Genesis 45:11

Gen 45:11 And there will I nourish thee; for yet [there are] five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.

Ver. 11. And there will I nourish thee.] To requite parents is "good and acceptable before God." {1Ti 5:4} At Athens, {a} it was death not to be kind to parents and cherish them. The stork nourisheth her old sire and dam with admirable piety, saith Pliny; {b} and is therefore called by the Hebrews Chasidah, or Merciful: and by the Latins Pietatis-cultrix. The cuckoo, on the other side, is worthily hated, for that she cruelly devoureth her own dam, the hedge sparrow, saith Melancthon. {c} Mice are said to nourish their old ones that cannot shift for themselves, insigni pietate, {d} Cornelius, among the Romans, got the name of Scipio, by his kindness to his blind father, to whom he was the staff of his old age; as Macrobius relateth. {e} And Aristotle {f} tells a strange story, how that, when from the hill Etna there ran down a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabouts, in the midst of those fearful flames, God’s special care of the godly shined most brightly. For the river of fire parted itself, and made a kind of lane for those who ventured to rescue their aged parents, and pluck them out of the jaws of death. Our Saviour much distasted and detested that damnable doctrine of the Pharisees, teaching children to starve their parents, under pretence of devotion. {Mat 15:4-6} And what would he have said to the Popish Pharisees, that say, that a monk may not leave his cloister to relieve his father, but rather let him die for hunger in the streets? Christ upon his cross, though as full of sorrow as heart could hold, commended his mother to be kept by the disciple whom he loved, with Iδου η μητηρ σου. {Joh 19:27} Agreeable whereunto was that speech of the Samians, "I give thee this woman for a mother," {g} when to the richer of the citizens the mothers of those who died in the wars were given to be maintained by them.

{a} Athenis capitale fuit, parentibus θρεπτηρια non persolvere - Melanct., Not. in Hesiod.

{b} Plin., lib. x. cap. 23.

{c} Propriam matrem crudeliter devorat, currucam silicet. - Melancth.

{d} Mures genitores suos alunt insigni pietate. - Sphinx Philos., p. 230.

{e} Macrob., Satur., lib. i. cap. 6.

{f} Eνθα το των ευρεβων γενος εξοχως ετιμησε το δαιμονοιν - Aristot., De Mundo., cap. 6.

{g} Sοι παυτην διδωμαι την μητιρα.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(11) Thy household.—As the famine had lasted only two years, and as Jacob had preserved his flocks and herds, so probably he had lost few or none of the large number of men-servants and women-servants who belonged to him. He would thus go down to Egypt as head of a large tribe, who would be called Israelites after him, just as the Ishmaelites, to whom Joseph was sold (Gen_37:25), bore Ishmael’s name, not because they were lineally descended from him, but because he had made them subject to his authority and that of his race. In Gen_45:18 Joseph speaks of “their households,” showing that each of the patriarchs had now his own body of dependants, besides the still larger clan which belonged to Jacob.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And there will I nourish thee,.... Provide for him and his family:

for yet there are five years of famine; still to come, two of the seven only being past:

lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty; his whole posterity be consumed, as it would be in all probability, if he did not procure food for his family during the famine.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Perish. Hebrew, be reduced to poverty. He fed them like the priests, chap. xlvii. 12, 22. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

11. Will I nourish thee — The son whom God hath exalted will tenderly provide for the aged father who nourished him in his childhood.

Yet there are five years — With the assuring message of filial love goes also a prophetic word, showing that Joseph has a knowledge of the future such as only divinely-gifted seers possess.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

פן תורש — The Targum renders this by דלמא תתמסכן LEST THOU BE IMPOVERISHED, for the verb is of the same root as we find in (1 Samuel 2:7) “The Lord maketh poor (מוריש) and maketh rich”.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

LEST THOU COME TO POVERTY, THOU, AND THY HOUSEHOLD. Joseph said this by way of respect for his father. To his brothers he said, For G-d did send me before you to preserve life, and to give you a remnant, but to his father he did not want to say so. Instead, he said, “that if you will delay in the land of Canaan you will be impoverished for I could not send you much food from the royal storehouse as they will suspect me of selling it there in order to accumulate treasures of money and then return to my land and to my birthplace. But when you come here, and they will know that you are my father and brothers, the king will give me permission to sustain you.”

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.