Joseph is sold by his brethren, but God advances him. 83 envy, sold Joseph in- inhumanly sold Joseph their brother into SECT. to Egypt: but God Egypt, where he became a slave, and went was with him, xiii. through a great variety of calamities: Neverthe- Acts less God was with him there, though no longer vii. 9 in the promised land, and made that country a scene of very glorious providence towards him. 10 And delivered And he there delivered him out of all his afflic- 10 him out of all his af- tions, which his integrity and piety had brought fictions, and gave bim favour and wis- upon him, and gave him favour and high vendom in the sight of eration, on account of that distinguished wis Pharaoh king of E- dom which appeared to be in him, in the sight gypt; and he made of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he constituted him governor over Egypt, and all his him ruler over the land of Egypt, and in particular over all his royal house, committing all things in the palace as well as elsewhere, to his direction and management, even to the management of this despised Joseph, whom his brethren (then the whole house of Israel) had most outrageously insulted and abused, and even sold for a slave. house. tenance. our 11 Now there came And according to the predictions of Joseph, 11 a dearth over all the which had awakened so great an attention, when land of Egypt and seven years of plenty were past, a famine came Canaan, and great affliction; and upon all the land of Egypt, and extended itself fathers found no sus- over Canaan too; and this calamity reduced them to such great affliction and distress, that they knew not how to subsist, and even in this fruitful land our fathers did not find sufficient sustenance to support themselves and their 12 But when Jacob families. But Jacob hearing that there was 12 heard that there was corn in Egypt, ordered his sons to go and fetch corn in Egypt, he them a supply from thence, and sent our fathers, the ten patriarchs, thither first, keeping 13 And at the Benjamin with him at home. And the second 13 second time Joseph time that they went, when sorely against his his brethren; and good father's will Benjamin accompanied them, Joseph's kindred Joseph was made known to his brethren; and was made known as the matter was immediately made public, sent out our fathers first. was made known to anto Pharaoh. the family and descent of Joseph was discovered . 14 Then sent Jo- 84 vii. 14 Jacob and his family remove into Egypt. SECT. a company, amounting in the whole, together threescore and fif xiii. with their wives, to seventy five souls, without teen souls. reckoning Jacob himself, and Joseph's family Acts already there. And thus their sojourning in that land began, during which they were still under the care of divine Providence, till the time of their return to Canaan approached, of which I shall presently speak. Acts IMPROVEMENT. THUS loud may the clamour of malice and falsehood rise vi. 13 against innocence and truth. Incessant blasphemy is charged 14 on one of the most pious of men; and we wonder at it the less, since it was charged upon Jesus himself; and, if they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his houseActs hold? (Mat. x. 25.) His disciple learns of him not to render evil for evil, but answers in the language of calm reason, and of meek though powerful conviction. vii. 2 While Stephen leads back our contemplation to so many remarkable facts of the Old Testament, let us reflect upon them with those devout affections which become the Israel of God. Let verse us adore the God of glory that appeared to Abraham, and called 2-5 him forth to be so bright an example of faith and piety, in leaving his country and kindred, to follow the leadings of Providence, when he knew not in what settlement they should end. Let us, in imitation of him, whose children, if true believers, we also are Amounting to seventy five souls.] Of two afterwards born, and Joseph and his the various solutions which learned men children, which reduces the number thus: have given of the seeming inconsistency be- The eleven brethren with Dinah their sistween this account, and that given by ter, and fifty two that had descended from Moses, (Gen. xlvi. 27; Exod. i. 5; and them, amount to sixty four; to which addDeut. x. 22;) which makes them but seven- ing eleven wives, (some of the patriarchs ty, (with which also Josephus agrees, having probably buried theirs, and but Antiq. lib. ii. cap. 7, [al. 4,] § 4) the few of their children being yet married) most probable seems to be this. Moses they amount in all to seventy five. See expressly leaves out all the wives, (Gen. Pool's Synopsis, and Whitby in loc. and Bisxlvi. 