| [16] | See the paper on "Enoch," pp. 32-37, where certain dispensational purposes of God, in their differences, are considered. |
| [17] | As to the common sin of Abraham and Isaac touching the denial of their wives, calling them their sisters, see "Abraham," p. 122. |
| [18] | Jeroboam in his day took his own way to reach the promise of God touching the kingdom of the ten tribes, by the prophet Ahijah--and he delayed his own mercy; just as Jacob does in this chapter. Nay, further. Jeroboam has to be an exile in Egypt till the death of Solomon, because of this; as Jacob has for twenty years to be an exile in Padan, for the same evil. See 1 Kings xi. |
| [19] | It is said in the Jewish writings that he was seventy-seven. |
| [20] | This parcel of ground, at last, becomes only a burying-place, like Machpelah; but it had not, at first, been purchased as such, as Machpelah was. |
| [21] | In Joseph obtaining the rights of the firstborn, there is something besides grace; but I do not notice it here. |
| [22] | Neither Pharaoh, nor Pharaoh's house, nor any in Egypt seem ever to have been told of the sin of the brethren. |
| [23] | Zaphnath-paaneah, in the old Egyptian tongue, is said to have signified "the saviour of the world"; in the Hebrew, as we understand, it might be rendered "the revealer of secrets." |
| [24] | The title now bestowed was afterwards realized, when the family estate, the land of Canaan, came to be divided between the tribes; for Joseph then gets two portions in his two sons, who are treated as though they had been two distinct sons of Jacob. |
| [25] | God is afterwards called "the God of Israel," as before He had been called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Because His covenant was with the nation of Israel. |