First part.
How Joseph reports his father's arrival to Pharaoh; how he presents five of his brothers before Pharaoh; and how Pharaoh holds a conversation with them.
V.1 Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, saying, My father and my brethren, their cattle great and small, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they are found in the land of Goshen.
(1) Behold, how Joseph persevered in keeping the king in mind and in honor. For he has shown him such honor that he has not thought to do anything or to start anything out of his own free will, but has first sent everything to the king himself, when he has not wanted to do anything without his will.
This is a very excellent virtue, and it is very rare in all officials, tax officials, or rentmasters, who do not follow Joseph's example, but often transgress the goal of their office and command in a brazen and impudent manner. And if someone has a handful of orders from the prince, he takes a whole cubit. That is why there is so much disorder in the regiments of the provinces and cities, and it must follow that they will be reversed and corrupted. For the magistrates should be faithful and true to their sovereigns' command, and should not do anything or undertake anything without their will and command. If they did that, there would be so much less misfortune, misery and distress in the regencies and dominions.
3. as without doubt Egypt was a very beautiful kingdom, which stood everywhere in prosperity, not only because of riches, which were the least, but good
Order and justice half. And. Joseph was a very excellent man, who ordered this kingdom very well, and even set a good example of virtue and obedience to the other officials and subjects, because he did nothing without the will and command of the king.
In our times, there are more complaints at almost all courts about the drudgery and unjust violence of tax officials and other officials than the citizens and peasants exercise among themselves. However, all kinds of disputes between officials and subjects cannot be brought to the attention of the princes, who have such a heavy burden on them, namely, that they give orders, decree and forbid what should and should not be done. In addition, they must also hear many complaints about the unfaithfulness of those whom they have appointed as officials. We do not have such Josephs in our countries and common regiments as this one was. Just as we have no Pauls or Peters in the church now, or else there are almost few of them, and they are especially rare.
Therefore, since Moses praises this example so much, he wants to show that Joseph not only taught, but also gave others a good example of teaching and obedience to the king, who, as he saw, was pious and godly. And this is truly a beautiful image of a pious prince, which should always be remembered, who for his own person has presided well over the subjects and has been useful and with good example, by which he has worked on others; so that the other councillors or officials have been awakened and admonished, that they have also been faithful and finely modest in their profession. For after his father and brothers came, he ordered all things so that they should not dwell in the land of Gosen without the king's will.
And although he had already decided by special counsel that he would put them there, he would not take it or do anything in it without the king's command, but would have them stay there until they were told what the king's will was.
6th He abused not his power, which was given him of the king, nor his favor, nor his grace; but stood up humbly and with due submission unto the king, and said, My father and my brethren are now come out of the land of Canaan: I will therefore shew thee, that thou mayest direct us what place of the land thou wilt give them to dwell in. This is a beautiful humility and obedience, that Joseph should submit himself and all his father's house to Pharaoh. And if now in our times this humility and obedience were also so kept, there should truly be much more happiness and blessedness in all the states of this life than otherwise.
V. 2 And he took five of his youngest brothers and set them before Pharaoh.
(7) According to the Hebrew text it is thus: He took from the end of his brothers; and can be understood from both ends, either the highest or the lowest, that is, from the first or from the last five brothers. But here I will leave each one free to his own judgment and opinion; for there is no danger to faith or religion in this: so also here no heresy is spoken of that one should have to worry about.
008 I am of opinion that Joseph put his youngest brethren before Pharaoh. For the word "end" in the Hebrew language means the outermost or the last in every thing; as among these brothers Dan, Naphtali, Issachar and Zebulun were the last. But others may have another opinion and follow it without any danger.
(9) But here it is asked again, What cause might Joseph have had that he did this? The rabbis of the Jews therefore bring a useless babble.
and lying, namely, that he had chosen those who had the least reputation among the others and were also the least in person. For if he had presented to him the strongest and those with a manly reputation, Pharaoh might have used them for war. But if you look at all their ages, none of them was under thirty or forty years old, and there is a small difference of ten years, which one may have had more than the other; which time could not have made a great and obvious difference among the brothers. Only Benjamin is the youngest among them; one could hardly recognize a difference in the others, if one had looked at them outwardly and compared the persons with each other. For they were almost all born within ten years of each other in this world. And especially for those who are grown up, the difference of these years does not matter much. Benjamin was already the father of ten children.
010 Therefore I suppose that he took the last of them, and honored his brother Benjamin, whom he specially praised before the king, that he might be commanded before the rest, and gave him the other four youngest brothers, which were born of Bilhah and Leah.
011 But for the Jews to dream that Joseph had this plan out of fear, or that he was anxious about something, is, in the first place, idle gossip. For why should he be concerned that the king should use them for war, when it is often said that the Egyptians were abominable to all shepherds? Therefore, there was no danger that they would be used for warfare, since he knew that the nobility in Egypt and the captains or chiefs in war despised all herdsmen. And the king himself will say afterwards, v. 6, "If you know that there are men among them who are capable, set them over my cattle." He knows that they are despised by his subjects, so he calls them to feed his cattle, both large and small.
12. and from this you can now see that
the abhorrence that the Egyptians had for the shepherds must be understood as meaning that they despised them in relation to other classes of people, relatively and synecdochically, namely, as far as the great glorious classes or the most distinguished and famous offices were concerned, that they were not drawn to them or used them, but were even despised by them. Just as even now the nobility and burghers in cities do not like to have much fellowship with the peasantry, and the peasants themselves also despise the shepherds or sowherds and consider them inferior to themselves. And the same also happens with various peoples who are not from the same country, as the French regard themselves better and higher than the Germans; and especially the Italians despise the others all together in a haughty way and also have an abomination before them.
(13) Yet there may be, and ought to be, several different offices or ranks in this outward and civil life. For there is another office which is held by a captain, and another by a common man of war; a citizen has another office than a shepherd. Thus, if the Egyptians had not sinned in court, they might without sin have esteemed the shepherds inferior to the captains of war, or else to others of higher rank and nobility than they.
014 And Joseph himself was free from this abomination, though his origin and generation were abominable before the Egyptians. The Egyptians did not eat with him, but he did eat before them and in their presence; and he had come and been raised to such great dominion because of his virtue and excellent godliness. As the emperor Justinus is said to have become a captain from a cowherd and finally attained the imperium. And Sforza, Duke of Milan, is said to have been the son of a farmer and a cook or sudeler (cook) in war; but because he was strong in body and also had a great, joyful and warlike courage, he came to the dukedom and took the previous duke's daughter in marriage. So also Matthias, the king
of Hungary, came out of prison to the kingdom. And Solomon also says in Ecclesiastes Cap. 4, v. 14: "One comes from prison to the kingdom."
For these are the special works of God, of which it is said in the 113th Psalm, vv. 5, 6, 7: "Who is like the Lord our God, who has set himself so high, and stands on the lowly in heaven and on earth; who lifts up the lowly from the dust, and exalts the poor from the mire. This is God's power, and yet He keeps the distinction of offices and ranks in this life, as citizens, peasants, princes, nobles 2c. Although today it also happens, as the old verse says: Et genus et formam regina pecunia donat, that is: Money, which rules everywhere and floats above, can give both great lineage and beautiful gifts; money can make people noble and beautiful 2c. Yet the common distinctions of human society remain, that each one should keep his office and administer the same that is assigned to him by God, be he a prince or a peasant. This is what I want to say against the useless talk and poetry of the Jews.
016 For Joseph had so much to signify unto the king, that he and they were of honest birth and descent, though the place wherein they were born was very small and unknown. Therefore, even if they had been cattle herders, they would still have been pious, honest men, whom he would have wanted to use in his kingdom without any danger. For the rulers must also have this concern, that they diligently watch what they receive or accommodate for foreign guests. That is why Joseph brought these strangers before the king, so that he would see that he and his entire kingdom had nothing to worry about because of them, and even more, so that he would prove that such people, who are pleasing to God, can be useful to the church and beneficial to the entire kingdom of Egypt.
017 And it seemeth that Jacob gave this counsel, that Joseph should not present his eldest brethren before Pharaoh, as, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, whom he was a little displeased. Although I do not know what he thought of Judah; unless you have these
The words in the text "from the end of the brothers" you want to interpret so that they should mean so much that he took some from the eldest and some from the last or youngest. But I cannot say anything certain about this, and as I said above, there is no danger at all here, let it be interpreted in whatever way one wishes. For even though the elders among these brothers were forgiven their sins, they still had to await punishment, as we will hear later.
(18) There will undoubtedly have been many more conversations between the king and Joseph's brothers than are described here in the text. The king will have asked them about Joseph, how he was snatched away from his father's house and led to Egypt, and what happened 2c. Only the most important question is told in this place.
V. 3. 4. Then Pharaoh said to his brothers: What is enre food? They answered: Thy servants are shepherds, we and our fathers; and they said unto Pharaoh, We are come to dwell with you in the land: for thy servants have no pasture for their cattle, so hard is the drought oppressing the land of Canaan: now therefore let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.
Nineteen Pharaoh asks about their status and the work they do, and they answer him and say, "Your servants are shepherds" (for this is how it reads in Hebrew; as we have had other examples above, since the words are not always placed together as the rules of grammar require). "Thy servants," they say, "are shepherds of cattle;" remembering also their fathers, "we and our fathers." As if they wanted to say: We are not such people, who have arisen so recently or suddenly; but our whole family and all our ancestors have been cattle herders. Therefore we can say nothing else of ourselves, and claim nothing else, except that we can feed the cattle and tend the sheep.
20 So they are saying that they do not seek great glory or high honor.
The Jews' poem is therefore a useless, futile chatter, as if they had spoken out of fear, so that they would not be used for war. For this reason the poem of the Jews is a useless, vain babble, as if they had spoken thus out of fear, lest they should be used by force for war; but they mean to say this much: Though our brother be the chief ruler in thy kingdom, yet do we not at all desire such or such a dominion; for otherwise we have honor enough for our brother's half, because of the glory and great honor to which he has come.
(21) And I doubt not Joseph gave them this instruction, and taught them thus, not only for humility, but also for their profit. For he that can keep himself from going into the court of any prince is truly a blessed man, not only in our day, but also in all other days. It has a great appearance, and the glory of court life is certainly beautiful and necessary, and people always have more desire for that which seems beautiful and glorious than for that which is useful and necessary; for they desire only great money and goods and their own benefit, and in addition such a fine gentle life, where there is such great honor and glory. But for the offices and work of administering them, no one takes on nor desires them; indeed, they are all hostile to work and flee from it as much as they can and may. And all princes, kings and emperors have always complained about this. As they say, Emperor Maximilian is said to have once answered his nobility, when they complained before him and spoke harshly to him about the fact that he used such a man in all offices and business, who was of lowly descent and only a priest, who then became a cardinal and bishop of Salzburg. To them, I say, he answered: Why do you not do it? It would have been your duty to take these offices and work upon yourselves and to administer them diligently. I must have a skilled and industrious man around me through whom I can carry out my business, but you flee from such offices; that is why I had to choose and accept this scribe, who will take on the work that occurs in my court.
and tell me the same thing. If the nobility will not do it, then the clerk or the priest must do it. I can easily make knights or men-at-arms, but I cannot make men who are fit for the regiment and who can carry the work and burden of the kingdom. For it is indeed a very difficult thing about the regiment.
(22) Therefore Joseph diligently and wisely warned his brothers. For his own part, he may have been a little displeased because of the unpleasantness and heavy burden he has had to bear, and he does not want his brothers to be forced to do the same, or to be dragged by force into such great danger, which is the duty and responsibility of the common government.
