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24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die; and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land, unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

a ch. 15. 14 & 46. 4. & 48. 21. Exod. 3. 16, 17. Hebr. 11. 22. b ch. 15. 14. & 26. 3. & 35. 12. & 46. 4.

die, &c. Dying men are often very unwilling to believe what all by-standers cannot but see. They take hold of every shadow of appearance to flatter themselves with vain hopes of living sometime longer in this world. But Joseph was not afraid to die, or to observe the symptoms of his approaching dissolution. He had lived in such a manner, as when death came he wished to have lived, and he held fast in death that hope which had animated his soul amidst all the afflictions of life.- -T God will surely visit you. Heb. pp pakod yiphkod, visiting will visit. By this is virtually implied an antecedent season of affliction; for visiting' implies 'deliverance,' and before they could be delivered they must be in distress. It is clear that when Joseph was dying his thoughts were not engrossed by his own concerns, although he was on the borders of the everlasting world. His mind was at perfect ease concerning his own state. But he did what he could to console the hearts of his brethren, and of all his father's house, whom his death was depriving of their best earthly friend. He let them know that they had a far better friend in heaven, who could not die, and who would surely visit them and bring them again out of Egypt. The death of our worthy friends is just cause for sorrow, but not of despondency. Brittle cisterns at best, they are now broken cisterns, in which no water is left; but the fountain of living water is never ex

25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.

c Exod. 13. 19. Josh. 24. 32. Acts 7. 16.

hausted. When Joseph tells his surviving children that God will surely visit them and bring them out of that land, he does not refer them to any new discoveries made to himself, but to the well-known promise made to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. When there was no written word of God, his afflicted people found a sufficient ground for their faith and hope in the sure promises handed down from father to son. How superior are our privileges, who enjoy that precious volume filled with promises as the heaven is with stars!- - The land which he sware to Abraham, &c. How wonderful is the condescension of God in confirming his promises by an oath! Had he merely promised without swearing, ought he not to have been trusted? But when to silence all the whispers of our unbelieving hearts, he engages upon oath to do what he has said, we cannot refuse our assent to his word without making him worse than a liar. 'Which he sware!' Why are not the hearts of stubborn sinners terrified when they hear God swearing that he will never forget any of their works, and that they shall not enter into his rest? Why are not the hearts of trembling sinners emboldened to flee for refuge to lay hoid on the hope set before them, when they hear the Lord saying, 'As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he should turn and live?'

25. Joseph took an oath of the chil

26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old and

they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

d ver. 2.

that a speedy removal of his remains might have been construed into a contempt of the land of Egypt, and so have brought evil upon his brethren. It might also be a temptation to them to attempt a premature migration from the land of their present sojourning. A wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.

26. So Joseph died. All his grandeur, and riches, and goodness could not save him from the hands of the last enemy. And yet it is a certain truth that 'righteousness delivereth from death.' His death was not his destruction. He died that he might

dren of Israel. How naturally do we imitate the example of men whom we revere! Jacob expressed his faith in God's promise, by taking an oath from Joseph that he would carry up his dead body to the land of Canaan, and bury it there. Joseph in like manner took an oath of the sons of Jacob before he died. He did not expect that any of his brethren then living would live long enough to carry up his bones at the departure from Egypt to Canaan, and he did not expect to be buried in Canaan before that time; yet he took an oath from them, that when that happy period should arrive, his bones should not be left behind. He live a better life than he could live on hoped that such a sense of the sacred earth. It was superfluous to say of obligation of an oath would remain him, as was said of Lazarus, that amongst them, that none would pre- angels carried him to Abraham's tend to excuse themselves from the bosom.' Blessed are the dead who die performance of what he had enjoined in the Lord. Joseph died at the age of on the ground of never having as- an hundred and ten, Some of these sumed the obligation in their own per- years were spent in grief; more of sons. ¶ God will surely visit you, them in joy. But when he entered and ye shall carry up my bones from into the eternal world, he found that hence. "Therefore I require an oath of the years spent in grief had been as you that when God performs his oath, necessary for him, and were as proyou will carry up my bones hence.' ductive of benefit, as the years in He would have them learn from the which he had seen prosperity. He divine faithfulness to be faithful them- had not lived so long as his father, but selves. Though Joseph had lived but he had lived to bring forth much fruit a short time in Canaan, having spent unto God; and without this what the greater part of his life in Egypt would it have availed him, what will surrounded by riches and honor, yet it avail us, to live as long as Methuhe never considered Egypt, but Ca- selah ?-Joseph's death occurred A. M. naan, as his home. It was consequent- 2369, 64 years before the birth of Moses, ly his desire that his bones should lie, and 144 before the deliverance from not with the dust of the princes of Egypt. They embalmed him. JoEgypt, but in the land which God had seph had caused this ceremony to be given by covenant to his fathers. If it performed for his father, not merely bebe asked why did he not require his cause he wished to do all the honor to bones to be carried up immediately | the patriarch's body which was usually upon his death, it may be answered paid to the remains of great men in