26) whom he had said before the coe, at Boyle's Lec. chap. xviii. p. 602-606. sons of Israel carried with them, (ver. 5) Could the reading of Tales or malas inand only speaks of those that came out of stead of mele, (which Beza mentions as a Jacob's loins, inserting in the catalogue conjecture,) be supported by proper authat he gives of his children, two grand thorities, so that it might be rendered all children of Judah, (to supply the place of amounting to seventy souls, it would make Er and Onan, who had died in Canaan) the whole matter quite easy. Grotius Hezron and Hamul, though it is probable also supposes, that the original reading they were not born till after Jacob's arrival here was seventy, and that the Septuagint in Egypt; and, having first computed copy was altered to its present form, to them at sixty six, he then adds Joseph and suit with the mistaken reading of seventy his two sons that were before in Egypt, and, five; for, in the two first texts referred reckoning Jacob with them, makes the to in the beginning of this note, the Sepwhole number to amount to seventy. But Stephen speaks of all that went down with him, and so excludes Jacob himself, and the tuagint read seventy five, while in Deut. x. 22 they agree with the Hebrew, and read seventy, which is somewhat strange. Reflections on the remarkable facts mentioned by Stephen. 85 sit loose to every thing in this world, that we may be ready to sECT. leave it when God shall, by one providence or another, give the xiii. signal for our remove. If the next step of duty lies plain before us, let us trust our Leader to mark out all that follow, in such an order, and to such an end, as he shall think fit; secure of this, that, while we follow infinite Wisdom, we cannot wander out of the way to true happiness, and that all the divine promises shall certainly be accomplished, whatever cross event may seem to interpose and obstruct. When God appointed that the seed of Abraham should sojourn, verse and suffer in a strange land, the pious patriarch acquiesced in it: 6, 7 nor let us be over anxious about the difficulties into which our posterity may be led. Let us adore the Divine Goodness, that he has established his covenant with us, and with our seed after us; 8 and while we, in imitation of Abraham, bring our infant offspring to receive the solemn seal of that covenant, let us remem ber our engagements to instruct them, as they grow up, in the tenor of it, and labour to the utmost to engage their own personal consent to it; and then they will be truly rich and free, though 11, 12 in the penury of a famished land, or under the rod of an Egyp tian tyrant. The mysterious conduct of divine Providence with regard to the pious Joseph, who became a slave, that he might be made a 9, 10 prince, and who was trained up for the golden chain in the discipline of iron fetters, may surely be sufficient to teach us to judge nothing before the time, and to wait the end of the Lord, before we arraign the seeming severity of a part of his conduct towards those, whom we might imagine the most proper objects of his regard. And surely it will appear none of the least considerable 13, 14 of those rewards, which Providence bestowed on the approved and distinguished virtue of Joseph, that he had an opportunity of nourishing his pious father in his declining days, of spreading a mild and pleasant ray over the evening of a life, which had been so often beclouded with storms, and of sheltering (as it were) under his princely robe, that hoary head, which had once been turned into a fountain of tears over the bloody fragments of the many coloured coat. 36 SECT. Acts Jacob and his sons are carried into Canaan to be buried. SECT. XIV. Stephen proceeds in his discourse before the Sanhedrim, to enumerate several other facts in the Jewish history, all tending to the purpose of his own vindication, and their conviction. Acts VII. 15-36. ACTS VII. 15. TEPHEN, while he stood before the coun ACTS VII. 15. Sdown into Egypt, Jacob went and died, he and our fathers. cil notice of above, proceeded in his discourse, vii. 15 and said, I have observed to you, brethren, and fathers, how Jacob went down into Egypt; and you well know, that having been supported about seventeen years by the filial gratitude and tenderness of Joseph, he died there; and our fathers also, the patriarchs his children, ended 16 their lives in the same country. And yet, by the way, they were solicitous not to be buried ried over into Syyet, by 16 And were car. there; but as Jacob was immediately brought chem, and laid in up, with solemn funeral pomp and procession, Abraham bought for the sepulchre that to be buried in the cave of Machpelah with a sum of money of Abraham and Isaac, (Gen. xlix. 30) so the patriarchs also, having been embalmed and put into coffins in Egypt, (Gen. 1. 