Commentaire sur La Genèse 47:11

רעמסס RAMESES — This is part the land of Goshen.

AND JOSEPH SETTLED HIS FATHER AND HIS BRETHREN AND GAVE THEM A POSSESSION, etc. The meaning thereof is that he settled them in the choicest land and with the possession which he gave them since he did not want them to be as strangers in the land. Thus he bought them houses and gave them an inheritance of fields and vineyards.²³⁸Numbers 16:14. This he did with the permission of Pharaoh because they had said, “To sojourn in the land are we come,²³⁹Verse 4 here. not to live, and when the famine will pass we will return to our land.” But Pharaoh said to Joseph, Settle thy father,²⁴⁰Verse 6 here. meaning that he settle them in the manner of citizens of the land who reside in the land of Goshen.

ויושב, Joseph made his family settle in Goshen and gave them parcels of land as permanent ancestral property.

ויושב יוסף את אביו ואת אחיו ויתן להם אחוזה, “Joseph settled his father and his brothers in the land of Egypt, and he allocated to them freehold property, property that could be transferred to their children upon their death.” He did not want them to have the status of aliens, tourists, transients, etc. He gave them vineyards, houses and fields, all with Pharaoh’s permission, seeing they themselves had only asked permission to be resident aliens for a while. Pharaoh had told Joseph to make full citizens of them.

Sie waren nur in der ausgesprochenen Absicht, sich zeitlich im Lande aufzuhalten, gekommen. Auf Pharaos ausdrückliches Verlangen und auf seinen Befehl wurden sie zur förmlichen Niederlassung veranlasst und ward ihnen Grundbesitz angewiesen. — אחוזה. Nach jüdischer Anschauung ergreift der Mensch nicht vom Boden Besitz, sondern lässt sich vom Boden fesseln; nicht אוחו, sondern — הֵאָחֵז heißt: Land in Besitz nehmen. Nur bewegliche Habe geht in die Person auf und wird von dieser vertreten. Der unbewegliche Besitz ist vielmehr Träger der Persönlichkeit und Vertreter derselben im Rechtsgebiete. Ein Verhältnis, das im jüdischen Zivilrechte von weitreichenden Folgen ist.

במיטב הארץ, in the most fertile part of the country, which is around Raamses and near the province of Goshen, כאשר צוה פרעה, in accordance with what Pharaoh had commanded (verse 6). Unless Pharaoh himself had authorised this Joseph would not have done this on his own authority, even though he had the power to shift around the entire population of Egypt, as we know from verse 21. His powers were those of an absolute ruler but he did not become guilty of abusing it in order to favour members of his own family.