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CHAPTER XXXVII.

2 Joseph is hated of his brethren. 5 His two dreams. 13 Jacob sendeth him to visit his brethren. 18 His brethren conspire his death. 21 Reuben saveth him. 26 They sell him to the Ishmeelites. 31 His father, deceived by the bloody coat, mourneth for him. 36 He is sold to Potiphar in Egypt.

AND Jacob dwelt in the land 'wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.

2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many *colours.

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And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren and they hated him yet the more.

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6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:

7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.

8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? and they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.

9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.

10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

11 And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

12 ¶ And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

13 And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not

Heb. of his father's sojournings. 2 Or, pieces.
5 Chap. 42. 22.

thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.

14 And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, "see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

15 And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?

16 And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.

17 And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.

18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.

19 And they said one to another, Behold, this 'dreamer cometh.

20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him : and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

21 And 'Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him.

22 And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.

23 ¶ And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him;

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25 And they sat down to eat bread and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.

26 And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?

27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.

3 Heb. see the peace of thy brethren, &c. 6 Or, pieces. 7 Heb. hearkened.

4 Heb. master of dreams. 123

28 Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver and they brought Joseph into Egypt.

29 And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes.

30 And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?

31 And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;

32 And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said,

This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no.

33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an 'evil beast hath devoured him: Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.

34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.

35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.

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36 And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard.

8 Psal. 105. 17. Wisd. 10. 13. Acts 7. 9.

9 Chap. 44. 28.

10 Heb. cunuch. But the word doth signify not only eunuchs, but also chamberlains, courtiers, and officers. 11 Heb. chief of the slaughtermen, or, executioners. Or, chief marshal.

Verse 3. A coat of many colours.-This parti-coloured tunic of Joseph has occasioned some speculation; but it seems to us that the real point of interest has not been noticed. It would be desirable to know whether the art of interweaving a piece in various colours was at this time discovered or not. Judging from the information which this text offers, it would seem not; for the word which is constantly rendered colours' may, as in the marginal reading, with more than equal propriety be rendered 'pieces, which makes it probable that the agreeable effect resulting from a combination of colours was obtained by patchwork, in the first instance; and in after-times, by being wrought with a needle. The value and distinction attached to such variegated dresses shew that they were not common, and were formed by some elaborate process. This continued long after. In the time of David, such a dress was a distinction for a king's daughter (2 Sam. xiii. 18); and in Judges v. 30, we see ladies anticipating the return of a victorious general, with a prey of divers colours, of divers colours of needlework on both sides.' We may therefore infer, that in these times people generally did not wear variegated dresses, the common use of which must have been consequent on the discovery of the art of interweaving a variegated pattern in the original texture, or of printing it subsequently. Except in Persia, where a robe is usually of one colour, most Asiatics are partial to dresses in which various patterns are interwoven in stripes or flowers; and parti-coloured dresses have necessarily ceased to form a distination. The most remarkable illustration of this text which we have seen is given by Mr. Roberts, who states that in India it is customary to invest a beautiful or favourite child with a coat of many colours,' consisting of crimson, purple, and other colours, which are often tastefully sewed together. He adds: 'A child being clothed in a garment of many colours, it is believed that neither tongues nor evil spirits will injure him, because the attention is taken from the beauty of the person to that of the garment.'

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17. 'Dothan.'-This place is mentioned in 2 Kings vi. 13-15, as the city' in which the Syrians were smitten with blindness at the word of Elisha. Dothan is placed by Eusebius and Jerome twelve Roman miles north of Sebaste or Samaria, and it was obviously on the caravan track from Syria to Egypt. The well into which Joseph was cast by his brothers, and consequently the site of Dothan, has, however, been placed by tradition in a very distant quarter, namely, about three miles south-east from Safed, where there is a khan called Khan Jubb Yusuf, the

Khan of Joseph's Pit, because the well connected with it has long passed among Christians and Moslems for the well in question. The Bethulia of Judith has long been identified with Safed; and as Dothan (Dothaim) is mentioned as being in the neighbourhood, it became necessary that Dothan should be found in this quarter. But it is clear, from the notices in Judith (iv. 5; vii. 1, 2), that Bethulia was south, and not north, of the plain of Esdraelon; and consequently we are at liberty to seek the site of Dothan also at some point more conformable to the intimation of Eusebius and to the probabilities of the story than that of the alleged Joseph's well.

