Exodus 1:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Now these are the names— Moses begins this book with recounting to us the names of the family of Jacob, to make us attentive to the accomplishment of the promise made to Abraham in their great multiplication. It may be asked, perhaps, how it came to pass that Joseph's brethren so readily returned back into Egypt after their father's funeral in Canaan, when, the famine being long before over, they might have settled in the land of Promise, and sent for their families out of Egypt? To which Parker answers—That Joseph's brethren had hitherto received nothing but civil and kind usage from the Egyptians; and therefore could not with any propriety have withdrawn themselves in such a manner; that, upon the demise of Jacob, the eleven brethren and their families were attached to Joseph, as lord of Egypt; so that his motions were to determine theirs; that this occasional journey from Egypt to Canaan was not like that from Canaan to Egypt, their little ones and effects being left behind; nor was any preparation made for such a removal; that, considering Joseph's brethren as the peculiar people, and, in that respect, under God's immediate eye and care, they were to do nothing without his leave and direction; and that things, as yet, were by no means ripened, or approached to maturity, for the intended crisis; Moses and Aaron, whom GOD had designed to commission as instruments of their deliverance out of Egypt, were not yet born. To which let us add, that it seems to follow plainly, from this chapter, and from the whole subsequent history, that the Egyptians themselves were very loth to part with the Israelites.