In that act of deceit he was aided by his mother, who probably never lived to see again the son she loved so much. Jacob returned not for many years, although when his mother parted with him she supposed it was for “a few days,” Gen. 27:44. He returned to Hebron shortly before the death of his father, in whose burial, in the cave of Machpelah, both his sons, Esau and Jacob, united, Gen. 35:29.
8. Jacob and his twelve sons remained near Hebron for some time after the death of his father Isaac, when an event occurred which changed the history of the entire family and led to their long residence in the land of Egypt.
Joseph, the son of Jacob’s old age, because of jealousy on the part of his brethren, was sold by them to a party of trading merchants, called “Ishmaelites.” These “came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.”
Gilead was the large district east of the Jordan, beginning some 15 miles southwest of Damascus, and whose southern limit was a few miles north of the Dead Sea. Their way towards Egypt wasby Dothan, where the brethren were tending their father’s flock.
Dothan was a Canaanitish town about five miles southwest of the Carmel range of mountains and thirteen miles north of Shechem. It was fully 900 feet above the sea, and on the south of a beautiful plain five miles long and two wide.
9. The Ishmaelites sold Joseph in Egypt, where, through his ability to interpret the dream of Pharaoh, he became, under the king, the second ruler of Egypt and prepared for the seven years of famine which were preceded by seven years of extraordinary harvests. The famine in Egypt was attended by famine in Canaan, as also in other lands. This condition of famine caused Jacob to send his sons into Egypt for corn. It should be remembered that in these countries the word “corn” was applied to almost any kind of grain, but especially to wheat and barley, as indeed it is at the present day in several other countries. It is not probable that Indian maize, called corn in our land, was ever referred to in Scripture.
At the second visit of the patriarch’s sons, Joseph, who recognized them at the first visit, made himself known unto them and sent them back with the direction to bring his father, and all that made up the entire family, into Egypt.
10. After some hesitation on the part of Jacob, he left Hebron, and passing through Beersheba, started on his way to Egypt, where he arrived andwas met by Joseph, on the plains of Goshen.Recent discovery has located this region about 40 miles northeast of the present Cairo, in its central point, with a diameter of about 15 miles.[58]
Jacob was introduced to the reigning Pharaoh when he was 130 years of age. His interview was followed by the settlement of the entire family, with all their herds and possessions, in the district above mentioned. This was a small district included in a much larger one called, in after times, the land of Rameses, which name had reference to a second king of that name, Rameses II., who was the great builder monarch, and who lived not long before the time of the Exodus. He died when Moses was 80 years of age.
[The student of Biblical chronology should use considerable caution in accepting the dates and surmises offered by some writers in connection with this history. The ages already given us in the text, namely, 130 for Jacob when Joseph was 39 by the texts preceding, show that Jacob was 91 years of age at Joseph’s birth, but by Gen. 31:38 he had been at least 14 years with Laban, in Mesopotamia, just preceding the birth of Joseph. So that 14 years before the birth of Joseph he left his home for Haran, at the age of 77. It seems somewhat probable that Jacob was 40 years in Haran, and that he means to make that assertion when, in Gen. 31:38, 41, he separates the two 20 years. This affords more time for his sons to grow to the ages of that manhood necessary for the after occurrences narrated in the history. For the eldest, Reuben and Simeon, were born not until the marriage with Leah, and this appears to have been only seven years before the birth of Joseph. Six years after the birth of Joseph, Jacob leaves with all his family for Shechem, where he remainseight years. It appears, therefore, that Simeon and Levi, when they attacked and overthrew Shechem and sacked the town, were not over 19 or 20 years of age, as six of the last years and re-engagement for six years in Mesopotamia, and eight in Shechem, and perhaps a year on the travel, and various stoppages, give grounds for that supposition, if Jacob was only 20 years with Laban. It would then be as follows, remembering that Reuben was the first-born of the sons of Jacob: