.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt,.... Houses to dwell in, lands to till, and pastures to feed their flocks and herds in: in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh commanded; according to Jarchi and Aben Ezra, the land of Rameses was a part of the land of Goshen: Jerom...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And. Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and his father's household, with bread,.... For though there might be in Rameses pasture sufficient for their cattle, yet not corn for their families, the famine still continuing; during which time Joseph, as a dutiful and affectionate son, and as a kind brother, supplied them with all necessary...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And [there was] no bread in all the land,.... The land of Egypt and the parts adjacent, but in Pharaoh's storehouses, all being consumed that were in private hands the first two years of the famine: for the famine [was] very sore; severe, pressed very hard: so that the land of Egypt, and [all] the land of Canaan, fainted by reason of the famine;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joseph gathered up all the money,.... Not that he went about to collect it, or employed men to do it, but he gathered it, being brought to him for corn as follows: even all that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: by which means those countries became as bare of money as of provisions: and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan,.... It had been all spent in the third, fourth, and fifth years of the famine; for it seems to be at the end of the fifth, or beginning of the sixth year of the famine, that this was the case, since we after read of a second or following year, which was very plainly the last,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joseph said, give your cattle,.... Oxen, sheep, horses, asses, as follows: and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail; that is, corn for cattle, if they had no money to give.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they brought their cattle unto Joseph,.... Which they might the more readily do, since there was scarce any grass to feed them with; and though some of them were creatures used for food, yet might be so lean and poor for want of grass, as not to be fit to eat; and besides, they could do better without flesh than without bread: and Joseph gave...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
When the year was ended, they came unto him the second year,.... Which seems to be the seventh and last year of the years of famine; not the second year of the famine, as Jarchi, but the second year of their great distress, when having spent all their money they parted with their cattle; for it cannot be thought that they should be drained of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land?.... Beholding their miserable condition, and not helping them; die they must unless they had bread to eat, and their land die also if they had not seed to sow; that is, would become desolate, as the Septuagint version renders it; so Ben Melech observes, that land which is desolate is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh,.... Not for himself, nor did he entail it on his posterity, but for Pharaoh, who became sole proprietor of it: for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them; everyone that had a field sold it to buy bread for his family, so great was the famine; no mention is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And as for the people, he removed them,.... From the places where they dwelt, that it might appear they had no more property there, and might forget it, and be more willing to pay rent elsewhere; and their posterity hereafter could have no notion of its being theirs, or plead prescription; and besides, by such a removal and separation of the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Only the land of the priests bought he not,.... Not from any special affection for them, or any superstitious veneration of them, which can never be thought of so good a man, but for a reason following, which shows they had no need to sell them: for the priests had a portion [assigned them], by Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Joseph said unto the people,.... After he had bought their land, and before the removal of them to distant parts: behold, I have bought you this day, and your land, for Pharaoh: which he observes to them, that they might take notice of it, and confirm it, or object if they had anything to say to the contrary: lo, [here is] seed for you, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it shall come to pass, in the increase,.... When the land shall produce an increase, and it shall be gathered in: that you shall give the fifth [part] unto Pharaoh; a fifth part of the increase: and four parts shall be your own; for the following uses, one part for seed of the field: to sow again with for the next year: a second part for your...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they said, thou hast saved our lives,.... Preserved them from death through famine, by laying up stores of corn, which he had sold out to them for their money, cattle, and land, or otherwise they must have perished, they and theirs, and this favour they thankfully acknowledge: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day,.... With the consent of Pharaoh, his nobles, and all the people of the land, who readily came into it; and so it became, a fundamental law of their constitution, and which continued to the times of Moses, the writer of this history: [that] Pharaoh should have the fifth [part]; that is,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen,.... The historian returns to the account of the Israelites, having before observed the placing of them in Goshen by Joseph, at the direction of Pharaoh, in compliance with their own request; and here they continued until they were grown more numerous, when they were obliged to spread...