p. 332 | Untitled article

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, November 12, 1867

Notes on Genesis.

THE SABBATH.

Chap. xxix, 27. Fulfil her week and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.

The week, here mentioned, was that of the marriage-feast; and did not relate to the years Jacob afterward served. The division of time by weeks, intimates that some regard was paid to the Sabbath.—Scott.

JACOB’S SHRUNKEN SINEW.

Chap. xxxii, 32. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day; because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.

Sinew.] The ischiatic, “which is upon the hollow of the thigh,” extending through the femur and crus to the ankles, called the tendo Achillis. Rosenm. Shrunk.] ‘Gr. was benumbed, or waxed feeble. The permanent seat of injury we believe to have been the tendinous ligament, connecting the thigh bone with the hip joint.’ Bush. ‘The Jews are so scrupulous as to abstain from all the tendons (nervi) of the hinder part of animals.’ Rosenm. By this peculiarity they appear to have been distinguished among the heathen; for, agreeably to Dr. Morrison’s journal, cited in the Chinese Repos, he was informed by a Mohammedan, that at Kae-fung Foo, in Honan, there are a few families denominated Teaeou-kin-keou, or the sect that plucks out the sinew.’—Jenks.

JUDAH’S FEAR.

Chap. xxxvii, 26. And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed: behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.

He expresses no concern to get the sin pardoned, only about the shame, to prevent that. Many are more solicitous to preserve their reputation with men, than to secure the favor of God and a clear conscience; lest we be shamed, goes farther with them, than lest we be damned.—Henry.

IMPORTANT USE OF BIBLE WORDS.

Chap. xl, 12. And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days:

Are three days.] That is, signify three days. The Heb. has no word answering to our terms, denotes, signifies, represents; but they say, such a thing is, for signifies or denotes. Hence the words of our Lord are explained ‘This is my body; this cup is the, &c., i. e. represents, signifies.’—Boothroyd. A death blow to the doctrine of transubstantiation.—Jenks.

MAN STEALING.

Verse 15. For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.

Stolen.] ‘Did not the Ishmaelites buy him? They did, but it was of those who had no right to sell him, and therefore it was in reality stealing him. Such would be the purchase of a child, by a kidnapper of an unprincipled nurse: and such is the purchase of slaves to this day on the coast of Africa.—Fuller.

GOD’S PROVIDENCE.

Verses 16, 17. When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets on my head: And in the uppermost basket was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.

Had the baker told his dream first, the butler might have been discouraged, and have never told his; nor in this case would Joseph ever have been mentioned in the house of Pharaoh. Thus without destroying the freedom of human actions, does God control and dispose them, for the accomplishment of his own wise and holy purposes.’—Boothroyd. See Chap. xli, 9.

KINE OUT OF THE RIVER.

Chap. xli, 2. And behold, there came up out of the river seven well-favoured kine and fat-fleshed; and they fed in a meadow.

Kine came up out of the river.] The cattle (of the buffalo kind, which alone are now used in agriculture, &c. in Egypt) spend much of the day immersed all but the nostrils in the waters of the Nile, to escape the heat and insects, which swarm in that country. A traveler seeing them come up out of the river, is forcibly reminded of this ancient description. See also Jolliffe.

WHY JOSEPH SHAVED HIMSELF.

Verse 14. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.

Shaved.] ‘The Egyptians were not wont to let their beards grow as the Hebrews did; but shaved them, except in mourning or captivity.’ See Herodotus. Rosenm.

THE MAGICIANS CONDEMNED.

Verse 16. And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.

Thus Joseph spake of the Lord and his statutes before kings and was not ashamed. By this modest and pious answer he tacitly condemned the pretended skill of the magicians, and endeavored to draw the king himself ‘from lying vanities to the living God;’ at the same time, renouncing all pretensions to superior sagacity.—Scott.

THE MIRACULOUS HARVEST.

Verse 47. And in the seven plentiful years the earth brought forth by handfuls.

An uncommon and vast increase. Scott.

A memorial of this remarkable event is preserved in a very ancient Egyptian coin, on which is represented a man reaping an abundant harvest.