So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen.”
Jacob's family has arrived from Canaan and stopped in Goshen. Joseph now walks into the palace to tell the king. Where they will live, what they will eat, and what they will become all hang on how he speaks of them.
Joseph Speaks First
Joseph does not send a message. He goes in himself and names his father and brothers. He lists their flocks and herds, and says where they are. He then brings only a few of them forward.
L. M. GrantIn announcing to Pharaoh the coming of his father and his brothers, Joseph first introduces five of his brothers to him (vv. 1-2). We are not told which ones, but they were likely those who could speak on behalf of their other brothers.
Owned Before the King
Egypt looked down on shepherds. Joseph names these men as his own in the throne room anyway — and the king takes his side.
J. G. BellettThey were shepherds, it is true, keepers of cattle from their youth, the sort the land of Egypt detested. But what of that? "He is not ashamed to call them brothers." He owns them in front of the king. And the king himself feels about them just as Joseph does. He owns them too, and honours them, and wants them to see the whole of his land as open before them.
Mawson draws out what the brothers themselves would never have assumed:
J. T. MawsonIt could not have entered into the thoughts of those sons of Jacob that they were the brothers of that great lord of Egypt. The mighty Pharaoh had entrusted all his wealth and rule to him. They would have been content to remain beggars at his feet, receiving from his bounty what would keep their souls alive. But this would not have suited him, for he loved them well. Because he loved them, he made known the relationship they had with him, and made them at home in it.
Why Goshen
Joseph names the place where the family has stopped. Kelly gives three reasons why that corner of Egypt suited them.
William KellyOn every point of view Goshen was the land most appropriate for his father and his brothers. It lay nearest for those staying in Egypt for a time, for those whom God had marked out to enter Canaan. That was the land He had promised long before, when their father had not even one son (Gen. 15). Again, it was near Joseph, and near the king as well. Further, the people of the land went there least of all, since herdsmen, shepherds and the like were detestable to them, as Joseph let them know.
Kelly adds why Joseph brought only a few brothers forward to speak for themselves. It mattered that the king should reach the same conclusion as his minister, and decide freely, with no pressure from a man so close to the family.
A Nation Kept Apart
The arrangement was practical. It also served a purpose the family could not see.
F. B. HoleIt is easy to see how this suited the purpose of God, which was to make a nation of them, free from any mixture of foreign blood. Though under Egyptian jurisdiction, there was to be a line of separation from the outset between them and the natives of Egypt. So in the early verses of Genesis 47 we read how simply and naturally all this came to pass.
Hole then points to Pharaoh's response, and to what lay behind it:
F. B. HolePharaoh's attitude was most kind. He welcomed them, giving them the best of the land in Goshen, and offering them important posts as rulers of his cattle. Egypt, like the rest of the world, was in the middle of a great famine. Such favourable treatment was indeed extraordinary. Only the moving of God's hand behind the scenes can account for it.
The Larger Picture
Bellett reads this scene as a picture of something still to come:
J. G. BellettJoseph has now received his brothers and enriched them with the richest of the land. He has also presented them without shame before the lord the king... And so will it be at the end of the days. The long-forgotten brothers, now repentant, shall sit in the true Goshen, the glory of all lands. And Jesus shall own them and present them as His brothers without shame.
Summary
- Owned. Joseph goes in himself. He names these despised shepherds as his own family before the king.
- Named. He loved them. So he told them what they were to him, instead of leaving them as beggars at his feet.
- Placed. Joseph chose Goshen with care: nearest for people heading to Canaan, near himself, and out of the Egyptians' daily sight.
- Kept. Egypt's contempt for shepherds became God's fence. It kept the family separate while it grew into a nation.
- Promised. Joseph owned his brothers without shame. Bellett sees Christ doing the same, and seating His own in the true Goshen.