Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Genesis 47:11 - 47:11
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Joseph assigned to his father and his brethren, according to Pharaoh's command, a possession (אֲחֻזָּה) for a dwelling-place in the best part of Egypt, the land of Raëmses, and provided them with bread, “according to the mouth of the little ones,” i.e., according to the necessities of each family, answering to the larger or smaller number of their children. כִּלְכֵּל with a double accusative (Ges. §139). The settlement of the Israelites is called the land of Raëmses (רַעְמְסֵס, in pause רַעַמְסֵס Exo 1:11), instead of Goshen, either because the province of Goshen (Γεσέμ, lxx) is indicated by the name of its former capital Raëmses (i.e., Heroopolis, on the site or in the immediate neighbourhood of the modern Abu Keisheib, in Wady Tumilat (vid., Exo 1:11), or because Israel settled in the vicinity of Raëmses. The district of Goshen is to be sought in the modern province of el Sharkiyeh (i.e., the eastern), on the east side of the Nile, towards Arabia, still the most fertile and productive province of Egypt (cf. Robinson, Pal. i. 78, 79). For Goshen was bounded on the east by the desert of Arabia Petraea, which stretches away to Philistia (Exo 13:17, cf. 1Ch 7:21) and is called Γεσέμ Ἀραβίας in the Septuagint in consequence (Gen 45:10; Gen 46:34), and must have extended westwards to the Nile, since the Israelites had an abundance of fish (Num 11:5). It probably skirted the Tanitic arm of the Nile, as the fields of Zoan, i.e., Tanis, are said to have been the scene of the mighty acts of God in Egypt (Psa 78:12, Psa 78:43, cf. Num 13:22). In this province Joseph assigned his relations settlements near to himself (Gen 45:10), from which they could quickly and easily communicate with one another (Gen 46:28; Gen 48:1.). Whether he lived at Raëmses or not, cannot be determined, just because the residence of the Pharaoh of that time is not known, and the notion that it was at Memphis is only based upon utterly uncertain combinations relating to the Hyksos.