Egypt, but because it was necessary in order to preserve it from corruption, till it could be carried to the place of sepulture. The same reason existed for dealing in a similar manner with the body of Joseph. He was accordingly embalmed and put in a coffin, but not buried. Where the body was kept in the interval prior to the exodus from Egypt we are not informed; but being dead, he yet spake to the Israelites. His venerable mummy, waiting for the time of its removal, cried aloud to his kinsmen, 'Here is not your rest; you are in a strange land; but God will surely visit you and bring you into the land which he sware to your fathers to give you.' Joseph's dying!

hopes were not disappointed. When Moses left Egypt in haste, neither the hurry of the departure, nor the immense load of business and care which then lay upon his mind made him forget the bones of Joseph. He would have thought himself guilty of the basest ingratitude, and even of perjury, if the oath made to the dying patriarch had not been observed. Not one, it may be presumed, of those persons to whom the oath had been administered, was then in the land of the living. But the oath which they had sworn survived their own dissolution, and lived in its binding power upon the consciences of their descendants.

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Adam, import of the name,

Abrek, or bow the knee, meaning of the term considered,

Accepting the face, what meant by it,

According to the mouth of, what meant by the phrase,

how he is said to have begotten a son in his own likeness,

Adultery, how punished,

Almighty, or All-sufficient, Shaddai, a title of the Most High,
Altars, definition and use of,

II. 287

I. 313

II. 356, 311

I. 109

I. 109

II. 243

I. 268

I. 147

And, equivalent to even,

I. 219

Angel of the Lord, who intended by the phrase,

I. 260

used as a personification of an event of providence,
who redeemed Jacob from evil, who,

II. 35

II. 378

Animal food, not an ordinary diet among the Orientals,
Animals, brought to Adam to be named,

I. 286

I. 64

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Archers wounding Joseph, how phrase to be explained,

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Barter, how carried on in ancient times,

Bearing upon the knees, what to be understood by,
Beasts, clean and unclean, grounds of the distinction of,

Before the Lord, the sense of the phrase,

Begin, sometimes means to continue an action,
Being with one, peculiar force of the expression,

Believing in God, the phrase explained as applied to Abraham,
Benediction, prophetical, why accompanied with eating and drink-

ing,

Benjamin, import of the name,

Bethel, why called Beth aven,

in what sense called God's house,

Bethlehem, account of the modern,

Vol. Page
II. 24, 25
II. 129

I. 132

I. 172, 218

I. 160

II. 252

I. 242

II. 85

II. 206

II, 112

II. 113

II. 207

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Blessing, used in the sense of gift, or an act of liberality,

Blindness, applied to signify the effects of vertigo of the brain,

Bottles, eastern, described,

Bowing down, common token of respect in the East,

II. 182

I. 306

I. 353

II. 24

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Bricks, what kind employed in the building of Babylon,
Brother, used for kinsman,

I. 181

II. 19

I. 257

I. 147

Building one's house, equivalent to raising up children,
Burnt-offerings, nature of,

Burying-place, what implied by the purchase of one,
nature of the most ancient,

Butter, the use of it as an article of diet in the East,
By the life of Pharaoh, the oath considered,

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Calling upon the name of the Lord, what meant by it,
Camel's milk, great use made of in the East,

II. 165

Cannot, used not unfrequently to express moral inability,
Casting out the bondwoman, what meant by the expression,

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