Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 45
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Genesis 45
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Genesis 45
"Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood before him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren." — Genesis 45:1 (ASV)
Joseph could not refrain himself. —The picture Judah had drawn of his father’s love for Benjamin, the thought that by separating them he might have caused his father to die of grief, and the sight of his brothers, and especially of Judah offering to endure a life of slavery so that Benjamin might go free, overpowered Joseph’s feelings.
He then commanded all his attendants to leave the room, so that there would be no restraint on him or his brothers when he revealed to them that he was the brother whom they had so cruelly condemned to slavery years ago.
"And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard." — Genesis 45:2 (ASV)
And the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. —Not the sound of Joseph’s weeping, but the news that his brothers had come, as in Genesis 45:16.
"And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt." — Genesis 45:4 (ASV)
I am Joseph your brother. —There is much force in the assurance that he was still their brother. For they stood speechless in terrified surprise at finding that the hated dreamer, upon the anguish of whose soul they had looked unmoved, was now the ruler of a mighty empire. But with magnanimous gentleness he bids them neither to grieve nor be angry with themselves; for behind their acts there had been a watchful Providence guiding all things for good.
"For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and there are yet five years, in which there shall be neither plowing nor harvest." — Genesis 45:6 (ASV)
Earing. —An old English word for ploughing, derived from the Latin arare, Anglo-Saxon erian, to plough.
"And God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance." — Genesis 45:7 (ASV)
To preserve you a posterity in the earth.—Hebrew: To put for you a remnant in the land, that is, to preserve a remainder for you, as the word is translated in 2 Samuel 14:7. During the seven years’ famine, many races probably dwindled away, and the Hebrews, as mere sojourners in Canaan, would have been in danger of total extinction.
By a great deliverance.—That is, by a signal interference on your behalf. But the word translated “deliverance,” more precisely signifies that which escapes (see 2 Kings 19:31, where, as here, it is joined with the word remnant, and 2 Kings 19:30, where it is itself translated remnant). The two nouns truly signify the same thing; but whereas in the first clause the words seem to forebode that only a few would escape, in the second there is the assurance of their surviving in such numbers as to be able to grow into a great nation.
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