Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/599

 significance of the number, see on 43$34$.—3, 4. The anticipated question (46$33$) is answered in accordance with Joseph's instructions, though the phraseology differs by the substitution of for .—It is possible that the repeated is due to the omission between $3$ and $4$ of a further question by Pharaoh as to the reasons for their coming to Egypt (so Ba. Gu.). The whole leads up to a straight-*forward request for a temporary domicile in Goshen; and the point may be simply that as herdsmen they had brought their means of subsistence with them, and needed nothing but grazing land, which must have been obtainable in spite of the famine. There is no hint of any aversion to the strangers or their manner of life.—6b. Let them dwell, etc.] is the continuation of $5a$ in G (v.i.), whose arrangement of these vv. is obviously more original than that of MT.—As an additional favour, Pharaoh offers to take any capable members of the family into his service as cattle superintendents ,—an office frequently mentioned in the monuments as one of high dignity (Erman, LAE, 94 f., 108, 143). The breeding of cattle was carried to great perfection in ancient Egypt (ib. 436 ff.).

The admission of pastoral tribes within the frontier of Egypt is an incident twice represented in Eg. inscrs. of the period here supposed. Under Ḥor-em-heb of the 18th dynasty, some barbarians have a definite district assigned to them by a high officer; and reference has already been made (p. 437) to the Edomite nomads who in the time of Merenptah were allowed to pass the fortifications and feed their flocks in "the great pasture-land of Pharaoh"—probably this very Wādī Ṭumīlāt where Goshen was (see ATLO$2$, 393; Dri. 372).

5, 6a, 7-11. Jacob before Pharaoh (P).—5. The text of G (v.i.) supplies the following opening to P's account (continuing 46$7$): And Jacob and his sons came to Egypt to Joseph; and Pharaoh king of Egypt heard it ($5a$), and Pharaoh said to Joseph, etc.—It is plain that $5b$ continues this conversation and not that between Pharaoh and the five brethren.—6a. Here Pharaoh himself selects the best [part] of the land for

1 Ki. 12$31$, Ezk. 33$2$ (otherwise Gn. 19$4$).—] (plup.) [E] + .—3. ] [E]GST$J$ .—] [E] (as 46$34$).—5, 6. The overlapping of J and P at this point can be proved and corrected from G. After $5a$ (omitting