(23) And he that can beware may well do so. But not in the way Diocletian and many other kings did, and also the Turkish tyrant Mahomet, who went and hid themselves in the desert or wasteland, like monks or hermits, so that they might flee from the burden, care and work of the regiment and be freed from it. For those do not do right who are called and duly appointed to the regiment, and who desist from it and leave such office when they become fainthearted and despondent because of the great burden and worries that are placed upon them. But they should rather remain in their office, to which they have been called and appointed by God, and show themselves to be brave and fine men of steadfastness, who do not soon become fainthearted or despondent because of the danger and impetuosity with which the common regiments are often severely burdened. For it is necessary to have dominions and regiments in this life, and this requires industrious and hard-working people who are skilled. And there is also outward glory, honor and good in every such office, whether secular or ecclesiastical; but it does not want to have lazy people.
Our sovereign, Duke John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, works so hard in so many great affairs that in truth it could be said of him: "Jsaschar will be a donkey with legs,
Gen 49:14, namely, to have and to bear the immense burden of the many labors upon him. For the kingdoms and regiments must be administered and governed in all ways. Matters and disputes must be recognized and decided in the courts and in the council chambers, which cannot be done without great vexation, difficulty, effort and work. That is why the Emperor Maximilian rightly said that he wanted to make knights or knights-at-arms much more easily than scribes. I can make a knight, he says, but I cannot make a scribe. Both our noblemen and our clerks are useless at home in peace and in war, neither for the regiment nor to do anything else: they give themselves either to avarice, which cannot be satisfied, or to drinking, feasting and stewing; but they can be wellware of the burden and danger that are part of the common regiment, and if it comes to a meeting in war, they will see to it that they are not the first at the head.
(25) And we have also said above that it is almost a difficult thing to administer the common regiment; as people who are practiced and experienced in something, and are not ambitious, but flee from high ranks wherever they can or may, know well.
(26) But they do not do right who leave the office and position to which they have been duly called. It is indeed a chore enough to be a preacher, to be a pious householder, or to administer any other office faithfully and godly; but nevertheless one must not flee from the work, but step up straightway and take it upon himself, and whatever hardships may arise must be overcome with great and strong courage. Whoever does not want to do this, let him stay away from it. For God has not ordained and appointed His offices and positions so that those who administer them should be idle. As St. Paul says in Romans 12:7: "If anyone has an office, let him wait for it" to serve his neighbor. Those who are called and appointed to the offices should not be lazy, idle bumblebees who only want to live off other people's work, but should do what they are commanded to do in the office.
their: They know that they are placed in office by divine appointment and order, that they should be strong and courageous, and not soon become fainthearted when dangers and impetuosity occur, so that the regiments are challenged and disrupted. And this is what they should do, so that they may indeed be the people they are called, namely. Strict, Noble, Great, Serene 2c., so that they may be quite firm and honorable in honest things. For in all things there must be diligence to godliness and virtue, and to the fear of God in all regiments.
27 Therefore Joseph advised his brothers manfully and faithfully to remain in their profession and in the office in which they had hitherto been; only not to seek great honor or glory in a foreign land, but to be content with their position and office, and not to think that for the sake of the great high honor in which they see their brother seated, they should also seek the same honor and glory after him.
The same is not done in our country, and we do not see such examples now. For now you see many of them among the courtiers, when they have come to an honorary office, that they then soon try to elevate their relatives and closest friends and make them rich. Joseph, however, tells his brothers to be content with their status. And even though they have the promise of the land of Canaan, they do not have to anticipate the time that God has provided before; as it is told afterwards in the books of Chronicles, 1 Chron. 8:20, 21, about the children of Ephraim, that they were destroyed because they wanted to take the land of Canaan before the right time.
029 Therefore the sons of Jacob spake unto the king, saying that they had a loathing of all high offices, and that they came hither out of great necessity, beseeching and desiring that they might abide in the least place in the land, and wait only for their pastorate. We have not come, they say, to rule here or to do anything else great.
so that you may not have any evil suspicion of us; but only desire to stay here for a while, because we have no pasture or food in our country, which we have left. We have been driven out of there by hunger and grief, and by the fact that we have lacked all necessities. We are very poor and have been driven into misery; therefore we ask that we may only be granted and allowed to have our dwelling for a time in some place in your land, at least in the land of Gosen. All this Moses said in few words, but no doubt much more was said; and they will have answered the king's or the other lords' questions somewhat more expansively.
(30) You see that Joseph's virtue and piety are again praised here, as he ruled and administered everything with the highest wisdom and faithfulness. For these beautiful chivalrous virtues are well suited to such a great prince. And this example is actually much greater than that of any other great hero, whoever he may have been, in all kinds of worldly regiments. How wisely and how with great strength of courage and virtue he has directed all things, and how great godliness has been in all this! What a beautiful knowledge of the right heavenly doctrine shone in him, also in such a way that he could justly be called a right skilful political man and in addition an excellent theologian!
(31) But here is another question, saying, What pasture was there in Egypt, since there was none in the land of Canaan or in the places near it, nor in Egypt itself, because of the barren years? To this question I answer thus: I do not believe that the whole of Egypt was so completely withered that there were not some fields and meadows left that still had pasture, because they were over-wetted by the abundance of the waters of the Nile, however small it may have been; as was said above about the difference of the overflowing. Although the same also seems to serve little here, and we can not know for sure, how they all the time
about the cattle may have grazed. But the land of Gosen may have been near the Nile in a low place, since it could have been moistened so much more and longer. And it is a great thing that they had pasture there, which was otherwise lacking almost in all of Egypt. As it will be said hereafter, that the inhabitants of Egypt still had cattle, which they gave for grain; so that it is indicated, as it seems, that at that time there must still have been pasture left for the cattle, and that the barrenness is thus to be drawn and understood solely from the lack of grain or from the feeding for the large cattle.
But now, in our time, the land of Egypt has been changed, as the 107th Psalm v. 33. 34. says about divine punishment and change of the land: "Whose brooks were dried up, and the fountains of water were dried up, so that a fruitful land bore nothing, because of the wickedness of them that dwelt therein. For where God punishes a land, He not only takes away the people, but also the sap from the earth. As in our times Italy, and also our Thuringian land, which was almost the most fertile land in all of Germany, is also somewhat lacking in fertility. For they say that the income of seven years should now hardly yield as much as three years yielded before that time. This happens because of the wickedness of the people, but mainly because of usury and avarice, which no one can control. For this same seductive avarice dares to do anything it wants and sucks these lands dry.
(33) Goshen, as I also said above, seems to have been the place where they built Raemses afterwards, where they also went out. And it was situated on the extreme borders of Egypt, towards the land of Canaan and Arabia, where the waters of the Nile had their first entrance into the sea, towards the east; which entrance is called Pelusium. It seems that it must have been a very fertile and fat land.
V. 5. 6. Pharaoh said to Joseph, "It is your father, and your brothers, who are at
The land of Egypt is open to you; let them dwell in the best part of the land, let them dwell in the land of Goshen; and if you know that there are men of valor among them, set them over my cattle.
(34) The king answered Joseph graciously and mildly: "They are," he said, "your brothers," and you may do with them as you please. If there are people among them who are somewhat capable and skilful, then put them above my cattle. For though my subjects despise them, yet will I not cast them out, because I have so highly exalted thee, who art born even whence they came. But they, as they themselves ask and desire, shall remain common people and have no rule. You shall keep your righteousness and privilege, for you have become a prince from a shepherd through a special freedom that goes to your person alone. For God's gifts have an exception, which God has reserved for Himself alone. It belongs before our Lord GOD. Therefore, let each one remain in his place or station until fortune draws out of the common order which God wants drawn out.
35 The king wants to have skilled and diligent shepherds. A fine shepherd who knows how to handle his office and who not only knows how to handle his office, but who is also brave and wants to do diligently what he is commanded: he wants such a shepherd to be chosen.
(36) And here thou seest that the shepherds also are called men of virtue, fit and virtuous men, that is, laborious, diligent, and faithful: who wait for a thing. As Prov. 31, 10. f. is also said of a virtuous woman, that is, one who carries out her spousal duties, and is a fine mistress and matron, who diligently waits on the house, and brings up the children well; and who diligently and faithfully does what is due to a pious godly matron. Thus Boaz, Ruth 2:1, is called a man of virtue, that is, an honest man. And every man should behave in this way in his office and position.
(37) Such faithful shepherds and servants are also desired by kings, princes and heads of households today, and almost all of them complain that there is now no one healthy among all the servants who is faithful and faithful. And perhaps this was also the reason why Pharaoh desired a good, skillful and faithful shepherd, so that at the same time under such a blessed king and in such a very beautiful kingdom very few pious and faithful servants were found.
Second part.
How Joseph presents his father before Pharaoh, and Pharaoh would have a conversation with him; item, how Jacob is provided with his own.
V. 7 Joseph also brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
(38) We have just heard that Jacob did not go to Egypt of his own accord, but that he was very fearful, and that great need urged him to go there, and he did not like to stay in Egypt, nor did he want to be buried there. For the Holy Spirit has a good memory, and still remembers the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 15:13, 14, when God said to him, "Know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and there they will be forced to serve and toil for four hundred years. But I will judge the people whom they must serve." So now faith also has an excellent memory. For faith and promises are such that one thing cannot exist without another, and one thing is always related to another. Therefore Jacob goes out of the land of Canaan, but with fear, until he receives comfort at Bersaba. For if this comfort had not come, he would never have left.
39 But now that he is coming to Egypt, he sends himself into time, and keeps himself as the ge
If the present distress requires it, think therefore, Behold, I come hither into a strange land, wherein I and my seed shall be afflicted. For since the text says Genesis 15:16: "After four generations they will come here again," it has made this calculation: The first generation was Abraham's, the second Isaac's, the third mine, the fourth my son Joseph's. Therefore I go now, as it were into the purgatory and into the hell, do not know how it will go for me and when I will come back. He has honored the king, and yet he does not doubt that he will finally pursue his seed or his descendants.
040 But what was he to do? God has called him down and promised him that Joseph would close his eyes when he died. He is satisfied with this, and now he thinks about how he might be led out of Egypt again the sooner the better, even if he had already died, since such a thing might not happen to him during his life.
41 Now that Joseph had brought his brothers before Pharaoh, he brought his father also. As the king undoubtedly wanted and ordered, for he was pious and godly, who understood and recognized God's gifts to Joseph after he had been converted and learned the right doctrine and heavenly wisdom from him. The other king, however, who will reign after this one, will not know Joseph and will plague his descendants severely. Now that he has seen his brothers, he desires to see and address his old father, who had such a son, gifted with such great gifts from God, such a great prophet and full of the Holy Spirit. For the more understanding and wise one is, the more one desires to see the father of such a pious holy son.
42 Therefore Jacob follows his son Joseph and comes before the king; but he speaks nothing, asks nothing of him, but only blesses him, and honors the worldly and royal majesty, of which he knows that it is God's order. And will no doubt
the king talked much more with him through his interpreter and asked about many things, namely, who his grandfather and his father had been and what each had done; what miseries, toils and labors they had and suffered? Which is not told by Moses, who alone writes how Jacob blessed the king, that is, he wished him happiness and salvation, called upon God and asked that he might preserve the king and the whole kingdom, and that it might go well with him, the king, in all places.
(43) But otherwise it is proper that the greater should bless the lesser; as it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Cap. 7:7: "It is without contradiction that the lesser is blessed by the better"; as that Melchizedek blesses Abraham, Gen. 14:19. But this must be understood of the divine blessing. In other places, however, to bless means to wish one happiness and all kinds of blessings. In other places it means to give thanks, to praise, as in the Psalms, Ps. 103, 1: "Praise the Lord, my soul." Item Ps. 117, 1: "Praise the Lord, all nations," that is, give thanks to Him, praise Him.
44 Therefore Jacob blessed the king as the lesser the greater, and made a speech before him, praising his mercy, and thanking him for the benefits he had received from him, namely, that he had so exalted Joseph his son, and had so graciously received him and his other sons, and had given them a special place in the land to dwell, and also that he had sent them grain and food into the land of Canaan. 2c. This was truly a brave and fine speech. For we must not think that Jacob was a child or an unlearned farmer; but he was a prophet, a bishop and learned in spirit. Therefore he was able to speak well of his affairs, and thanked the king with a magnificent long speech for all the benefits with which he had showered him, as it were; he also added a request, namely, that the king would show him and all his descendants such grace from now on.
V. 8-10 Pharaoh asked Jacob, "How old are you? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The time of my pilgrimage is an hundred and thirty years: little and evil is the time of my life, and not as long as the time of my fathers in their pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from him.
45 Now this is another speech that the king made to Jacob, in which he asked him his age. But no doubt other speeches were also made, as is usual in such friendly conversations. And perhaps the king looked at his gray hair and wrinkles, which indicated that he must be much older than he had previously heard from his sons, or that he himself had been able to calculate. Therefore he asked him, and said, I see that thou art a very old man; dear man, tell me, how many years old art thou? Jacob answered, "I am not as old as my face shows. I have a hundred and thirty years on me and no more. My fathers lived a little longer: Isaac reached his hundred and eighty years; Abraham lived to be a hundred and five and seventy years old. I have not come that far, though I am now a sorrowful and broken old man.
46 For Pharaoh, as it seems, will have taken cause to ask about his age, since he saw in him the long gray hairs and the weathered wrinkled face. But there are two kinds of gray hairs. Some come from old age, the others from fear and gloom. One says of the people that they become gray from worries and sorrow of their life; after German idiom: I would like to become gray. And in the 6th Psalm v. 8. it says: "My form is gone down with sorrow, and is grown old; for I am troubled in all places." As if to say: I am surrounded with enemies and other plagues, so that whenever one is gone, soon three others come, so much heavier. For no misfortune comes alone, as they say.
(47) But such afflictions and miseries make man so much sooner
gray hairs and wrinkles, and that he must die sooner. Hence come the miserable lamentations of those who are sorrowful and sad, saying, Thou wilt make me gray, thou wilt kill me. For grievous afflictions do indeed grieve and kill many a man. For this reason Solomon also exhorts in his Ecclesiastes on 11 Cap. V. 9. and says: "So rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart be of good cheer in your youth." A young person should be joyful, should not devour or torture himself with anxiety and biting worries that consume his strength and suck out the juice of his life. Do not begin to trouble yourself early; when old age approaches and all kinds of things and business come up, worries and all kinds of misery will follow. For where there is business, it will learn itself well.
Therefore Jacob says, "I am old, but not so much from years as from many misfortunes and sorrows, which kill a man much sooner than many years can do. And if we now want to look at our time, how many are now people who reach sixty years? How many thousands of people perish by the sword? How many die of pestilence, item, of sadness and affliction before the proper time? And now is a great age, when men live to be fifty or sixty years old. But of sorrow Solomon says Prov. 17:22, "A sorrowful spirit dries up the bones." For when the heart is troubled, the body also languishes, and when the heart is afraid and anxious, it takes away the sap of life. Jacob also complains about this here, when he says: "The time of my pilgrimage is few and evil"; for I have suffered many serious accidents and miseries, and my whole life has been nothing but a pilgrimage. As can be seen from his history, he was a very unhappy and sad man almost until his fourth and seventieth year. When he was still young, he was cast out of his father's house by his brother Esau, since he had also been despised at all times before; and therefore he abstained from marriage and housekeeping until his fifth and fortieth year.
year. But when he received the blessing, he served twenty more years in Mesopotamia. Oh, how he had to suffer so much injustice there from his father-in-law Laban! After that, when he left him to go to Shechem, he suffered even more serious misfortunes there. For there his daughter Dinah was put to sleep; Simeon and Levi slew Hemor and the Shechemites; Rachel and Deborah died; I will not mention the struggle and the fight he had with the angel. These are all such pieces that any one of them could make one gray even before the right age. Finally, Reuben has also weakened his father's wife; Joseph has been sold; and since he has thus departed, the father now knows nothing else but that his dearest son must have perished. This is truly the greatest misfortune he has had among others. These are the evil days that shorten a man's life and make him ugly, gray, wrinkled and old. For then the evil days break in and fulfill what is otherwise lacking in old age by the half of the years.
49 But that he calls his years or days the time of his pilgrimage, these are words of the spirit and faith, which thinks of another life. For he does not even want to consider this miserable life, so full of crosses and misery, worthy of being called a life; but calls it only "a pilgrimage", a very sorrowful life, which one must serve, because God has thus commanded and it is His will, which assigns to every man his own place and time, so that he may be preserved and governed, as long as it will be pleasing to the same dear God. By the way, this life is so dreadfully miserable, burdensome and sorrowful because of many tribulations and plagues of all devils and the whole world. And there is no doubt that Jacob will have suffered many other tribulations, not all of which have been described here. Therefore, this life is not a true life, but is a death and plague of life. But this hope still sustains us, namely, that we know that it is only our pilgrimage. As the epistle to the Hebrews both this text
1802 V- xi. si-ss. Interpretation of Genesis 47, 8-12. W. n, seio-sgss. 1803
and other similar passages are very finely interpreted in the 11th chapter. V. 8-10: "By faith Abraham was obedient, when he was called to go forth into the land which he was to inherit; and he went forth, not knowing whither he went. By faith he was a stranger in the promised land, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise. For he waited for a city that has a foundation, whose builder and maker is GOD."
50 For this hope, that they would wait for a better life, they made the most difficult pilgrimage. That is why Jacob does not call his life the days of a dwelling, of rest and salvation, even if he had already had a kingdom. As David also says of himself in the 39th Psalm v. 13: "I am both thy pilgrim and thy citizen, as are all my fathers." For this life is only a pilgrimage for those who believe and have divine promise, in which they will be exalted in the hope of a future and better life. And it seems that David took from these words of Jacob, when he says: "The time of my pilgrimage is not long since the time of my fathers in their pilgrimage," these words of the Psalm, when he says: "Like all my fathers." Therefore, before God we are all citizens in hope, but before the world we are only poor pilgrims in fact.
The godly must diligently consider this and live their lives in this way. For few want to contemplate the same. Most of them follow and seek the benefits and pleasures of this world, which they consider to be paradise and their kingdom of heaven, and always leave behind the hope of the "other better" life.
52 Accordingly, the time of Joseph's birth can also be reckoned from this text. For the Holy Spirit did not desire in vain that the years of the fathers should be numbered; but it was done that the godly might have a certain order and reckoning of time. That is why the number of years is so emphatically and so precisely set in the text. Therefore Joseph is now nine and thirty years old, and Jacob a hundred and thirty. From this one can now
easily reckon when Joseph was sold, as we have indicated in our chronicle. For it pleases God that one knows the time in this world. And even though we do not know the hour and the moment, God shows us the time when the Last Judgment will approach, through the signs that Christ himself tells us in Luc. 21, v. 25 ff.
Finally, Jacob went out from the king again with thanksgiving, as he had also greeted him kindly at the beginning, and declared himself to be grateful to him from the bottom of his heart for his royal clemency, which he had shown him and his family. He blesses him not in the manner of a greater, but of a lesser. There are not such petitions in which something is given or promised; but there are such blessings in which something is desired. For we ask that God may give the blessing, but we do not conclude or command anything with it; for the same is due to God alone. As afterwards Jacob blesses his sons with certain real blessings, in which he determines, indicates and proclaims something certain to them.
V.11. But Joseph made a dwelling for his father and his brothers, and gave them an estate in the land of Egypt, in the best place of the land, that is, in the land of Raemses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
54 Here Moses concludes the journey of Jacob's descent into Egypt, and now he wants to return to the place where the whole kingdom was. For Joseph carried out Pharaoh's command, and set his father and his brothers in a fertile land, namely, in Raemses, which geographers say is in Gosen, from where they then departed again, as can be seen in the 2nd book of Moses, when they ate the first paschal lamb. There Jacob and his sons lived with their cattle by the kindness of the king and Joseph.
V.12. And he (Joseph) provided for his father, and for his brethren, and for all his father's house; for every one after he had children.
55) It is a Hebraism when it says: "according to the mouth of the child. There we must guess what is actually meant or understood by it. And first of all, there is an exchange of the numerus here, since the word "of the child" is used for "of the children. But what he means by this is that Joseph fed his father and brothers according to the manner and measure in which small children are fed; as it is done in the household, where the small children enjoy the work of their parents, eat the bread; but they themselves do no work, do not acquire the bread, but help to eat it: they do not build the field, nor do any other work, but eat what the others have acquired with their work and diligence. And since Paul says in 2 Thess. 3:10, "He that worketh not, neither shall he eat," we are to know that nevertheless the little children are excepted, who also eat, though they work not; yea, that is still more, they do their parents all sorts of displeasure, that they are brought up by them so faithfully, and with so great toil and labor.
(56) Now to feed after the manner of children is as much as to say, to feed or provide for one without his labor. For Jacob and his sons, with all their household, had no fields to cultivate, were only shepherds, and received grain or food from Joseph free of charge, by order of the king and out of kindness. So he provided for his father and brothers and fed them, as little children are fed, but they are not allowed to do any work.
57 Now Jacob was led to Egypt, although he did not love that country and did not like to go there, but because he was troubled by anger and had a desire to see his son. For he remembers the promise that the children of Israel would be hard-pressed and harassed in the same land, and knows that the fourth man's life is now actually present. He will indeed be received and welcomed with joy, just as Christ was received with joy on Palm Sunday in Jerusalem, but after this
He was also dealt with as Christ was dealt with on Charlemagne. Therefore, he does not wish to stay long in Egypt with his people, but wants to return to the Promised Land as soon as possible.
Third part.
How Joseph brings together all the money, livestock and fields of the Egyptians, makes the Egyptians serfs, and confirms this serfdom.
V. 13, 14: And there was no bread in all the land: for the famine was so sore, that the land of Egypt and Canaan fainted for the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in Egypt and Canaan for the corn which they bought: and Joseph put all the money into Pharaoh's house.
58. Moses now comes again to the description of the Theurung. It has often been said that in this whole book the wonderful government of God is praised, that in the times of the greatest fathers and prophets the greatest theuras were always present; as can be seen in the history of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; therefore God punishes the world with theuras, where the word in the church is going on. However, He does it with the punishment in such a way that He still nourishes and sustains His own; as the saying reads in the 37th Psalm v. 19: "In the torment the pious will have enough. And this present example also shows the same. So in the time of Elijah and Elisha, and likewise of David, there was a great and terrible tribulation.
Therefore, it is a strange thing when God shows the highest grace to men by sending them His word, since this world has no more precious treasure than this, and yet under such bright light of the word He still sends theurge, pestilence and many other innumerable plagues or punishments.
(60) But with this he tempts his saints and believers and strengthens their faith, and at the same time he punishes the ingratitude of the world. In our time we are abundantly gifted with the sermon of our beloved
Word of God; but how the same is accepted by the ungrateful listeners, we also see well. For the tyranny of princes, usury, deceitfulness, robbery, which people practice among themselves in particular, and which is also practiced publicly in general, enters with a vengeance into the church. Through such drudgery and robbery, the whole of Germany will be sucked dry; and where people thus continue to let their own lusts run wild and to exercise such courage among themselves, a terrible change will undoubtedly follow. Germania will gain a much different shape, if it is to stand like this for a long time. For it will one day come to pass that the many fairs and the great opulence with the excessive building, clothing, food and other splendor will be put down; but this will not happen without great harm and ruin to Germany.
