A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

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Genesis 47

¹ Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brethren, and their flocks and their herds and all that they have, have come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.”

— behold, they are in the land of Goshen; though Joseph had all along wished this to be the dwelling-place of his brethren, yet it was necessary to obtain Pharaoh’s permission; and at present Joseph only mentions that they had halted there.

² And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh. — the Targum of Jonathan identifies the five men as “Zebulon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher”

³ And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, “What is your occupation?” And they said unto Pharaoh, “Thy servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers.”

⁴ They said moreover unto Pharaoh, “To sojourn in the land have we come, for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.”

⁵ And Pharaoh spoke unto Joseph, saying, “Thy father and thy brethren have come unto thee.

⁶ The land of Egypt is before thee. In the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell; and if thou knowest any industrious men among them, then make them rulers over my cattle.”

— and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle; Pharaoh offered to employ them as shepherds, provided they were active men; also, of body or mind, fit for royal employment of flocks and herds;

⁷ And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. — Jacob blessed Pharaoh; the patriarch’s grateful return for Pharaoh’s great kindness and generosity toward him and his house, which is repeated, Genesis 47:10, as being a circumstance very remarkable.

⁸ And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, “How old art thou?” — how many are the days of the years of thy life? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage (literally, of my sojournings, wanderings to and fro without any settled condition) are an hundred and thirty years;

⁹ And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”

— Jacob’s life till now is fell short of that of his ancestors in respect of duration (witness the 175 years of Abraham, and the 180 of Isaac)

¹⁰ And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

¹¹ And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. — the land of Rameses; “best of the land” this description of the land of Goshen appears only here;

¹² And Joseph nourished his father and his brethren and all his father’s household with bread, according to 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 provision, signified by bread.

¹³ And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.

— there was no bread in all the land; this probably refers to the second year of the famine when any little stores of individuals or families were exhausted and when the people had become universally dependent on the government;

¹⁴ And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the corn which they bought; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.

— and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house: into his repository, as the Targum of Jonathan, into his treasury, not into his own house or coffers, in which he acted the faithful servant of Pharaoh;

¹⁵ And when money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph and said, “Give us bread; for why should we die in thy presence? For the money faileth.” — all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, give us bread; freely, for nothing, since they had no money to buy any with:

¹⁶ And Joseph said, “Give your cattle; and I will give to you for your cattle, if money fail.” — and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail; that is, corn or wheat for cattle, if they had no money to give.

¹⁷ And they brought their cattle unto Joseph; and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds and for the asses; and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.

¹⁸ When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, “We will not hide it from my lord that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle. There is not anything left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands.

— the seventh year is now come; their silver and cattle are now gone. Nothing remains but their lands, and with these themselves as serfs orr slaves of the Pharaoh.

¹⁹ Why shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh; and give us seed, that we may live and not die, that the land be not desolate.” — all the desperate Egyptians cried before their Pharaoh, willing to serve as his slaves;

²⁰ And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them; so the land became Pharaoh’s. — and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh; both should be his; they would hold their land of him, and be tenants to him;

²¹ And as for the people, he removed them to cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof. — in the cities, the people would be sure of nourishment only if they were in the immediate neighbourhood of the food.

²² Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them by Pharaoh, and ate their portion which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they sold not their lands. — it was then the custom in Egypt for the priests to have a daily allowance of cooked food.

²³ Then Joseph said unto the people, “Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh. Lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.

²⁴ And it shall come to pass in the harvest, that ye shall give a fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own for seed of the field and for your food, and for those of your households and for food for your little ones.” — the fifth part unto Pharaoh; a fifth part or 20% of their production;

²⁵ And they said, “Thou hast saved our lives. Let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.” — we will be Pharaoh’s servants; signifying, that they esteemed it a great favour to be so on the foot of the bargain made with them;

²⁶ And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have a fifth part, except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s.

²⁷ And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew and multiplied exceedingly. — in the country of Goshen or in the land of Rameses, hence this land is the same;

²⁸ And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; so the whole age of Jacob was a hundred forty and seven years. — Jacob’s life now is 147, still short of that of his ancestors: 175 years of Abraham, and the 180 of Isaac;

²⁹ And the time drew nigh that Israel must die, and he called his son Joseph and said unto him, “If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me: bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt.

— Joseph retained his power and place near Pharaoh after the fourteen years of special service were completed; hence, Jacob looks to him for the accomplishment of his wishes concerning the place of his burial;

— “Put thy hand under my thigh” Genesis 24:2; that is,  swear to me; this binds Joseph by a solemn asseveration to carry his mortal remains to the land of promise. 

³⁰ But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place.” And he said, “I will do as thou hast said.”

— bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt; not choosing to lie among idolaters at death, with whom he cared not to have any fellowship in life.

