Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/341

Rh 323

Joseph and Jacob

present them to the world as our brothers, and we share with them all that we have acquired, liberty, opportunity, citizenAnd at last all superficial standards of judgship, culture.

away, and the world must come to regard them, no longer as uncouth and despised, but as men, possessed of all the rights and powers of men, and able to acquire in time all the culture and refinements of civilization, and to share with their brethren, the Joseph who preceded

ment must

fall

them hither, the task of bringing blessing unto all about them, and unto all the families of the earth, the Jewish blessings of the

spirit,

of true living in accordance with the law of

are the Joseph of today and of this land and our brethren are coming to us to find' protection and support, freedom and opportunity; and we will not fail them. It is

We

God.



our Jewish loyalty that speaks. selves from our own flesh.

We

will

never hide our-

So Joseph's father and his brothers came down to him in Egypt, the land of his triumph and glory, and he provided So, under God's lovingly and abundantly for their needs. protection, they dwelt happily for many years, and the Egyptians were blessed by their presence

in the land.

NOTES XLVI, V.

4.

1.

It

eyes of his

Beer-sheba lies on the road from Hebron was the pious duty of the favorite son father after

to Egypt. to

close

the

death.

Vv. 8-27 were inserted into the main narrative by some late Obviously they disturb the continuity of the story. V. 21 makes Benjamin a grown man at this time, with ten It shows how little this inserted passage accords with the children. remainder of the story. V. 28 is the direct continuation of v. 5 of the original narrative. XLVII, 11. "The land of Rameses", i. e. the district bordering upon the Isthmus of Suez, in which the city of Rameses, built ac-

writer.

cording to BibHcal tradition by the Israelite slaves (Exodus

was

situated.

III,

11), \n