The world does not understand, nor does it thank God for the immense and innumerable benefits, so that it is daily showered by God; and the sins of men are, unfortunately, all too much and inordinately great. For one does not sin now out of ignorance, as happened under the papacy: we now know and recognize the truth in our time. Therefore there is no error in understanding, nor is there any lack of it, that one should not know it; but against all understanding people do not want to be persuaded to send themselves to correction and become pious, however faithfully they are taught and admonished. For we work every day to teach and admonish them in this beautiful, great light and richness of the gospel, and to awaken them to repentance. But there is no help in fighting: the more one preaches, the more one gets angry.
The papists persecute the known truth without ceasing and rage against the godly as if they were nonsensical, as in the days of the prophets: they are inflamed with madness and foolishness. That is why they are becoming more and more insane in their presumption and desire to exterminate the Christians. So Germania wants to pass through and Germany
follows the kingdom of Israel and Judah in this. For although the prophets in the same kingdoms have persisted with God's word clearly and most diligently, they have achieved nothing with it. It was all of no avail. How the LORD reproached them for such horrible nonsense and punished them for it, Jer. 2:23, 24, when he said: "See how you do it in the valley, and consider how you have done it. Thou walkest about like a she-camel in heat; And like a wild beast in the wilderness, when it is in great heat, and runneth, that no man can endure." You run along like a mad dog. God has often repeated this word to them: Be converted and do not sin so, hear my word. But they did not want to hear all this until the king of Assyria came, who stopped their mad run and forbade them to do so. So now our Germans will not stop sinning until one day an enemy from a foreign land will come along and stop and abolish their ungodly nature and their raving and raging.
But we who have the word and love it should pray and sigh that God will have mercy on us, or at least gather the wheat into His barns, and that He will not throw us with the chaff into the eternal fire and burn us up. And God has already begun to thresh and to sweep his threshing floor. But what will be the end of the chaff and stubble will finally be felt by those who do not want to be admonished now and do not intend to improve at all. We are well excused.
In those days the kingdom of Egypt had a very good prophet, who ordered all things very well, as far as the priesthood and secular offices were concerned; who taught the whole kingdom how to pray and how to call upon the right true God, and gave them laws on how to live rightly and honestly. But they will have accepted the same doctrine without any doubt and will have kept it as the world is wont to do. As such the end also showed finely, since the great and heavy theurung had been.
1808 L.XI.S7-SS. Interpretation of Genesis 47:13, 14, W. II, WSS-S6W. 1809
This is a wonderful description, which I cannot understand sufficiently. For we have not been present, have also not seen the form and how the kingdom of Egypt has been ordered, before eyes. And I cannot think how such an empire and regiment could be ordered or set up in Germany. For, first, all the money will be collected; then, the cattle; and, third, the people will also be made serfs by the king. Therefore, it must have been a beautifully well-ordered kingdom, because in the theurge the money, cattle, fields and people were sold. And it was truly a great heavy servitude; and as I said, I cannot understand how such a thing could be done in Germany without outrage and revolt of the common rabble.
66 It is clear from this that Joseph must have kept good order, discipline and obedience with special diligence and earnestness, and that he kept the people in right doctrine and in the fear of God through the office of priests and teachers. For this is a very great protection that the people had to give at that time.
But the Hebrews are not at one with one another in the interpretation of the word thelah. For some have given it in Latin "to become senseless"; others, "to depress. We think that it should be interpreted correctly as "to languish," as we have also interpreted it in German: "verschmachteten vor der Theurung. And it seems that the theurung was not so terrible and so great in other countries as in Egypt and Canaan, which countries had the word that Jacob and Joseph had spoken to them.
(68) Since there was a shortage of grain throughout the kingdom, Joseph gathered all the money found in Egypt, for the subjects gathered it together to buy grain and save their lives. For the drought, which lasts seven whole years, takes away all grain, however large a supply of it may be. Those who have collected some for themselves in their barns have
Perhaps they had already emptied them and consumed their supply, so that they had to buy grain from Joseph. In the same way, after three or four years, almost all the money of the common subjects in Egypt and Canaan was spent to prevent them from starving.
(69) And Joseph collected the same money, not by usury, robbery, or unreasonable, unlawful treasure, but only by gathering the corn of the former years throughout Egypt into granaries, which were now and then erected in the kingdom, not only from the king's fields, but also from the common subjects, who sold the corn in the good years, of which they had no need for their household. Joseph used and spent the king's money for this, which he has now collected again, since he sold the grain to the people.
(70) This has truly been a great and marvelous affliction, in that the money of the subjects has gone with the fruit or crops of the land. We have not seen such things in our time, nor have our ancestors. And yet there, in Egypt, there were people who lived very modestly, who kept house precisely and miserably: they were not gluttons, gluttons and drunkards, as we Germans are, whose one person consumes so much food and drink in one day that a hundred Egyptians could have provided for themselves.
For, my dear, look at what is happening in this little town of ours, since the citizens have found, according to their accounts, that every year more than four thousand guilders are spent on barley. What is the point of spending money so uselessly? We drink day and night and fill our bellies with beer. But if we had a desire for thrift and moderation, as we have for abundance, we could save and keep two or three thousand guilders every year. But how much wine do the full brethren drink away besides beer? What goes on the luxury in clothes and other useless things, which our merchants bring here from foreign countries to our lands? Yes,
How much money do the Frankfurt fairs eat up, since it is said that in each of them, thirty times a hundred thousand guilders are brought from Germany. I will keep silent about the Leipzig markets and the others. And yet it seems that all this cannot be compared with the great abundance of clothing, wine, beer and other things, which we shamefully and evil go through without any benefit.
The usurers have truly brought about a very harsh reformation, and if our Lord God continues to be angry with us, they will drain us so completely that we will barely have enough water for our daily needs. After that, there will also be the estimates that the secular authorities will impose on their subjects. That is why Germany is now being severely burdened and sucked dry, which until now had more freedom than other kingdoms and countries, such as France, Spain, Italy and others. But now treasure and servitude are breaking in with force. For people no longer want to be punished for the sake of sin; and when sins thus run rampant, it is also impossible to stop the punishment and prevent it from getting the upper hand. Therefore we may suffer the punishment and bear the damage, because we do not want to refrain from sins and do not want to improve ourselves.
(73) As Augustine beautifully says, when he interprets the 85th Psalm, where v. 11 says: "Righteousness and peace kiss each other. Augustine says about this: "Be pious and practice righteousness, and you will have peace; so that righteousness and peace may kiss each other. For where you do not love righteousness, you will not have peace. For these two love one another and kiss one another, so that he who practices righteousness will also find peace who kisses righteousness. They are two good friends. You may want to have one of them, but you do not want to have the other, because there is no one who does not want to have peace, but they do not all want to be righteous and do justice.
74. because we desire to sin freely and unpunished, and thus to rage and rage against God, let us
we, on the other hand, also carry the punishment. For unrighteousness and unpeace also kiss each other. Sin and the punishment for sin are also connected, as Paul says Rom. 6, 23: "Death is the wages of sin"; and: "The sting of death is sin", 1 Cor. 15, 56. After the raging of our evil lust and desires, we must also suffer the raging of punishment.
How now in our time there is no more discipline, no more righteousness and no more shame among the people. We preach, shout and scream, always stopping at the right time and at the wrong time, as Paul says 2 Tim. 4, 2. But the authorities are silent about it and look through their fingers at the vices. We say what we want, the authorities remain silent: it does not want to go anywhere. That is why the punishment must follow. Then we will cry out, but God will not hear us when we cry out to Him in the punishment, because we did not want to hear Him in our sins, since He called us through His servants. We want to lead the sins out, so we must also have the punishment out.
76 Therefore it was a great pity that Joseph collected all the money of the subjects, not by appraisal, but by selling them grain that they themselves had collected, divided and sold. And this collection of money, which Joseph made, was fair and lawful; for he sold the king's grain, for which he also demanded the money cheaply and justly. And he had long before proclaimed this theuration unto them, and ordained that every man should gather so much as he should have for his daily necessities for a whole seven years. But some will believe what he has announced, but the others will have despised it. And yet it was a great mercy that they could still get grain for money, which Joseph will undoubtedly have sold to them at the same price the first, the next and the following years. This has been a proper and lawful contract and purchase, that he has thus sold them the grain under his honest title, and has not charged them every month and year with new treasure.
or drudgery: he made it so that the people might come to it. But in the course of time, because the affliction lasted so long, the common subjects were gradually exhausted and drained of their possessions and goods. And it could not have been otherwise; for in such distress one had to help the poor subjects, so that they were not allowed to die of hunger.
(vv. 15-17) Now when money was lacking in the land of Egypt and Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, "Provide us with bread. Why do you let us die before you because we are without money? And Joseph said, Bring forth your cattle, and I will give you for your cattle, because ye are without money. So they brought Joseph their cattle, and he gave them bread for their horses, and for their sheep, and for their oxen, and for their asses. So he fed them with bread for the year for all their livestock.
When the money was collected from the grain that Joseph sold to the Canaanites and Egyptians, the king had a wonderful treasure. But whether the people had anything left over, I do not know; for I cannot think that the subjects should have been completely stripped of all their money and so drained that they had nothing left to pay their day laborers, craftsmen, and others whom they used daily for work. Or perhaps one would like to understand it in such a way that it would be spoken synecdochically, namely, that he had collected all the money, except what they needed for their daily necessities, to buy clothes, shoes and other necessities. Or they may have paid their farmhands and laborers with grain they had bought. Therefore they now bring their cattle, for which Joseph gave them bread and provided them with it for a year.
78 The text does not say what year it was, but after the money of the previous year was consumed, now they bring in the cattle: not that the king has gathered their cattle, both large and small, in one place, but he is talking about the cattle.
The price of the livestock that they themselves have kept and grazed. This is what happens in our contracts, as when one sells the income from an estate that bears fruit every year, and yet retains ownership of it. That is why they consumed their livestock or gave money from it during the year. And I think it was the sixth year and the last except one, after the money was consumed in the fifth year. The first two years they might have lived on the stock they had gathered in their own barns; likewise the third year, except that it was a little scarcer; but in the fourth year buying and selling began.
(79) It was truly a terrible deed and a marvelous rule that Joseph kept, so that all possessions and goods, as well as the people themselves, came into the king's power throughout the kingdom and all became his servants; so that they had nothing of their own, neither at home nor out in the field, nor even livestock. And it seems that this poverty, since they lacked everything, did not last long with them. For they were so great and rich again that they had much gold and silver when the people of Israel came out of Egypt and robbed them of it. Therefore this theuration did not last always, except that in Egypt the custom remained that they had to give the fifth part of their goods.
V.18-20 When the year was ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, "We will not hide from our Lord that not only the money but also all the livestock is gone to our Lord, and there is nothing left before our Lord but our bodies and our field. Why hast thou caused us to die before thee, and our field? Buy us and our land for bread, that we and our land may be in bondage to Pharaoh; give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the field be not desolate. So Joseph bought Pharaoh the
all of Egypt. For the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was too great for them. So the land became Pharaoh's own.
80 The other year is not the year that followed the first, but the year that followed the one in which they gave the cattle to the king. Now this was a great and grievous affliction, and the uttermost affliction, that they lamented, having nothing left but their bodies and their fields. Joseph also takes this away; and yet this is not robbery, but they have sold it, and it was a lawful contract. Nor did they lose the use of their field, but only had to give and pay the king the fifth part of the fruits that grew on it. Although it seems that the field was sold outright, and that the king used those who built the field for his servants, that they had to build the fields for him.
