Commentaria in Genesim
The same writer says again: “From tomb I seek tomb,” that is, from my mother’s womb I hasten to the sepulchre; and Seneca too, in epistle 59: “Every day,” he says, “some part of life is taken away, and even while we are growing, life is decreasing: this day which we are spending we share with death; as soon as we enter into life, we begin at once to depart by another door.” Go now, mortals, heap up wealth, honours and estates, you who are to die tomorrow.
Evil—that is, wretched, laborious, full of trouble. So Christ says: “Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,” that is, its misery. For, to pass over other things, Jacob first, because of the wrath of his brother Esau, who plotted his death, was forced to leave his country and flee alone, like a pauper, into Haran. Secondly, in Haran he served Laban most harshly for 20 years, Genesis 31. Thirdly, he was struck with great fear and laboured much to appease Esau, who was coming to meet him with 400 men, Genesis 32. Fourthly, he was afflicted by the violation of Dina and the slaughter of the Sichemites wrought by his sons, and feared that he would be overwhelmed by the Chanaanites rushing upon him, Genesis 34. Fifthly, the death of Rachel struck him. Sixthly, the incest of Ruben with his wife Bala saddened him, Genesis 35. Seventhly, the selling and loss of Joseph for 23 years wonderfully afflicted him. Eighthly, Simeon held in prison, and Benjamin taken away into Egypt, wounded his spirit. Ninthly, when, because of the necessity of famine, now decrepit, he had to set out from Chanaan, promised to him and his, into Egypt, hateful to himself and his fathers, he grieved.
10. HAVING BLESSED THE KING—having saluted the king and bidden him farewell: for to bless here is to salute and to bid farewell, as I said at verse 7. So Joab blessed, that is, bade farewell to, David, 2 Kings 14:21. So in 4 Kings 4:29 Eliseus commands Giezi to salute no one on the way, where the Hebrew has, to bless no one: for when we say farewell to those departing, by this very wish for good health we bless the other, as it were: for to bless is to wish well, or to wish good and fortunate things.
11. RAMESSES.—In that region of Gessen, in which the Israelites afterwards built a city which they called Ramesses. So St. Jerome.
13. THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE WORLD.—A great part of the world, namely the whole East, which is as it were the world encircling and surrounding Chanaan and Egypt. It is a hyperbole. The Hebrew is “the whole land,” which Vatablus wrongly restricts to the land of Egypt alone.
14. HE BROUGHT IT INTO THE TREASURY—keeping nothing from it for himself, says Philo. See how foreign Joseph was to the embezzlement of our age, and how he sought not his own advantage but the public good.
15. BREAD—grain, from which we make bread.
18. IN THE SECOND YEAR—after the cattle had been brought and sold, which was the fourth or fifth year from the beginning of the famine.
19. BUY US INTO SERVITUDE.—For on account of famine it is lawful to sell into servitude not only oneself but also one’s children.
22. GIVE SEED.—So something could still be sown at that time, namely in the fields lying beside the Nile.
EXCEPT THE LAND OF THE PRIESTS.—Note: Pharao granted this exemption from tribute to his priests of the idols, as the Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint express it, and not Joseph, the worshipper of the one true God, as Theodoret holds; unless you say that Joseph granted it to them not as being priests of idols, but as being philosophers and masters of wisdom and astrology; and therefore they abstained all their lives from flesh, wine, eggs, milk, marriage and all the business of the world, as St. Jerome says, book 1 Against Jovinian. Perhaps Joseph also taught them the true worship of the one God, as the Psalmist hints, Psalm 104, verse 22. Note that this place bears on the immunity of the true priests of Christ from taxes: for if Pharao granted this to his Gentile priests, how will a Christian king and prince not grant it to the priests of Christ? For the honour or contempt shown to them belongs to God Himself, and what is conferred on them is conferred on God, who will repay it abundantly and reward princes, says St. Chrysostom, homily 65.
Tropologically, Origen says: The priests of God love to receive their portion in heaven and reject the earthly; but the priests of Pharao have their portion on earth.