26) were, at the return of Israel from thence, carried over to Sychem, and were laid in the sepulchre which was made in that field which Jacob bequeathed to Joseph as a peculiar legacy; he having first, as Abraham had done in a like case, purchased it for a sun. of money, that is, for an hundred a Which Abraham purchased, &c.] It is so evident from Gen. xxxiii. 19; and Josh. xxiv. 32, that the field at Sychem or Shechem, in which the bones of Joseph (and, as it should seem from this passage, and from what is asserted by Jerom, Epitaph. Paule, those of the other patriarchs) were buried, was purchased, not by Abraham, but by Jacob, and also that Abraham's sepulchre was purchased, not of Emmor, or Hamor, the former proprietor of Jacob's ground, but of Ephron the Hittite, (Gen. xxiii. 10, & seq.) that it seems demonstrable, that this passage has suffered something by the addition or omission of transcribers: for to suppose, that Stephen or Luke designedly used the name of Abraham for Jacob, is i think, one of the grossest affronts that can be offered to the character of either. A real slip of memory would be a trifle, when compared with such a designed prevarication. But, without supposing either, I apprehend with Beza in his admirable note on this text, that Luke probably wrote only which he (that is, as the connection fixes it, Jacob) bought, &c. which was the exact truth; and some officious transcriber, who fancied the verb wanted a nominative case, and thought he remembered the purchase of Abraham, (which it is plain he did not exactly distinguish) put in his name. This solution, which is advanced by the learned Bo the sons of Emmor pieces of silver, of the sons of Emmor [the fa- SECT. the father of Syther] of Sychem, from whom in particular, the xiv. chem. 17 But when the place was named; and the Amorites having Acts And to make way for the accomplishment of 17 time of the promise this event, as the time of the promise drew near, drew nigh, which God had sworn to which God had sworn to Abraham (Gen. xxii. Abraham, the peo- 16, 17), the people of Israel, though they had ple grew and multi- such a small beginning, grew very numerous, plied in Egypt; 18 Till another and multiplied exceedingly in Egypt ; And 18 king arose, which they continued there for many years in very knew not Joseph: comfortable circumstances, till another king arose, of a different race and family from the former, who knew not Joseph, and had no re19 The same dealt gard to his memory. (Exod. i. 8.) He there- 19 subtilly with our kin- fore used them in a barbarous way, and formtreated our fathers, ing crafty and treacherous designs against our so that they cast out kindred, lest they in time should grow to be too their young chil- powerful, treated our fathers most injuriously, and cruelly contrived to cut them off from being a people, by causing all their male infants, dred, and evil en chart (Hierozoic. Part. I. lib. ii. cap. 43), Dr. Benson, and others, is so natural, that I will not trouble the reader with the men tion of several others, which may be seen in Dr. Whitby, Sir Norton Knatchbull, and Brennius; but shall only observe, that, if this be not allowed (which has indeed no copy to support it), the easiest sense seems to be that which Mr. L'Enfant has given in his note, that Jacob died, he and our fathers, and they [that is, our fathers] were carried over to Sychem, and buried; he, [that is, Jacob,] in the sepulchre which Abraham bought for a sum of money, and they [that is, the other patriarchs,] in that which was bought of the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem. That Eurog Te Eux is very justly rendered Emmor the father of Sychem (as he is declared to be in the Qld Testament), though the relation be not here expressed in the original, sufficiently appears from other passages, in which not only the relation of a son, of which we have frequent instances, but other relations too are left to be supplied. So Magia laxace is Mary the mother of James (Luke xxiv. 10, compared with Mark xv. 40); and Ixdas lanes is Judas the brother of James (Acts i. 13, compared with Jude ver. 1) : Nor was this only usual with the Jews, but (as Bochart has shewn in the place cited before), we have many instances of the like way of speaking in the most approv ed Greek writers. (See Dr. Whitby's note on Luke xxiv. 1.) The other objections, which Rabbi Isaac has made against this passage (Chiss. Emun. Part. II. cap 63) are so trifling, that I content myself with referring to Mr. Biscoe's full account and learned solution of them, Boyle's Lect. chap. xviii. p. 607-609. |