(6) Their goods.--These are not the vessels spoken of contemptuously by Pharaoh (Genesis 45:20), but their personal property, of which they would naturally have much which they would not be willing to leave behind. Abraham had brought large wealth with him from Haran (Genesis 12:5), some of which may have even come from Ur-Chasdim, and much had been gathered since. The patriarchs would leave their household stuff behind, but all valuables, and the records of their house, and their toldoth, they would carefully carry with them. They . . . came into Egypt.--For a full account of the scene depicted on the tomb of Khnum-hotep at Beni-hassan, and which at one time was identified with the arrival of the sons of Jacob, see Tomkins, Times of Abraham, 110-114. 46:5-27 We have here a particular account of Jacob's family. Though the fulfilling of promises is always sure, yet it is often slow. It was now 215 years since God had promised Abraham to make of him a great nation, ch. 12:2; yet that branch of his seed, to which the promise was made sure, had only increased to seventy, of whom this particular account is kept, to show the power of God in making these seventy become a vast multitude.And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan,.... Some interpreters add, by way of explanation, and in Mesopotamia; much of Jacob's substance being yet there, though the greatest part was got in Canaan, and so that is put for the whole; and Jarchi supposes that Jacob gave all that he got in Padanaram to Esau for his part in the cave of Machpelah, and therefore mention is only made of his substance in Canaan; but there is no need of any such additions or suppositions, since the text only speaks of the substance of Jacob's sons, and what they had was only gotten in Canaan, into which they came very young; all which they brought with them as being their property, and not obliged to leave it behind to strangers; though they were bid not to regard their stuff, yet they were not willing to live upon others, but upon their own, and as much as they could independent of others; and that they might not be upbraided hereafter that they came into Egypt poor and destitute of everything:and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him; safe and well. |