Genesis 42:6 - Exposition

And Joseph was the governor over the land. The word שָׁלִּיט from שָׁלַט , to rule, describes one invested with despotic authority, or a sultan (Gesenius), in which character the early Shemites appear to have regarded Joseph (Keil). It is probably the same idea which recurs in the name Salatis, which, according to Manetho, belonged to the first of the shepherd kings (Josephus, 'Contra Apionem,' 1.14). Occurring nowhere else in the Pentateuch, it reappears in the later writings of Ecclesiastes ( Ecclesiastes 7:10 ; Ecclesiastes 10:5 ), Ezra ( Ezra 4:20 ; Ezra 7:24 ), Daniel ( Daniel 2:15 ; Daniel 5:29 ), which, however, need not suggest an exilian or post-exilian authorship, but may be explained by the fact that the root is found equally in the Arabic and Aramaean dialects (Keil). And he it was that sold to all the people of the land. Not conducted the retail corn trade (Tuch, Oort, Kuenen), which was assigned to subordinates (verse 25; Genesis 44:1 ), but presided over the general market of the kingdom (Murphy), probably fixing the price at which the grain should be sold, determining the quantities to be allowed to purchasers, and examining the companies of foreigners who came to buy (Rosenmüller, Havernick, Lange, Gerlach). And Joseph's brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. And so fulfilled his early dream in Shechem ( Genesis 37:7 , Genesis 37:8 ).