19. Dreamer' nin by baal ha-chalomoth, *lerd of dreams, a master dreamer.' There is a bitter irony in this epithet, which seems to suggest that Joseph's brothers considered that he had invented, or pretended to have had, the dreams which so much annoyed them. It does not seem to be generally known that in Western Asia it is considered a fearful enormity, a sort of sacrilege, to utter a pretended dream. Since dreams are regarded as intimations from the higher world, to pretend to have had one assumes the character of something like blasphemous trifling with God. Mohammed himself assigns a place in hell to such offenders.

20. Let us slay him, and cast him into some pit.'-The pit they had in view was doubtless a cistern, such as that into which they ultimately cast him alive. These cisterns generally get exhausted towards the end of summer. two of them, near Heshbon, Irby and Mangles found about three dozen of human skulls and bones.

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25. Ishmeelites.'-Lower down, v. 27, the same persons are called Midianites. The Ishmaelites and Midianites were both descended from Abraham, but of different female parentage (xxv. 2, 4, 12-18). Here they appear to be identified, owing probably to their intimate association with one another. See also Judg. vii. 12; viii. 22, where the words seem to be used promiscuously. Rosenmüller distinguishes them as genera and species, illustrating this by the comparison taken from Aben Ezra, of Frenchmen and Lyonese. As the Ishmaelites were the most numerous and powerful of Abraham's descendants (with the exception of the Israelites), all the others seem to have been merged in them, and known by their name. See Turner's Genesis, p. 333. 'Here,' says Dr. Vincent, upon opening the oldest history in the world, we find the Ishmaelites from Gilead conducting a caravan loaded with the spices of India, the balsam and myrrh of Hadramaut; and in the

regular course of their traffic proceeding to Egypt for a market. The date of this transaction is more than seventeen centuries before the Christian era, and notwithstanding its antiquity, it has all the genuine features of a caravan crossing the desert at the present hour' (Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, ii. 262). We cannot at this moment enter into the question, which Dr. Vincent assumes, that the Arabians had already become the medium of communication between India and Egypt. As the subject divides itself into two parts, the commerce of the Arabians and that of the Egyptians, we postpone the former, and confine ourselves to a few remarks on the latter. In the present text we see a caravan of foreigners proceeding to Egypt, their camels laden with articles of luxury; whence it is an obvious inference that Egypt had then become, what it is always recorded to have been, the centre of a most extensive land commerce; the great emporium to which the merchants brought gold, ivory, and slaves from Ethiopia, incense from Arabia, spices from India, and wine from Phoenicia and Greece; for which Egypt gave in exchange its corn, its manufactures of fine linen, its robes, and its carpets. In after-times, the merchants of the west, of Greece and Rome, resorted to Egypt for its own products, and for the goods brought thither by the Oriental merchants. But none of this was done by Egyptians themselves. We never, either in ancient or modern times, read of Egyptian caravans. This doubtless arose in a great degree from the aversion which (in common with all people who observe a certain diet and mode of life prescribed by religion) they entertained to any intercourse with strangers, and which reminds us continually of the restrictive policy of the Japanese, in some respects, and of the religious prejudices of Hindoos and strict Mohammedans, in others. Thus, it was a maxim among the Egyptians not to leave their own country; and we have ample evidence that they rarely did so, except in attendance upon the wars and expeditions of their sovereigns, even when their restrictive policy and peculiar customs became relaxed under the Greek and Roman rulers of the country. They waited,' says Goguet, after Strabo, 'till other nations brought them the things they stood in need of; and they did this with the more tranquillity, as the great fertility of their country in those times left them few things to desire. It is not at all surprising that a people of such principles did not apply themselves to navigation until very late.' Besides, the Egyptians had a religious aversion to the sea, and considered all those as impious and degraded who embarked upon it. The sea was, in their view, an emblem of the evil being (Typhon), the implacable enemy of Osiris; and the aversion of the priests in particular was so strong, that they carefully kept mariners at a distance, even when others of the nation began to pay some attention to sea affairs. But besides their religious hatred to the sea, and political aversion to strangers, other causes concurred in preventing the cultivation of maritime commerce by the Egyptians. The country produces no wood suitable for the construction of ships. Therefore, when the later Egyptian and the Greek sovereigns began to attend to navigation, they could not fit out a fleet till they had obtained a command over the forests of Phoenicia, which gave occasion to bloody wars between the Ptolemies and the Seleucide for the possession of those countries. The unhealthiness of the Egyptian coast, and the paucity of good harbours, may also be numbered among the circumstances which operated, with others, in preventing attention to maritime affairs.