23. JOSEPH THEREFORE SAID—in the seventh and last year of barrenness, that they should sow for the following year, when fertility would return: so Philo, who adds that Joseph set watchers to see that this part of the grain was spent on sowing, lest anyone consume it for food.
25. OUR SALVATION IS IN THY HAND.—In the Hebrew thou hast given us life (thou hast preserved our life by thy food); let us find grace in the eyes of my lord (in thine eyes, O Joseph), that we may be servants of Pharao. As if they said: Thou art the author and preserver of our life, thou hast restored us to life; in return, therefore, for this food and this salvation, we offer ourselves as servants to thee and to Pharao; indeed we shall count it a great benefit if thou receivest us into servitude, and consequently into thy care and providence, both thou and Pharao, who through thee has so providently and kindly provided for us in this famine, so that it is better to serve him, to be ruled by him and depend on him, than to enjoy our own liberty, to rule ourselves, and to care and provide for ourselves and ours, lest we fall again into famine or a like evil.
26. IT WAS MADE AS IT WERE INTO A LAW.—This royal tribute, established by Joseph, received the force of a perpetual law. So the Hebrew, Chaldee and Greek, as if to say: Joseph introduced a custom which even today endures like a law, that a fifth part of the produce be paid to the kings of the Egyptians. See how equitably and gently Joseph deals with his subjects; today there is no lack of tyrants who without any title exact and extort more than half. Moreover, God so arranged this that Pharao’s kindness, which he had shown to the just old man Jacob and his sons, might be repaid.
Morally, let the counsellors and prefects of princes learn from Joseph that they ought to seek not their own advantage but that of the commonwealth and of the princes. For Joseph, though prince of Egypt, would not enrich himself, nor raise his father and brothers to high offices, although he could easily have done so without envy, indeed although Pharao desired it; and this to show how faithfully he administered the commonwealth, and how foreign he was to greed and to private love of himself and his own. He wished, therefore, that they should remain in the same occupation and rank as they had been accustomed to, and be shepherds of sheep, and provide themselves a living by their own labour and care. Let the prelates of our age look upon this example, those who, when they are raised from a humble station to a high one, wish to lift their nephews and kinsmen up with them, so that they seem to pursue their own affairs rather than the public good, and administer the wealth of the Church not as the Church’s but as private property, and turn it to their own use and that of their kin, indeed to luxury. What account of their stewardship will these render to Christ the Lord on the last and great day of the world! Such among the Romans was Marcus Attilius Regulus, who, though he had rendered the greatest services, yet remained so poor that he supported himself, his wife and his children on a little field cultivated by a single bailiff; and when he heard of that man’s death, Regulus wrote to the senate about a successor: for, his affairs being left destitute by the death of the servant, his own presence, he said, was necessary. They record that Publius Scipio Africanus the younger, in the 54 years that he lived, bought nothing, sold nothing, built nothing; and that he left only 33 pounds of silver and two of gold, though Carthage had been conquered by his power, and the soldiers of all the commanders had been enriched by one man. So Aelian, book 11. Aristides son of Lysimachus, who did many things gloriously at home and in war, and imposed tribute upon the Greeks, left at his death not even enough to defray the cost of his funeral. So Aelian in the same place. Such altogether was also Blessed Thomas More, as is plain from his Life in Stapleton. Artaxerxes sent Epaminondas a great weight of gold to draw him to his view; but he said to the envoys: “There is no need of money; for if the king wishes things that are useful to my Thebans, I am ready to do them gratis; but if contrary, he has not gold enough; for I will not accept the wealth of the whole world in exchange for love of my country. You who tested me when you did not know me, and thought me like yourselves, I do not wonder at, and I pardon you. But go out quickly, lest you corrupt others, since you could not corrupt me; otherwise I will hand you over to the magistrate.” Probus is witness to this in his Life of him. The same man, when envoys brought gifts to corrupt him, invited them to dinner: a poor table was set, and sour wine; then Epaminondas said: “Go, and tell your master of my dinners, with which I am content; he will not easily lure me to treason by his gifts.”