Matthew Henry on Genesis 45:1-15
Judah and his brethren were waiting for an answer, and could not but be amazed to discover, instead of the gravity of a judge, the natural affection of a father or brother.
I. Joseph ordered all his attendants to withdraw, Gen 45:1. The private conversations of friends are the most free. When Joseph would put on love he puts off state, and it was not fit his servants should be witnesses of this. Thus Christ graciously manifests himself and his loving-kindness to his people, out of the sight and hearing of the world.
II. Tears were the preface or introduction to his discourse, Gen 45:2. He had dammed up this stream a great while, and with much ado: but now it swelled so high that he could no…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 45:6
and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest--"Ear" is an old English word, meaning "to plough" (compare Sa1 8:12; Isa 30:24). This seems to confirm the view given (Gen 41:57) that the famine was caused by an extraordinary drought, which prevented the annual overflowing of the Nile; and of course made the land unfit to receive the seed of Egypt.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 45:12
That it is my mouth that speaketh unto you - The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel renders the place thus: - "Your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my own mouth that speaketh with you, in the language of the house of the sanctuary." Undoubtedly Joseph laid considerable stress on his speaking with them in the Hebrew tongue, without the assistance of an interpreter, as in the case mentioned Gen 42:23.
John Gill on Genesis 45:12
And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin,.... They were eyewitnesses of his being alive, having themselves seen him, and even Benjamin, who could not be suspected by his father of a fraud in imposing on him; and some of them could doubtless remember his features, and had an ocular proof of his being the very person, which they could with great evidence relate unto Jacob; as also his voice in speaking:
that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you; without an interpreter, as Aben Ezra, and in the Hebrew language, as the Targum and Jarchi; which might confirm them, and likewise their father upon their report, that the governor was not an Egyptian, but an Hebrew; and by tha…