The indifference of the Egyptians to foreign commerce is demonstrated by the fact that they abandoned the navigation of the Red Sea to whatever people cared to exercise it. They allowed the Phoenicians, the Edomites, the Jews, the Syrians, successively, to have fleets there and maritime stations on its shores. It was not until towards the termination of the national independence that the sovereigns of Egypt began to turn their attention to navigation and commerce. The ports of Lower Egypt were ultimately opened to the Phoenicians and Greeks, by Psammeticus,

about 658 years B.C. His son, Necho, for the purpose of facilitating commerce, attempted to unite the Mediterranean and Red Sea, by means of a canal from the Nile; but desisted after having lost 100,000 workmen. He then caused ships to be built both on the Mediterranean and Red Sea, and interested himself in maritime discovery, with a view to the extension of the commercial relations of Egypt. He sent on a voyage of discovery those Phoenician mariners who are supposed to have effected the circumnavigation of Africa, sailing from the Red Sea, and, after doubling the Cape of Good Hope, returning by the Mediterranean. The maritime power of Egypt increased thenceforward, the clearest proof of which may be found in the fact, that in the reign of Necho's grandson, Apries, the Egyptian fleet ventured to give battle to, and actually defeated, so experienced a naval power as that of the Phoenicians. The subjection of the country to the Persians does not seem to have materially interfered with the growing maritime commerce of Egypt. But Herodotus, who was there in this period, remarks on the characteristic singularity which the Egyptians had carried into their marine and trade. Their ships were built and armed after a fashion quite different from that observed by other nations, and their rigging and cordage were arranged in a manner that appeared very singular and fantastic to the Greeks.

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After all, the Egyptians were not themselves a people addicted to maritime commerce. The Greek rulers of Egypt, indeed, changed the entire system of Egyptian trade, and the new capital, Alexandria, became the first mart of the world, while the ancient inland capitals, which had arisen under the former system, sunk into insignificance. But it was the Greeks of Egypt, not the Egyptians, who did this. They became,' says Dr. Vincent, the carriers of the Mediterranean, as well as the agents, factors, and importers of Oriental produce; and so wise was the new policy, and so deep had it taken root, that the Romans, upon the subjection of Egypt, found it more expedient to leave Alexandria in possession of its privileges, than to alter the course of trade, or occupy it themselves.' See Vincent's Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients; Heeren's Historical Researches; Goguet, Origine des Lois; Regnier, De l'Economie Publique et Rurale des Egyptiens, etc.

'Spicery,' etc.-It is remarkable that the products here enumerated are very nearly the same which are mentioned in ch. xliii. 11, as sent by Jacob by his sons as a present to the governor of Egypt. This seems to shew that they were rarer in Egypt than in Syria, if it does not prove that they were the produce of the latter country. The word necoth, occurs in both, and is rendered 'spices,' or perfumes,' not only in our version, but in the Septuagint and the Vulgate, as well as by Rashi and Aben Ezra. Onkelos renders it by a word, , which Rashi supposes to mean wax, but more likely, as De Pomis explains, a resinous substance, as the Arabic and Syriac also translate it. This last-named writer, followed by Rosenmüller, Professor Royle, and others, supposes that it is the Gum

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SPICE (Astragalus Gummifer).

Tragacantha, which is obtained from several species of Astragalus, several of which grow in Syria and Asia Minor. One of these, A. Gummifer, yielding the best kind of tragacanth, was found by Dickson of Tripoli in Lebanon, where he ascertained that the tragacanth was collected by the shepherds. This gum has always been highly esteemed in eastern countries, and was therefore likely to be an article of commerce to Egypt in ancient times.

- Balm,'tzeri.-The product distinguished by this name of tzeri is several times mentioned in Scripture. In Ezek. xxvii. 17, it is mentioned along with wheat of Minnith and Pannag, and honey, and oil,' as merchandise which Judah brought to the markets of Tyre. This was possessed of medicinal properties, as appears from Jer. viii. 22, 'Is there no tzeri in Gilead?' from Jer. xlvi. 11, 'Go up into Gilead and take tzeri; and from Jer. xli. 8, 'Take tzeri for her pain, if she may be healed.' In all these places, as here, the Authorized Version has balm.' This translation has led the notion that the tzeri must be no other than the so-called balm of Gilead,' Balsamodendron Gileadense, so famous in ancient times. But the Hebrew has other words, BASAM and BAAL-SHEMEN, which more certainly and distinctly refer to this balm or balsam of former days: and as therefore we cannot regard this one product as represented by both terms, we are obliged to confess that we do not know to what product of Palestine the tzeri is to be referred. It was probably an odoriferous resin of some kind or other.

