And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their dependents.
12. And Joseph nourished his father, etc., according to their families Usque ad os parvuli Even to the mount of the little one. לפי חטÃ, (Lephi chataph.) Some explain the expression, “the mouth of the little one,” as if Joseph nourished his father and his whole family, in the manner in which food is conveyed to the mouths of children.
Here is, I. The respect which Joseph, as a subject, showed to his prince. Though he was his favourite, and prime-minister of state, and had had particular orders from him to send for his father down to Egypt, yet he would not suffer him to settle till he had given notice of it to Pharaoh, Gen 47:1.
Commenting on Genesis 47:1-12
And there was no bread in all the land,.... The land of Egypt and the parts adjacent, but in Pharaoh's storehouses, all being consumed that were in private hands the first two years of the famine: for the famine was very sore; severe, pressed very hard: so that the land of Egypt, and all the land of Canaan, fainted by reason of the famine; that...