Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/600

 the Hebrew family to dwell in (see v.$11$).—7. Joseph introduces his father to Pharaoh,—an impressive and dignified scene.—blessed], i.e. 'saluted' on entering (cf. 1 Sa. 13$10$, 2 Ki. 4$29$, 2 Sa. 13$25$ 19$40$), but recorded, no doubt, with a sense that "the less is blessed of the better" (Heb. 7$7$).—9. few and evil] The expression shows that P must have recorded Jacob's long exile with Laban and his protracted sorrow for the loss of Joseph; it is still more interesting as showing that that writer could conceive a good man's life as spent in adversity and affliction.—11. the land of Ra`mses] The name only here and G 46$28$ (see on 45$10$), so called from the city built by Ramses II. (Ex. 1$11$) and named after him 'the house of Ramses,' in the E of the Delta (Erman, LAE, 48). The situation is still uncertain; Naville (Goshen, 20) was inclined to identify it with Ṣafṭ el-Ḥenneh (see p. 488); but Petrie now claims to have discovered its site at Tel er-Reṭabeh, in the middle of W. Ṭumīlāt, 8 m. W of Pithom (Hyksos and Israelite Cities, 1906, p. 28 ff.)—12. Probably from E $27a$ (J).

XLVII. 13-27.—Joseph's Agrarian Policy (J?).

Joseph is here represented as taking advantage of the great famine to revolutionize the system of land-tenure in

) G reads $6b$; then (= ); then $5a$ (repeated) $5b. 6a. 7ff.$. It will hardly be disputed that the text of G is here the original, and that P's narrative commences with the additional sentences quoted above. The editor of MT felt the doublet to be too glaring; he therefore omitted these two sentences; and then by transposition worked the two accounts into a single scene. A further phase is represented by Hex. Syr., where $5b$ and $6a$ are omitted. We have here an instructive example of the complex process by which the sources were gradually worked into a smooth narrative, and one which deserves the attention of those writers who ridicule the minute and intricate operations which the critical theory finds it necessary to attribute to the redactors.—6b. ] See G-K. § 120 e. The of [E] is certainly not preferable (Ba.).—11. ] v.$6$, Ex. 22$4$, 1 Sa. 15{9.  5† }. The identification of  with the 'land of Ramses' probably rests on a misunderstanding of E's (see on 45$18$), and a combination of it with J's .—12. ] apparently including here the women: cf. 50$21$.