Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Genesis 47:19
Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give [us] seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.
Verse 19. Buy us and our land for bread] In times of famine in Hindostan, thousands of children have been sold to prevent their perishing. In the Burman empire the sale of whole families to discharge debts is very common. – Ward’s Customs.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, i.e. whilst thou lookest upon us like an idle spectator, not pitying and relieving us? The land is said to die improperly, when it is desolate and barren, and when the fruits of it die, or, which is equivalent to it, do not live.
We and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh; Pharaoh shall be the sole proprietor, and we are content to be his tenants, to manage it for his use.
Give us seed, because this was the last year of famine, as Joseph informed them, and therefore they tilled and sowed the ground for the following year.
That the land be not desolate, without inhabitants, as it will be if thou sufferest us to die for want of bread.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land?…. Beholding their miserable condition, and not helping them; die they must unless they had bread to eat, and their land die also if they had not seed to sow; that is, would become desolate, as the Septuagint version renders it; so Ben Melech observes, that land which is desolate is as if it was dead, because it produces neither grass nor fruit, whereas when it does it looks lively and cheerful:
buy us and our land for bread; they were willing to sell themselves and their land too for bread to support their lives, nothing being dearer to a man than life:
and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh; both should be his; they would hold their land of him, and be tenants to him:
and give [us] seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land may not be desolate; entirely so; some parts of it they could sow a little upon, as on the banks of the Nile, or perhaps that river might begin to overflow, or they had some hopes of it, especially from Joseph’s prediction they knew this was the last year of famine, and therefore it was proper to sow the ground some time in this, that they might have a crop for the provision of the next year; and they had no seed to sow, and if they were not furnished with it, the famine must unavoidably continue, notwithstanding the flow of the Nile.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Gen 47:19. Wherefore shall we diewe, and our land Land may be said, metaphorically, to die, when it lies uncultivated and desolate: this is agreeable, says Calmet, to the language of the poets, and of the best elastic writers. So Martial says, suburbanus ne moriatur ager.* Seneca, sata et vivere et mori dicimus. See Job 14:7-8.
* That the land about the city may not die.
We say that the corn-land either lives or dies.
Buy us and our land for bread It is to be observed here, that this is the voluntary offer of the people, not the demand of Joseph. We observed in a former note, that the land was divided among the king, the priests, and the people: but this national calamity, as Bishop Warburton observes, made a great revolution in property, and brought the whole possessions of the people into the king’s hands, which must needs make a prodigious accession of power to the crown. But Joseph, in whom the offices of a minister and patriot supported each other, and jointly concurred to the public service, prevented, for some time, the ill effects of this accession, by his farming out the new domain to the old proprietors on very easy conditions. We may well suppose this wise disposition to have continued till that new king arose who knew not Joseph, that is, who would obliterate his memory, as averse to his system of policy. He greatly affected despotic government; to support which, he established a standing militia, and endowed it with lands formerly the people’s, who now became a kind of villains to this order.
And give us seed This proves that the present was the last year of the famine. The AEgyptians, full of confidence in the predictions of Joseph, offered to sell themselves, and their land, to their king, that they might have seed to sow, in hopes of a crop the next year: for Joseph had told them there would be but seven years of famine; and possibly the Nile, the source of plenty, had begun to overflow the land as usual.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 47:19 Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give [us] seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.
Ver. 19. Buy us and our land for bread. ] It was their own desire, therefore no injury. Nay, it was charity in Joseph, in remitting their services, and taking only their lands: yea, liberality, in reserving the fifth part only to the king; when husbandmen usually till for half the increase. And this the Egyptians thankfully acknowledge, Gen 47:25 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
our land.Figure of speech. Prosopopmia. App-6.
live, and not die.Figure of speech Pleonasm.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
buy us: Neh 5:2, Neh 5:3, Job 2:4, Lam 1:11, Lam 5:6, Lam 5:9, Mat 16:26, Phi 3:8, Phi 3:9
and give: Gen 47:23
Reciprocal: Gen 47:15 – Give us bread Gen 47:26 – made it a law Psa 105:16 – brake 2Co 9:10 – he
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
47:19 Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our {f} land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give [us] seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.
(f) For unless the ground is tilled and sown, it perishes and is as if it was dead.