This regime, though hard and severe enough, has been lawful and not tyrannical, and since no one has been wronged, it has been God's wrath and punishment on their sin, so that God has punished this people with punishment, and thus made them servants, which servitude they have had to bear because of sin. For where we sin, we should know that we must also suffer punishment for it. So now they have nothing of their own, neither money, nor cattle, nor fields, nor even their own bodies; the king has taken everything; not that he has robbed or taken it from them by force, but has sold grain to the subjects for it. And this was the last year except for one, and after that the last year at all.
V. 20, 21: And the land was Pharaoh's own. And he divided the people into cities from one place of Egypt to another.
82) Now this is a new and special thing, which Joseph did as a seal to confirm the buying and selling which they did, that the subjects of the kingdom should so move from place to place, that they might know
that all their goods and chattels were the king's because of the purchase they had made with each other. But he let the people go from one city to another as a testimony and public emblem, so that he sealed the servitude of the people, as if now the citizens of Wittenberg had to go to Thuringia and the Thuringians to Saxony. He gave them the fields and cattle that were the king's, but they had to give the fifth part of the income to the king, as from his land.
(83) This was indeed a strange and grievous sealing, by which they were reminded that they had lost the ownership of all their goods, not through Joseph's fault or the king's, but because of the purchase that had taken place between them. And this was a great mercy and a special blessing, because they were servants in bondage, that he did not kill them for his own pleasure, but nourished and preserved them, and also placed them in the royal fields and estates. For this reason, the kingdom had to bear and suffer the punishment and chastisement of God for their sins, as Joseph had announced to them long before, and had them instructed and admonished by the priests and princes or officials in the land, so that they would patiently suffer this servitude.
V. 22 Except for the priests' field, which he did not buy; for it was Pharaoh's decree for the priests that they should feed on what he had given them; therefore they were not allowed to sell their field.
This is an excellent text, which one should remember particularly well. For what we Germans think now or what kind of people we are, I do not know. It is certain that in natural and divine law it is decreed that those who serve the altar should also live from the altar; as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:13, 14: "Know ye not that they which sacrifice eat of the sacrifice? and they which keep the altar enjoy the altar? So also the Lord commanded that they which preach the gospel should eat of the gospel.
gelio nourish." And in this place it is written in the text with great diligence and repeated for the second time that the priests in Egypt had their special humble portion decreed and named, that they were not allowed to sell their field.
Therefore, this is a very beautiful text, but we do not follow it and do not allow the same in Germany. It is true that in other countries it is customary that those who administer public offices, such as the lords' servants, cane masters, soldiers and the overlords, are themselves also maintained on public pay. Similarly, the princes also take customs and wages from the subjects. But how it is held with the schoolmen and servants of the word, we see before our eyes. If something had not remained of the plunder from Egypt, which we have stolen from the pope, we would all have to die of hunger. For there is now no city or principality that feeds or maintains its priests and schools, regardless of the great hard work, plus the faithful diligence and service of devout priests and pastors. And if they were to be maintained by the allowance of the common people, they would truly have to live poorly and miserably. Therefore I still say that we are nourished by the plunder of Egypt, which was collected under the papacy; and yet the same, if there is anything left of it, is also snatched away by the authorities; the parish priests and schools are robbed, not otherwise than as if they wanted to let us die of hunger. If it will now exist in this way, it will be seen.
(86) Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, will arise at the last judgment of the future and will condemn the princes and authorities of Germany, because he has honored and nourished his priests, and has not taken their goods, even though he might have taken them by force of the contract that was lawfully established; but he gives them liberty and decrees for them a named portion of grain and food, by which they have lived without all their harm. Now which of all the kings and German princes will you give me who is like this Pharaoh?
(87) Our sovereign does not feed us from his own, but from the spoil of Egypt, and would not be able to feed or keep us from his own. But that we owe it to the priests and ministers to feed them, there is no doubt about it; and if we will not give anything in return, this text will condemn us, from which we will have great shame. God wills that he who is instructed in the word shall impart all good things to him who instructs him, Gal. 6:6. And Paul adds one more thing there, v. 7, saying, "Do not be deceived; God is not mocked." In the same way Christ says to his apostles Luc. 10, 7: "Where you come into a house, stay in it, eat and drink what they have. For a laborer is worth his wages." But what shall we do? They neither like to have us nor to hear us; and even if we wanted to give our listeners pay and money, they do not like to hear us or to suffer us.
Therefore, the sins in Germany are ripe, and the punishment will not be delayed and will not fail. For even now the princes are being sucked dry by the usurers, and many a valuation and drudgery arise daily, and so it serves us right. What you do not give to our Lord God, give to the devil; as they say: Quod non tollit Christus, tollit fiscus: What Christ does not take away, the fiscus takes away. If you do not want to give to the disciple, then give to the brother Veit and Scharrhansen, who waste it with heaps and take ten, thirty, fifty pay at once. Since one does not like to give a penny to a poor disciple or servant of the Word for the sake of God and for the sake of our souls, you will have to give a thousand guilders to a godless warrior servant and to Satan himself.
(89) Therefore, I say, let this text be diligently remembered, namely, that the king, who is so pious, in this greatest affliction, which was then in the country, has thus honored the word and preserved the service, delivering the priests from the great distress and very heavy burden of theurge and bondage. He preserves their children and their
He not only gives them freedom, but also provides each of them with a modest portion of grain, so that they may be nourished. It is truly a very godly king, the like of which we do not have in our times. Yes, our princes rob and steal away everything they find in monasteries and parishes, and there are very few of them who give anything so that the preaching ministry may be preserved, or that a few students may be maintained. That is why it will come to this that they will again also suffer. It will come to that, you will also have too little.
Fourth Part.
How Joseph restores the fields to the Egyptians; and whether the priest's field became Pharaoh's own.
V.23-25 Then said Joseph unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day, and your field unto Pharaoh: behold, ye have seed, and sow the field. And of the corn ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh: four parts shall be yours to sow the field, for your meat, and for your house, and for your children. They said: Let us only live, and find grace in the sight of thee, our Lord: we will gladly be servants unto Pharaoh.
90 From this it is clear that after six years had passed, a relief followed, namely that the people were again granted the fields, but with the condition that they should give the fifth part of it to the king. This should be easily tolerated in our lands, especially where the arable land would have been the property of the king. We now sell our fields to others for half of the fruits that grow on them, but the farmers have to pay for the costs and do all the work. This is even more difficult, since half of the property is demanded, so that the husbandman may own and use the field hereditarily. Some take even more than the half and third part. Although Joseph has a good right to give the fields of the subjects to the king, he has no right to do so.
He bought them, but he lent them to the Egyptians again, so that they used them and paid the king no more than the fifth part of the income.
This was truly a great blessing and a special grace, which Lyra also praised. For they were the king's fields, and no other treasure was laid up on them, except that they gave the fifth part of it, which was a small amount, especially of such fertile land. In this way, they undoubtedly redeemed their fields and increased their food supply somewhat; especially those who were more moderate and lived more conscientiously, and did not consume and waste their goods with eating and drinking, as we Germans are wont to do, and therefore do not know how to keep the treasures in proportion, since they are commanded to give the fourth and fifth parts.
For some years ago it was customary to give the twentieth part, since one gave one out of twenty florins or pennies. The Jews have had the use of giving the tithe. The Romans centesima, which was also the tenth part. With the Jews one gave the priests the tithe, and it came almost so far that one had to give the ninth. But since with us the twentieth part was given, the same was still reasonable. Would to God that we could preserve the same now, that it would remain so, especially because the fields or estates are the people's own. And in Egypt it was not an unreasonable imposition or interest that they gave the fifth part, especially in such servitude. Yes, it was a special prudence and mercy of Joseph, who divided the fields among the subjects and returned them to them, that they themselves should keep four parts and give the fifth to the king.
None of our kings or princes will do the same now. For there are already many treasuries about the fact that one must give the twentieth part, thus
that I almost don't know whether we have to give half or the third part, or whether they even want to accept what we have. The beer tax has stood for a long time and there is no end to the ham.
94 And usury is growing beyond all measure; as I heard the other day of a usurer who took eighty guilders out of a hundred. That is almost worse than taking the whole thing. In Leipzig, it is a common rule that for every ten guilders, they demand four. Thus Germany must be exhausted, for the princes and nobility, as well as the citizens, are being sucked dry by the usurers' drudgery. Then there are the rapacious, thieving and gluttonous servants, who take away almost the third, if not the other part of our goods. For this reason, we would be much better off and richer if this practice were followed in Germany, that is, giving the fifth part, as was done in Egypt.
(95) And we do not only complain about the household servants, who are the people's damage and ruin in the household, but also about many other innumerable and obvious thefts, such as the great cunning and deceit practiced in trade, in buying and selling, and whatever else people, citizens, farmers and neighbors have to do with each other. These are terrible punishments that Germany must now suffer, because we do not want to give God what we owe Him, namely, what is necessary for the preservation of the preaching ministry, for no one wants to give anything for that now.
Now Joseph has earned great gratitude from the subjects of the same kingdom. For they answered him, saying, "You have kept us alive these seven years by your wisdom and kindness, so that we have not died. Thus his power and prestige, which he had, were greatly vindicated, and all with one another unanimously paid him homage and called him father of the fatherland, because he fed and kept alive the great multitude of people, who were so miserable and afflicted. For that we are still alive,
they said, we alone may thank you; you will only continue with us and let us find grace before you, we want to serve Pharaoh gladly, want to give him the fifth part with the highest will. And they were able to do this without any hardship from such a fertile land, as was said before. Therefore they honored Joseph and recognized him as a savior, as the one who had preserved Egypt; which praise and honor he received through the whole kingdom of Egypt because of this good deed.
V.26. So Joseph made them a law until that day concerning the field of Egypt, to give the fifth to Pharaoh; except the priests' field, which was not Pharaoh's own.
97 Moses says here that this law has lasted until this day, that is, until the time when he described this history. But whether it was changed afterwards, we do not know. It is probable that they have again redeemed the fields, and also again increased in goods and became rich.
98, But we have said that at that time the priests were held in very great honor and remained free from the common bondage of the whole kingdom by the king's command; for they also had great prestige and dignity among the pagans. Kings and princes have listened to their counsel and wisdom and have always had them with them, as the histories of the pagans show. For they have instructed the subjects in religion, and taught them the worship, which at first was not so unclean as it has become in subsequent times.
(99) Now the question is asked here: Whether Joseph was right in obtaining this freedom for the idolatrous and godless priests? For it seems that in the same kingdom there were still many idolatrous people among the priests and also the common people. But it has often been said that David gave Joseph a beautiful praise, because he says of him in the 105th Psalm v. 20-22: "Then sent the
The king let him go, and the lord of nations let him go out. He made him lord of his house, ruler over all his goods, to instruct his princes after his manner, and to teach his elders wisdom."
In this way David, who was full of the Holy Spirit, praised Joseph and made him a teacher, priest and prince over the other princes. And this is a very glorious and important testimony of Joseph, who had grace and favor with the people, because he saved such a great multitude from the harm and destruction that was then in store for them. But this honor is even greater, that he was a teacher, who taught the princes, elders and priests.
He did not teach them the art of astronomy, the course of the heavens, or astrology, as the Jews dream; but he showed them how to recognize and serve the true God. And he had a wonderful reason for this from the beautiful great miracles that God had worked through him during the seven precious years. For in addition to the teaching, living experience came, and the people saw before their eyes how wonderfully the whole kingdom and some of the surrounding peoples had been preserved. They all marveled at how Joseph had acquired such great wisdom that he was able to proclaim the doctrine so precisely beforehand and, moreover, to order and prepare with such great skill what would be necessary for the people's entertainment in this life.