³¹ And he said, “Swear unto me.” And he swore unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head. — and Jacob asked from Joseph; “Swear unto me”

— the right of primogeniture, the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child, has been forfeited by Reuben; the double portion in the inheritance is now transferred to Joseph.

Genesis 48

¹ And it came to pass after these things that one told Joseph, “Behold, thy father is sick”; and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. — Joseph’s two sons Manasseh and Ephraim to be fathers of two tribes in Israel, Genesis 48:5,6

— Rashi Gen 48:1 that Ephraim was accustomed to study with Jacob, and when Jacob became ill in the land of Goshen, Ephraim went to his father to Egypt to tell him.

² And one told Jacob and said, “Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee”; and Israel strengthened himself and sat upon the bed. — and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon his bed; his spirits revived, his strength renewed, he got fresh vigour on hearing his son Joseph was coming;

³ And Jacob said unto Joseph, “God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me

⁴ and said unto me, ‘Behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee; and I will make of thee a multitude of people, and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.’

— and I will make of thee a multitude of people; a large nation, consisting of many tribes, even a company of nations, as the twelve tribes of Israel were;

⁵ And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. — thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh; it was the intention of the aged patriarch to adopt Joseph’s sons as his own;

⁶ And thy issue whom thou begettest after them shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance. — but should be called either the children of Ephraim, or the children of Manasseh;

⁷ And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath” (the same is Bethlehem).

— Rachel died by me; this circumstance he here mentions, partly because the sight of Joseph and his children brought his beloved Rachel, Joseph’s mother, to his remembrance; and partly that he might assign a reason for transferring the right of the firstborn to Joseph;

⁸ And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons, and said, “Who are these?” — and said, who are these? whose sons are they? the Targum of Jonathan says, “from whom were these born to thee?”

⁹ And Joseph said unto his father, “They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place.” And he said, “Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.” — that I may bless them, not with a common, but with a paternal, and patriarchal, and prophetical blessing.

¹⁰ (Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see.) And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them and embraced them. — and he brought them near unto him; that he might have a better sight of them and bless them: and he kissed them, and embraced them: as a token of his affection for them.

¹¹ And Israel said unto Joseph, “I had not thought to see thy face; and lo, God hath shown me also thy seed.” — God hath showed me also thy seed; it was an additional favour to see his offspring;

¹² And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. — he bowed himself, testifying thereby his reverence to his father, he had now showed his humble and earnest request for his blessing upon them.

¹³ And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near unto him.

¹⁴ And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.

¹⁵ And he blessed Joseph and said, “God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who fed me all my life long unto this day,

¹⁶ the Angel who redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

¹⁷ And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; and he held up his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head.

¹⁸ And Joseph said unto his father, “Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put thy right hand upon his head.”

— Jacob’s preference for Ephraim wasn’t out of the blue. Ephraim had Jacob’s right-hand blessing because Ephraim was accustomed to studying the Torah under Jacob (Rashi Genesis 48:1), while Manasseh, the firstborn was picked up by Joseph to be his assistant in governing Egypt; hence less time to learn from Jacob.

— from a critical verse in Deuteronomy 33:17

His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns. With them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.” Deuteronomy 33:17

¹⁹ And his father refused and said, “I know it, my son, I know it. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.”

²⁰ And he blessed them that day, saying, “In thee shall Israel bless, saying, ‘God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh.’” And he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

²¹ And Israel said unto Joseph, “Behold, I die; but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.

²² Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.”

— Ephraim before Manasseh! Who symbolises the Bullock and who is the Unicorn?

If Great Britain were truly Ephraim, then why does their Royal Standard bear the clear representation of the Unicorn – the symbol or sign of the tribe of Manasseh? The Unicorn of Great Britain identifies the British as primarily of the tribe of Manasseh. And if the unicorn is the symbol of Manasseh and the United States is “Manasseh” – why doesn’t the United States have this symbol in their national emblems and symbols?

The beginning of the story of America is the saga of the search for freedom to worship God without having to conform to the authority of a religious tyranny emanating from Europe. Today, as a whole, America remains a religious nation.

Among advanced industrialized countries, the United States is easily the most religious. Some 60 percent of its citizens say religion is very important to their lives, about six times the percentage of the French. But the divine looms even larger in most Americans’ hearts than those figures suggest. Some 90 percent say they believe in God – 94 percent if you add those who revere a ‘universal spirit’ – while less than 1 percent call themselves atheists or agnostics.

The United States was originally founded largely by Puritans, called Pilgrims, a break-away group of devout Christians who were known as Separatists, because they separated from the Church of England to follow the precepts of the Bible. Because of intense persecution, they sailed for the New World to establish a country where they could worship God in peace.

More on (1) Ephraim / The United States; (2) The Birthrights was Joseph’s

(3) Ephraim and Manasseh (4) Who is Ephraim, a Chronic Liar? (5) The Ox without the Unicorn

~ by Joel on September 21, 2024.

Posted in Books of Moses