-Myrrh.'-The original is lot, of which 'myrrh' is regarded as a very erroneous rendering. The word only occurs here and in the list of the presents which Jacob sent to Egypt. The range of translation in different versions

MYRRH (Cistus Creticus).

LADANUM, which seems a more probable interpretation than any other that has been offered: for this product was known to the ancients; its Greek and Arabic names are similar to the Hebrew; and as it is stated to have been a produce of Syria, it was very likely to have been sent to Egypt both as merchandise and as a present. It is a fragrant and medicinal gum yielded by species of the gummy Cistus (especially Cistus Creticus), which are natives of the Levant, southern Europe, and northern Africa, and of which the Rock Rose in this country is a familiar example. These species grow in Palestine; and there is a passage in the Talmud which seems to intimate that ladanum was gathered in Judæa.

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36. An officer.'-The original word is D saris, which is proved by Isa. lvi. 3, 4, to mean an eunuch. Such persons Oriental monarchs were accustomed to set over their harems (Esth. ii. 3, 14, 15; iv. 5); and also to employ them in various offices of the court (Esth. i. 10, 15; ii. 21; vi. 2; vii. 9). So, in Dan. i. 3, we read of the chief or prince of the eunuchs (sar ha-sarisim), who had charge of the king's sons, as at the present day, in Turkey, the Kislar Aga has charge of the sultan's children. From this employment of eunuchs arose, as some think, the application of the name to persons filling such employments, even when not eunuchs. This conjecture is founded upon the circumstance that Potiphar, who is described as a saris, was married, whence it is inferred that he could not be an eunuch. But this is by no means clear, as instances are not uncommon of eunuchs having wives (Terence, Eunuchus, iv. 3, 24; Chardin, Voyage, iii. 397). See also Thornton's

Turkey, ii. 295, where we learn that the chief of the black eunuchs at Constantinople, at the beginning of this century, had a regular harem of his own. Besides, if the word only describes Potiphar as an officer, it is altogether pleonastic, as the very next clause mentions his office. Of the other passages of the Old Testament, there are not a few in which the proper sense of eunuch must obviously be retained; and there are more in which it is not appropriate. See Gesenius's Thesaurus, p. 973.

Captain of the guard.'-This name of office, in the original dansar hat-tabbachim, has also given occasion to some discussion. Rashi makes it to mean the chief of the slaughtermen of the king's cattle-and so the margin of the Auth. Version; the Septuagint, chief of the cooks; the Targum, 'chief of the executioners;' Vulgate, 'magistro militum;' French version, chef de ses troupes;' Luther, hoffmeister.' The current of prevailing opinion is in favour of the interpretation adopted by our translators; and we shall probably not be far wrong in regarding Potiphar as captain of the body-guard, with which function was usually combined that of magister lictorum -- the lictors, or executioners of the royal will, being in fact the body-guard; as was the case in the ancient, and is still the case in Eastern, courts. In Egypt and Babylon this functionary had the custody of state prisoners, as well as the execution of malefactors (Gen. xxxix. 20; xl. 3; Dan. ii. 14). It is worthy of remark, in connection with the preceding note, that the Kapuaghey, or chief of the white eunuchs, is also captain of the Kapidigis, or life-guards of the Turkish sultan.

CHAPTER XXX VIII.

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1 Judah begetteth Er, Onan, and Shelah. 6 Er marrieth Tamar. 8 The trespass of Onan. Tamar stayeth for Shelah. 13 She deceiveth Judah. 27 She beareth twins, Pharez and Zarah.

AND it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.

2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was 'Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her.

3 And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er.

4 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan.

5 And she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him.

6¶ And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.

7 And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.

8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.

9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in

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unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.

10 And the thing which he did 'displeased the LORD wherefore he slew him also.

11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.

12 ¶ And in process of time the daughter of Shuah Judah's wife died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep.

14 And she put her widow's garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife.

15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face.

16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in

3 Num. 26. 19. 4 Heb. was evil in the eyes of the LORD. 5 Heb, the days were multiplied. 6 Heb. the door of eyes, or, of Enajím.

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