To this end, Joseph preached many beautiful sermons, which the priests heard from him, and accepted the doctrine of the right true God and then spread it throughout the world. For he taught the true religion and the divine wisdom, and yet did not force them to observe the Jewish ceremonies, circumcision or other outward things; but rather he diligently impressed upon them that they should believe in the God who had promised the future Seed, and perhaps still has some of their
The first time, I let go of ceremonies that were not at all ungodly and had patience with them, not condemning them, but showing how they should be used properly and serve God with them.
For this reason Joseph was an excellent great man, especially in spiritual matters, although he was no less in political matters, as David Ps. 105, v. 21, 22, praises both of these things about him. Nor was he lazy or idle, but wherever he could and had opportunity, he instructed and taught the people, exhorting them to accept the pure doctrine. And there is no doubt that many Egyptians were brought to the true knowledge of God through him and became blessed.
He taught them from God, who gave the promise in the beginning, in paradise, and repeated it many times afterward, and spoke to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For he alone knew so much, and had nothing of the Bible, but only the history of Abraham, which is in the 12th chapter of this 1st book of Moses. And in addition he also had the previous ten chapters of the creation; and what he knew and understood of it, he had from the fact that the fathers had taught it one after the other and thus had come from one to the other. For at that time the Bible was a small book, but it contained the greatest and most important things.
105 We must not think, however, that he converted all Egypt and all and every ruler and citizen. For nowhere do we have an example that a kingdom or any country with all its subjects was so improved and so well ordered that no godless people or idolatry remained in it. Look at the kingdom of Judah and Israel, even under David and the most pious kings and prophets; for when they ruled and taught, many wicked and ungodly people were still among them, and yet it was a holy and godly kingdom for the sake of the church and congregation of God that was in the people of Israel at that time.
For this reason, even though many and great miracles take place, not all the people believe, and there are still some wicked and hypocritical people among them. The listeners of the prophet Isaiah dealt with him in an ignominious and evil manner, as he reproaches them in chapter 57, v. 4. V. 4, where he says: "Whom will you delight in? Whom will you open your mouths at, and stick out your tongues at?" And David often repeats the pathetic complaint about the false teachers and unrighteous worship. Moses also says Deut. 29:18: "Lest there be among you a man, or a woman, or a servant, or a tribe, whose heart is turned from the Lord our God this day, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and peradventure become a root among you, bearing gall and wormwood." And in 32 Cap. V. 17, he speaks harshly to the people, accusing them and saying, "They have sacrificed to the devils of the field, and not to their God; to gods they did not know. "2c. Item, Stephanus Ap. Gesch. 7, 43.. also says: "And you worshiped the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, the images which you had made to worship them."
Therefore it must not be thought that there should not be some wicked men among the pious; for Satan is among the children of God, even in the house of Job. And it is enough that a part, even if it is very small, is corrected and brought to the right true light or knowledge of God. For thus Joseph taught the king himself and some princes, and the priest also taught many, and through them spread the knowledge of God, who had promised the Messiah or Christ; but the others despised it.
(108) Therefore let us answer this question in this way, since it is asked: Whether Joseph was right in applying this benefit of liberty to the ungrateful and ungodly priests, namely, that he did it not for the sake of the idolatrous or ungodly, but for the sake of the pious whom he had converted. Although I will also easily believe that at that time in
Egypt were less abominations and abominable false worship, than in subsequent times have arisen. For what strange and wonderful superstitions there were in religion later on can well be inferred and understood from the Greek and Latin poets; which superstitions and strange idolatries were nevertheless not accepted or praised, since Joseph taught and instructed the people.
For this is how experience has taught us from time immemorial: when one godly generation, which has known God, is over, another soon takes its place, which is much more wicked and godless. As it is said in the book of Judges Cap. 2, v. 10: "When all who lived at that time were gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them, which knew not the Lord, nor the works which he had done for Israel. But when the descendants fall away from the right knowledge of God, they devise horrible, strange and abominable services; and when those who had served God faithfully before are gone, they retain the outward works of the fathers, but they always multiply them with new services, and thus mix the false service with the right true service, and thus fall into abominable idolatry; As can be seen in the people of Israel, who sacrificed to Astaroth and Moloch for no other reason than that they wanted to serve God more devoutly and spiritually than their fathers had done.
This is what happened in the church in the New Testament. Soon after the apostles, the heretics came in; item, the bishops who did not know the Lord rightly, then the monks, and finally the whole papacy, plus all the abominations standing in the holy place. And all of them cried out: Let us serve God a little more zealously and with greater holiness than has been done before us. For the apostles, they have said, have left much that the church should also add to its teaching. The first fathers had little devotion and ceremonies, we must do even more.
They set up outward ceremonies and services. And in this way so many new ceremonies have arisen in the church, because the devil has mixed all kinds of falsification with the truth, and the descendants have generally fallen away and become more and more angry.
(111) Thus, when Joseph died, the Egyptians sacrificed calves and kept other sacrifices of the fathers; but the descendants wanted to increase such sacrifices, and did terrible monstrosities in addition, which are told now and then in the histories. For where one loses God, who has given us His promise, and also abandons faith, nothing remains but an unholy following of outward works. Like the children of Israel, when they lost the promise and the word in which God had commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, they finally fell into the trap of outwardly imitating this work only for the sake of appearances and sacrificing people or even their own children. This, they said, Abraham did, therefore let us do the same. And in the papal church we see nothing else, but that they only outwardly imitate the works that the saints did before: they said that they fasted, that they abstained from this or that time; we must truly follow them in this, it is therefore fitting.
112. but rather, and above all things, keep that which is written in the epistle to the Hebrews in the 13th chapter, v. 7: "Remember your teachers who have told you the word of God, and follow their faith. V. 7: "Remember your teachers, who have told you the word of God, which end look upon, and follow their faith." For in the case of the saints, one should pay attention primarily to their faith. One should see what they believed and what they hoped for, and what word they had: follow them and then sacrifice. But this they despise, as if it were no business of theirs, and become the very apes of the saints, following outward appearances only, without word and faith. So also when the Egyptians lost the word, they kept the outward ceremonies as they received them from Joseph, but afterward they still
and worshiped their idol Apis and the four-footed crawling animals as well 2c.
(113) Yes, these are the right fruits that come from ceremonies and human statutes, which people like to do, and they leave the word and the faith behind. What our heretics and enthusiasts will still do will be seen as miracles. For the Anabaptists and sacramentalists now also despise the Word and abandon the teaching of the faith, and yet they can pretend the greatest semblance of holiness and respectability. And I hear that among the Swiss a very strict order and discipline is kept as far as outward appearance is concerned; for they do not gamble, they do not drink and feast in this way, they do not indulge in superfluous clothing, or in immoderate living with eating and drinking. This is their religion, of which they know how to exalt themselves and boast, as if they were far more pious than we. But where is the word? The body of Christ, they say, is in heaven, but bread is bread, wine is wine: they believe nothing, have fallen away from the word and faith.
Thus our descendants, when they have lost the pure teaching of the Word, will also invent strange and hideous whimsical opinions, as the Egyptians did; and thus God will punish the ingratitude and contempt of His Word with terrible plagues.
We now teach that God is not the God of the Jews alone, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, although He gave the word and circumcision to Abraham and his seed alone. For St. Paul says Rom. 3, 2: "To them is trusted what GOD has spoken." And in the 147th Psalm v. 19. it also says: "He shows Jacob his word" 2c. God has ordained the ministry of preaching in this seed and people of Israel, but not only the Jews but also the Gentiles are to enjoy it and may also enjoy it, as we said above about Abimelech and the Cananites. And we have more examples of this than Job, Balaam, Jethro the priest of Midian and Moses' father-in-law, who were not trusted with the word and the ministry.
and yet they have also been made partakers of it, since they have heard the same word.
(116) So we also say that many Gentiles have been saved, even from the lineage or family of Cain. For many have been converted by accidental grace and mercy, since it happened to them that they also joined the church or congregation that had God's word. Although the promise of Christ was not given to them, the fruit of such promise came to the Gentiles when they heard the preaching and teaching of the fathers.
(117) The same shall be thought of the Egyptians, who have not had the promise and use of circumcision. For when Jacob or Joseph taught them the word, they heard the same, and also married them, and made themselves brothers with them, that the Israelites and Egyptians might become one church. God did this before Christ was born; much more will He keep the same manner and order in the gathering of His Church after He has come into the flesh and become man, and now that the Gospel is being spread and preached among all nations.
But the Jews do not believe this, and our enthusiasts have also misused this doctrine and have fallen into a shameful error. As Zwingli recently wrote that Numa Pompilius, Hector, Scipio and Hercules will also rejoice with Peter and Paul and the other saints in paradise of eternal bliss. This is nothing else than that they publicly confess that there is no faith and no Christianity. For if Scipio and Numa Pompilius, who were idolaters, were saved, why did Christ have to suffer and die? Or what need is there for Christians to let themselves go, or for much preaching about Christ and pointing people to him alone? The enthusiasts fall so horribly when they abandon the word and lose it, and know nothing of faith, but hold and teach the very same thing that was also taught in the papacy: if a man does what is in him, he will be saved by it.
So this is a very harmful error, which we can by no means praise or defend. And yet I hear that Zwingli takes my interpretation of this first book of Moses and refers to it, since I said that some of the lineage of Cain have become blessed; just as I now also teach the same. But I do not say that they were saved as Cainites or Egyptians, but as those who were incorporated and united with the church and congregation of the blessed.
For we have heard above, as often as Moses tells us, that Abraham and the other fathers set up altars, that they taught their families there, and that other people also came to them, listened to the sermon, and accepted the word which the fathers taught, and that they also called upon the right true God with the godly, and united their prayer with that prayer. I have not said that the Gentiles should have been saved by themselves, or from themselves, or by their ceremonies, but by the word of the fathers: which the 105th Psalm, v. 22, praises so highly of Joseph, when it says: "He instructed the king, the princes and the elders in Egypt, and taught them wisdom. 2c.
What kind of theology is this, that one does not want to make a difference between the word and, since one has no word, between light and darkness? For where the word is, there is light; but where there is no word, there is darkness. But shall those who have the light and the word be placed with those who are in darkness? This is certainly how it goes, namely, if one lacks an article and errs in it, then there is no number or measure of error. For thus also the Egyptians fell into ever more shameful idolatry, until at last they were not ashamed to worship cats and mice. Just as the pagan poet Juvenal mocked and laughed at their nonsense when he said: "Felices, quibus haec nascuntur numina in hortis," that is: "How blessed are these people, who have these gods growing in their garden, for they have garlic and onions as well.
Gods honored. Therefore, those who have once deviated from the right path will be driven by Satan to other and more serious cases. And the Zwinglians will also fall much more horribly and shamefully, because they still continue to defend their errors.
(122) Therefore I do not say with Zwingli that the Cain church, or Numa Pompilius and such other heathen have become more blessed and heirs of the kingdom of heaven; but that some pious men and women from the lineage and tribe of Cain have heard God's word and the teaching of the dear fathers, and through such faith have also come to the fellowship of the kingdom of heaven with the church or congregation of the patriarchs.
For God has always taken care to gather a church from among the Gentiles; as Ruth was a Moabitess, Rahab a Cananitess, both of whom are listed in the genealogy of Christ. And these were not alone among the blessed, but also many other Cananites with them. Not that Ruth or Rahab in her error or idolatry obtained forgiveness of sins and became a partaker of the same; but because she was converted, she accepted the word from the Israelites. For this is properly called becoming a believer from a Gentile and unbeliever. For after she believed the word that she heard, she was no longer a Gentile, but a right member of the church. So Naaman was also converted by the word and teaching of the prophet Elisha.
