Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/560

 attendant.'—The phrase is a variant from E (cf. 40$4$).—4b. In J, Joseph's position is far higher, that, namely, of mer-per (mer-pa, mer en peri-t, etc.), or superintendent of the household, frequently mentioned in the inscriptions (Ebers, Aeg. 303 ff.; Erman, LAE, 187 f.).—6a. knew not with him] (i.e. with Joseph [v.$8$]): 'held no reckoning with him';—a hyperbolical expression for absolute confidence.—6b is introductory to $7ff.$.

7-20. Joseph tempted by his master's wife.—7-10. The first temptation. The solicitation of a young man by a married woman is a frequent theme of warning in Pr. 1-9.—9a. does not mean 'there is none' (which would require ), but 'he is not.'—9b. sin against God] The name Yahwe is naturally avoided in conversation with a foreigner. All the more striking is the consciousness of the divine presence which to the exiled Israelite is the ultimate sanction of morality.—11, 12. The final temptation.—On the freedom of social intercourse between the sexes, see Ebers, 306 f. But the difficulties raised about Joseph's access to the harem do not really arise, when we remember that J is depicting the life of a simple Egyptian family, and not that of a high palace official (see Tu.).—13-20. The woman's revenge.—14. A covert appeal to the jealousy of the men-servants against the hated Hebrew, and to the fears of the women, whom she represents as unsafe from insult (to mock us). An additional touch of venom lurks in the contemptuous reference to her husband as 'he.'—Hebrew may be here a general designation of the Asiatic

Gu.; but pleads strongly for J.—8. ] [E]  (v.$23$).—] [E]GSV .—10. and  look like variants; but one swallow does not make a summer, and it would be rash to infer an Elohistic recension.—11. ] A very obscure expression, see BDB, 400 b. Of the other occurrences (Dt. 6$24$, Jer. 44$22$, Ezr. 9$7. 15$, Neh. 9$10$† ) all except the last are perfectly transparent: 'as [it is] this day,'—a sense quite unsuitable here. One must suspect that the phrase, like the kindred and (cf. esp. 1 Sa. 22$8. 13$), had acquired some elusive idiomatic meaning which we cannot recover. Neither 'on a certain day' (G-K. § 126 s) nor 'on this particular day' (BDB) can be easily justified.—13. ] MSS [E]G + ($12. 15$).—14. ] see on 26$8$.—15. ] [E]SV (pallium quod tenebam) read ,—wrongly, since to have said this