I know that five years ago many were of the opinion that every man would be saved in his faith. But what is that but that one wants to make one church out of all the enemies of Christ? From this it will soon follow that the Word and the Son of God, our dear Lord Jesus Christ, was sent and given to us in vain and for nothing, and in this way there will be no difference at all between Turks, Papists, Jews, and us who have the Word of God.
. 125 I do not exclude the Gentiles, but I say that they can be saved in no other way than only through
the word of Christ. Jethro, the priest in Midian, will have come to the knowledge of God either through Moses or Joseph. For Joseph was not idle or lazy, but taught diligently and faithfully, and brought many generations of men to the knowledge of God, with whom he lived and interacted. The word does not come from the Gentiles, but, as Christ says John 4:22: "Salvation comes from the Jews." However, it did not remain with the Jews alone, but was also spread among the Gentiles, who received it from the Jews.
Therefore it is a great boldness of the Zwinglians and they are impudent people that they teach such things and dare to abuse my reputation and example in this way. For I have never taught, understood or held otherwise than as I have now several times in this history drawn and repeated from the 105th Psalm v. 22, namely, that the princes in Egypt were instructed and taught by Joseph. For because they were Gentiles, they were by no means saved by their ungodly, idolatrous sacrifices, but learned the right wisdom and the true knowledge of God from Joseph's preaching.
127 And in the same way he also converted most of the common people, and his word had a right place there, because his office and authority, which he was commanded to do, was confirmed by the miraculous government during the whole time of the reign and also during the pleasant years. Now Jacob with his sons and his family also came to it and was a very beautiful church and congregation. The king is pious and devout, the princes are also godly, the people keep from God what is right to keep from him and to believe; and yet they remain without circumcision and other Jewish ceremonies: yes, they have also given in and allowed themselves to keep some Egyptian ceremonies and have also slaughtered and sacrificed some unreasonable animals.
(128) Although afterwards they rejected the right, true, and pure doctrine, and kept only the outward works and sacrifices, which they had not done.
The descendants of the holy fathers also imitated and followed them, as when they worshipped the golden calf and what else often happened to it. They may have had the sacrifices of the fathers, but they have misused them and have fallen into abominable idolatry. For thus the devil is wont to make hell out of the church of God. And we Germans, who have to enjoy the great light of the Gospel and are admonished daily to be grateful to God for it and to keep the Word with the utmost diligence, have to fear it, too. And God also threatens that He will bring the heaviest punishments and darkness upon the despisers of His Word. But it can easily come to this, that soon afterwards everything will again become full of error, fantasy, sectarianism and fanaticism of the red spirits, who even now in our life publicly dare to let their will to be brave be seen, and now and then spread the falsification of the right doctrine. Therefore, let us be grateful to God and learn to beware of their cunning.
129 And until then the history of the time of the rebellion and also of the pleasant years has lasted. Now Moses will come again to the children of Israel and also to Jacob, the father himself. And from this place to the end of this book are now described the things that have been dealt with between those who were then the church and had God's word.
Fifth part.
How Jacob notices his approaching end, calls Joseph to him, makes a request of him; and how he finally lies down on the bed.
(v. 27, 28) So Israel dwelt in Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and possessed it, and grew, and multiplied greatly. And Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt: and all his days were an hundred and seven and forty years.
130 Now they dwell in the land of Raemses. There they will also undoubtedly be Egyptian
They took wives, because they could not have others from their own lineage; and the other Egyptians also heard the word and showed the works of love to these foreign guests. I completely believe that it will have been a beautiful well-ordered church. And the time is also shown here, how long Jacob lived in Egypt, namely, seventeen years; in this he was able to be useful to many people. Because Joseph produced so much rich fruit during the fourteen years, both in the good years and in the cultivation, his father and the other sons and all his household were much more useful, since he always taught and punished the Egyptians, so that they would learn to know God and call upon Him. His whole age was an hundred and seven and forty years. And all that will follow until the end happened in the last year of Jacob.
V. 29, 30: And when the time was come for Israel to die, he called Joseph his son, and said unto him, If I have found grace in thy sight, put thine hand under my thigh, that thou mayest love and keep me, and bury me not in Egypt: but I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt bring me forth out of Egypt, and bury me in their sepulchre.
The pious holy patriarch Jacob realized that the time was now present for him to depart from this life, which he recognized either through prophecy or because he felt that he had become very weak in old age.
132 And this is a very beautiful description of his death. For no sudden or violent death affected him, but he fell asleep with a fine, gentle, quiet and peaceful heart; thus he departed from this world, in which he lived a hastily bitter life, which was full of heavy sorrow.
Now behold how he speaks to his son, and how he honors his majesty. He might well have commanded him by his father's authority, but he recognizes that he is to be justly honored because he was a prince and lord in Egypt, without which he could not have had dominion and authority in the land of Canaan.
be guided. Therefore he honors the royal majesty in his son, and holds him before his eyes, and does not command him what he should do, but beseeches him and says: "Have I found favor in your sight" 2c. He submits to his son as one who would fall at his feet and plead with him, knowing that he is exalted by God above his father and brothers.
(134) And so the dream is fulfilled, when he saw eleven stars, the sun and the moon bowing down to him. For his mother Rachel had already died: but the father bowed down before the son, and confessed that he was under the son. For this is what it really means to bow, not only to bend the knee, but also to think highly of one as of his sovereign and commanding lord. So Joseph was higher than his father in authority and rule, though he was lesser than him in obedience and honor, which children owe to their parents. And although it seems as if this also belonged to the paternal authority, since he took the oath from his son, he also only requested it from him.
The two Latin words, misericordia and veritas, actually mean in German, Wohlthat und Treue; therefore, that he says to him, Facito bonitatem, et serva, is said as much as: Hold on to this, that faithfulness and faith be.
(136) But why, when he swore, he put his hand hot under his thigh, the Jews have made much useless talk about it; and if they had not our books, from which they secretly take a great deal, they would be the poorest and most clumsy people who live there. For this reason they think that with this gesture the circumcision is meant, which Jacob wanted to honor with it. But the fathers meant something much greater by it, which is both for honor and time higher and more than circumcision. For the promise of the seed was first given to Abraham, Gen. 15:6 and Rom. 4:3, where it says: "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. There was already the promise and the faith.
From the seed that was to be born from the loins of Abraham. Circumcision was the sign of this promise. Therefore Jacob honored the hip because of the promise the hip had and because of faith in that promise. For from the hips of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob should come the seed that would bless all nations. For God has bound His word, holiness, truth and goodness to the hips of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Therefore it was a true sanctuary; not because it was flesh and blood, but because of the promise, which was bound to these hips and as it were implanted in them; and they swore in the name of Christ and the Lord, of whom it is said Deut. 6:13: "Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and swear by his name." For this God or God's Son was to come forth and become man from the hips of Jacob.
137 It also says above, Gen 32:25, that when Jacob wrestled with the angel, the joint of his hip was dislocated above the wrestling. For Christ came from the flesh and yet not from the flesh. He came through the hips of the fathers from Abraham to the Virgin Mary, where fleshly procreation ceases. For even though Mary was of the stock and flower of the fathers, she had no seed of human origin, but conceived by the Holy Spirit. Thus the holy fathers recognized Christ and believed in Him as God the Lord, who was born of the flesh, but not through the flesh, but through the Holy Spirit, so that it could not be said of Him: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh", John 3:6.
In this way Jacob the father honors his son Joseph and takes the oath from him in the name of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and Joseph swears to him on his hips in the faith and confession of the future seed. From this it is easy to see that the fathers diligently taught and steadfastly and continually declared to the people that Christ would come into the flesh, the true God and the Son of God.
Man would be. Moses may have told all this recently, but the fathers will undoubtedly have talked about it widely and seriously and acted with one another.
139 Joseph is a figure of Christ, before whom, although he is Jacob's son, the Father bows down: as David calls Christ a Lord, yet he was his son, Matth. 22, 45. In the same way Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the patriarchs were fathers of Christ, whom they served, honored and called.
V. 30. 31. He (Joseph) said: I will do as you have said. And he said, Swear to me. And he swore to him.
It is probable that the patriarch Jacob wanted to lie in the burial of the fathers for the hope of the resurrection. For these great holy men and heroes of the church and congregation of God did not doubt the immortality of the soul at all, which is why they were so careful about burial. For if the Holy Spirit had not taught them this firmly and surely, it would have been superfluous for them to have been so anxious about how or where their bodies would be buried, as they are the least of all parts of man. Although the pagans also prepared the graves of the deceased honestly and splendidly. But they took the same from the fathers and sought only the transient honor of glorious burials, even though they had no hope of eternal life. But the fathers firmly and surely believed in the future resurrection of the dead, so that they also did not doubt in the resurrection of the body.
According to this, Jacob knew that he would have a great seed in Egypt, but when he died, he wanted to lie in the grave of his fathers, where Abraham, Isaac, Leah 2c. also rested. And it is well believed that Jacob was one of them who rose again with Christ. That is why he was so diligent that he might be buried in the land of Canaan, where Christ rose from the dead, and many of the fathers and their family were also raised with him.
Then Israel bowed his head on the bed.
In this place the interpreters of things are not one because the dots in the Hebrew text are not the same, which in the Hebrew language give rise to manifold doubts; for the way of placing the dots is very uncertain. And if we did not have the New Testament, the Hebrew language would be of no use to us and we would not be able to conclude or understand anything certain from it. Which is well to be seen in the Hebrews, who miserably and horribly falsify and darken the holy Scriptures, so that they are deprived of the right true light of the Scriptures, have in such darkness nothing else to follow, but only the way with the dots, which is nevertheless almost doubtful and uncertain. The holy language was well known to the fathers and prophets, and they were quite sure of it; but the language perished at the same time as their kingdom. And today the Jews take much from the New Testament, without which they would not know or understand anything.
I cannot deny that there should not be a special way with the dots in the Hebrew language, but I have no desire at all, because such a way is so very doubtful; which doubt also makes the Scriptures uncertain and tears them back and forth from each other.
In one place Münster cites a Jewish rabbi who says: Sine supra, et infra non potest intelligi Scriptura sancta, that is: The holy scripture cannot be understood without the upper and lower points. And the same is true with the Hebrews. But they do not indicate who is the one who taught or ordered that these words should be read according to the dots; nor do they give any arguments or proofs as to why the dots should be added in this way; indeed, they leave it entirely up to each one whether to use the dots or not. I believe that another word, for example
must also be read and understood differently, as here mittah and mittah. But who will tell me for sure which reading is the best? although they say that one should read the words according to the dots that are placed above and below each letter.
In the time of Jerome, it seems, dots were not yet used, but the whole Bible was read without dots. But I do not accept the new Hebrews, who ascribe to themselves that they have the right sense and understanding of the Hebrew language, if they are not friends but enemies of the holy scripture. That is why I often speak the words from the dots in a strictly contrary way, unless the previous opinion agrees with the New Testament and rhymes with it. For from the dots one cannot have more than that one may guess whether one is to read mattah or mitteh; and thus also from many other words more, which are written with one and the same letter. Therefore I do not ask much about the Jewish rabbis above and below. It would be better to read the Scriptures according to the within; and the New Testament gives us the right inward understanding of the same, not the upper or lower. But this text remains in doubt because of the various points about which they cannot become one.
146. The seventy interpreters gave it thus: Et adoravit Israel fastigium virgae ejus; and they keep the preposition al, super, fastigium, and read matteh, that is, rod or trunk; which word is often used in Moses, and above it are many other words, which mean the same thing. Therefore they understand that Jacob, when his son swore to him, bowed his head or his body to Joseph's scepter and thus bowed down to his majesty.
Augustine has also racked his brains over this, and makes it very sour, and brings another reason, namely, that Jacob, who was now a crooked old man, held himself, when he walked, by a stick, as the old people are wont to walk on three legs, and that he thus leaned over his stick.
and called upon God. Such disagreement, that one had this, the other another mind about these words, comes from the fact that they doubt in the grammar with the points thus.
The seventy interpreters have a simile of their interpretation from the history of Esther, when the king Ahasuerus stretches out the golden scepter in his hand toward Esther, and she, the queen, comes and touches the tip of the scepter with her hand. Esth. 5, 2.
It may have been such a usage, as it is held now, when making masters or doctors, that they had to swear on the extended scepter, or kiss the same, to prove the humility and obedience to their overlord with it.
150 Therefore I cannot come out of this text because of the grammar, since one must only guess and follow the circumstances; as it seems that the seventy interpreters looked at the gestures, so Esther had, which touched the top of the scepter and kissed in the sign of the reverence to the king. But I keep our common interpretation, as we have given it in German, and understand the word mattah so that it means bed. And I am moved to do so primarily by the reason that Moses did not use the other word, matteh, until then. For above, Gen. 30, 37, when Jacob peels the staves, item Gen. 32, 10, when he crosses the Jordan with his staff, the word makkel is written. Therefore, I will leave to the grammarians their many meanings and disagreements.
(151) I have said above that Jacob the father is pleased with his son, for he speaks to him very humbly, saying, "I have found favor in your sight. Which words are of a lesser man, honoring the majesty of him whom he esteems greater and more worthy. And let us compare with this example what is said of David, 1 Kings 1:47, 48, where it is written, "And the king worshipped in the camp. And the king said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which this day hath made one to sit upon my throne, that mine eyes might see." From this you can see what
adorare super lectum, to worship in the camp; for it is a prayer or thanksgiving to God for the benefit received. And David performed the same service or worship to God in his camp, since he could now neither stand nor walk.
The same thing happened here with Jacob: because he was weary due to old age and many other afflictions that he suffered in this life, he could not stand or sit on a chair, but lay in bed when he was supposed to die; as he now does nothing else or speaks nothing else, but that he only sends and prepares himself for the journey out of this life. For now his son has sworn to him, when he put his fingers on his thigh, that is, believing the promise of Christ, who will raise the dead, which God and man came from the thighs of Jacob; which thighs are blessed because of the promise, which is attached to them and connected with the promised seed. Therefore he proves his faith, godliness and reverence with whatever outward gestures he can and may. And even though he could not do it by bending his knees, because his limbs were almost weak and feeble, he still moved his head and leaned against the bed, as he was best able to do.
Lyra and the Jews say: He turned to the land of Canaan and thus worshipped. I do not want to argue about this very much. But as for their talk of circumcision, I have said before that this is useless and vain talk, for Jacob and Joseph both looked to the promise of blessing in the future seed, which blessing was in the hips or loins of the fathers. Therefore Jacob wanted to honor this promise, since now his faith has been challenged.
As we do, not only when we pray, but also when we baptize, absolve, and are absolved, and when we go to Holy Communion, and also when we hear the divine promise or the text of the Gospel read, we should bend our knees, or at least stand erect as a sign of adoration, reverence, and gratitude.
For this reason, even if nothing else is served in the Lord's Supper but bread and wine, as the sermonizers blaspheme, the promise and God's Word are there, and the Holy Spirit also works and is powerful through the Word in the Supper. Therefore it is fitting that we go to it with all reverence. But how much more is it fitting to do this if we believe that the true body and the true blood of Christ are also there with the Word! For thus the fathers worshipped God and His divine promise, and also the signs of the promise, for they knew that it was God's word and promise. They did not honor the sanctuary of the dead saints, as is done in the papacy; they did not worship the legs or garments of the dead; but they held sacred the promise and works of God, which were worthy to be honored and worshipped.
(156) As has been said here about a divine thing, namely, about the oath under the thighs of Jacob, in the faith of Christ, who was to become man and was to be the resurrection of the dead and eternal life. Now that this has been remembered, Jacob moves his body with such a gesture as one is wont to have when worshipping. Like David, when he saw that his son Solomon was to become king after him, he also bowed his head and chest, called upon God and thanked Him for it.
157 Here Jacob honors the promise and bows his head, not behind him, but in front of him on his face, indicating and testifying with the same gesture that he believes in Christ and looks to him alone, who should come and be crucified and also rise again, that he might give life to all who die. In such hope and faith he folds his hands, bows his head, not in the middle or at the end of the bed, but at the heads; that it is nothing else at all, but only such a gesture of reverence and adoration in such a great important matter, namely, because he thinks of the divine promise, which he had in word at that time and which afterwards also has to be fulfilled with the deed.
We must do likewise. When we hear God's word, we should receive it, if not with genuflection, then with a humble heart, with reverence, and also with special godliness. It is also good to honor the sacrament of the altar with genuflection. For there is the true body and blood of the Lord; likewise there is also present the Holy Spirit and the promise or the divine word, which one should hear with due reverence. For God works there and the Lord is seen there; which is called the face of the Lord several times in Moses, because God is there and reveals Himself to me. Then it is truly fitting for me to stand up before him or to fall down on my knees. And in fact, the revelations and appearances of God that we have are equal to all the revelations in the Law of Moses; indeed, they are even greater.
When I go to baptism, I should truly believe that nothing human is done there; but the water in baptism is like a covering or an instrument, as is also the word, so that God is covered. Behind it stands our Lord God, and the water and Word is God's face, through which He speaks and works with us, with each person in particular. He baptizes me, absolves me, gives me his body and blood through the servant's tongue and hand. For God works in baptism the salvation and blessedness of men. And this is the presence or form and appearance of GOD in these means or instruments. Therefore, if we do not bow our bodies, it is right and proper that we bow with all our hearts and honor God who speaks to us there.
160 In baptism, one should always fix one's eyes and heart on the beautiful, bright revelation in the Jordan, where the voice of God the Father is heard from heaven, the flesh of the Son of God is seen, and the Holy Spirit is seen in the form of a dove. So also in our baptism. And in the Lord's Supper, the former is the outward means and sign, so that Christ gives me his body; and in truth, God himself feeds and nourishes us, and
not the servant. In baptism, one hears the voice of the Holy Trinity of God, and the words of baptism should not be heard or understood otherwise. Therefore, this reverence is necessary, and if it is not done outwardly with genuflections, it is necessary to show spiritual reverence.
In our time, however, with so much contempt for the Word and the holy sacraments, there are few people who take care whether they sit or stand where the divine Word is read or preached. And in the priesthood, as among the people of Israel, the right knowledge and understanding of the Word and of true godliness were left behind, and the people resorted only to outward ceremonies, both when the text of the Gospel was read and when the holy sacraments were administered and used.
The Latin text says caput lectuli, which may mean Christ spiritually or figuratively, but I understand it to mean the foremost part of the bed, that is, the top of the heads.
Now what do we say to the text in the epistle to the Hebrews in chapter 11, v. 21? V. 21, where it says: "By faith Jacob, when he died, blessed both sons of Joseph, and bowed himself to the head of his scepter"? There it is not said that he worshipped God directly, but the top of the scepter is put there for the one before which he bowed down. For it is well believed that Joseph carried a scepter, as well as the ring which Pharaoh gave him above; although the same is not so clearly expressed in Moses. The scepter, however, is the proper sign not only of the supreme power, but also of the other lesser offices, such as the judges, who are accustomed to carry a staff. Thus the pope instituted in his church that the confessors should also carry staves in their hands; which usage he took from the saying of Christ, when he commanded his disciples that they should carry nothing with them on the way but only a staff. And that is where the crozier came from. So Joseph carried a scepter, whether it was wooden or golden, and in front of the top of it
Jacob has inclined himself. But what do we want to say about the text in this place?
Augustine plays his game with allegories or secret interpretations that do nothing for the matter. The others are also not at one with each other. One has interpreted that it should be called "bed," the other "staff," since the points are also not the same. But we follow the understanding that is the most simple and that rhymes best with the Scriptures and David's example. The others follow the example of king Ahasuerus in the book of Esther. And I do not presume to be a judge of which mind is the best. But I would very much like to have only one interpretation; for I have no desire at all for such texts, which are so diverse and unequal; indeed, I am very hostile to all equivocation, that is, since words have more than one understanding. And one should endeavor, as much as is always possible, to take and grasp from the words of the text a right simple understanding that rhymes finely with the grammar; and if we have this, then it does no harm afterwards, whether one also wants to search for figures and secret interpretations in the text.
Like St. Paul 1 Cor. 15, 55, when he says: "Death, where is your sting?" 2c., he makes a figure out of the text of the prophet Hosea according to his spirit. And Bernard is a wonderful master in using the sayings from the Scriptures in a special way. For it often happens that he draws a text in the Scriptures, which otherwise should be drawn on a certain teaching, for instance on a common mind. In this way, this text may also be drawn elsewhere by the figure called catachresis, which is also a good understanding; but that the grammar in its simple understanding may remain unharmed. And I believe that the scribe who wrote the epistle to the Hebrews also understood this word by the same figure catachresis, so that it has more than one meaning, and that he read virga (which we have translated: the tip of his scepter), since we read lectulum, that is, on the bed at the heads. For I know otherwise
not how I could help myself out of it and answer the question presented.
166 But I wanted to wish from the bottom of my heart, I also want to have admonished and asked all who want to learn the Hebrew language, that they draw every text on a single simple and certain mind. Then we will also easily allow everyone to have a little of his own will (as the poets do) and to seek a freer interpretation, but in such a way that only a certain, right and proper understanding remains. Now it may well have happened that in this place, too, the disagreement of the understanding of these words came from such misuse that they thus, as it were, played their game with each other on the lower and upper points. But I, as has been said above, have more desire for the inner understanding of the Scriptures.
Now that Jacob has almost grown weary because of his age and the many miseries he suffered, he has reached the final goal and the end of his life, as the poet says:
Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi Prima fugit, subeunt morbi tristisque senectus. Et labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis.
That is: The best time of this life runs away for the poor people on earth soon with the very first one; after that come various diseases and the sad old age, in addition much toil and work; finally then comes the cruel bitter death and tears them away completely.
168 For until now, Jacob has been almost driven and weakened throughout his life by countless worries and accidents, which cause man to grow old and die so much sooner. Because of this cause, as he complains above, v. 9, the time of his pilgrimage could not reach the time of his fathers in their pilgrimage. Therefore, now that he has lain in bed, he has been unable to pay homage to his son in any other way than with this gesture, that he has reclined on the bed at his head. For the old, who can now hardly walk at all due to old age, must finally remain lying on the bed, or else if
1846 n. S2-S4. Interpretation of Genesis 47, 31. cap. 48, 1. 2. W. II, S7IS-S7I." 1847
they must take a stick in their hands and walk on three legs (as little children are wont to walk on four feet at first), since all the senses and powers of body and mind gradually diminish and hasten to the grave. As the beautiful and excellent description of old age in Ecclesiastes 12:3 testifies, "At the time when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong are bowed down, and the millers stand idle, because they have received so little, and they are so weak, and they are so weak, and they are so weak, and they are so weak, and they are so weak, and they are so weak, and they are so weak, and they are so weak, and they are so weak, and they are so weak, and they are so weak.
faces become dark through the windows" 2c.
Now Joseph stood by his father and swore an oath to him that he would do as his father had said. After that, he left him again, since he had not yet been fatally ill, but since he had generally declined, and since it was nearing the end of his life that he should depart from this life. Soon after this he will come to him again, as will be told in the following chapter.