A man shall take hold of his brother
Seeking to transfer rulership
Here we have the law of primogeniture.
By the law of the State it was right that the eldest son should take a certain definite and ruling position. But he was naked; he had not one rag with which to cover his nudity; and seeing one of his younger brethren with a coat on, with a garment on, he sprang upon him and said, By that coat I ask thee to take my place: thou hast at least so much, and I have nothing; come, be head of the family and be prince of the tribe. But the younger son scorned the proffered dignity. The moral base had gone, and therefore the mechanical dignity was of no account; the pedestal of righteousness had been struck away, and the statue of nominal dignity fell into the dust. (J. Parker, D. D.)
“Let this ruin be under thy hand”
Or, according to a various reading, making a very good sense, “Take into thy hand our ruinous state.” Endeavour, if possible, to retrieve our affairs, now in sad disorder, prognosticating our destruction as a people: deliver, if possible, from injustice and oppression, from foreign enemies and domestic troubles; and, in the prosecution of these great and important purposes, we will act as thy dutiful subjects. (R. Macculloch.)
Government going a-begging
Here--
1. It is taken for granted that there is no way of redressing all these grievances and bringing things into order again, but by good magistrates, that shall be invested with power by common consent, and shall exert that power for the good of the community. And it is probable this was in many places the true origin of government. Men found it necessary to unite in a subjection to one who was thought fit for such a trust, in order to the welfare and safety of them all, being aware that they must be either ruled or ruined.
2. The case is represented as very deplorable, and things come to a sad pass; for--
(1) Children being their princes, every man will think himself fit to prescribe who shall be a magistrate, and will be for preferring his own relations.
(2) Men will find themselves under a necessity even of forcing power into the hands of those that are thought to be fit for it. Nay, a man shall urge it upon his brother; whereas, commonly, men are not willing that their equals should be their superiors; witness the envy of Joseph’s brethren.
3. It will be looked upon as ground sufficient for the preferring a man to be a ruler, that he hath clothing better than his neighbours; a very poor qualification to recommend a man to a place of trust in the government. It was a sign the country was much impoverished, when it was a rare thing to find a man that had good clothes, or that could afford to buy himself an alderman’s gown, or a judge’s robes; and that the people were very unthinking, when they had so much respect to a man in gay clothing with a gold ring (James 2:2-3), that for the sake thereof they would make him their ruler. It had been some sense to have said, Thou hast wisdom, integrity, experience, be thou our ruler; but it was a jest to say, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler. A poor, wise man, though in vile raiment, delivered a city (Ecclesiastes 9:15). (Matthew Henry.)
“I will not be an healer”
“I do not want to be a surgeon”--he does not like to be a binder, namely, of the broken arms and legs and ribs of the ruined State (Isaiah 30:26; Isaiah 1:6; Isaiah 61:1). (F. Delitzsch.)
A reason for refusing rulership
“In my house is neither bread nor clothing.” If he saith true, it was a sign men’s estates were sadly ruined; if he do not speak truth, it was a sign men’s consciences were sadly debauched, when, to avoid the expense of an office, they would load themselves with the guilt of perjury. (M. Henry.)
Clothing in the East
It was customary in Eastern countries, where fashions did not vary as among us, to collect immense quantities of clothes and provisions, not only for the person’s own use, and that of his family, but for presents upon proper occasions. This appears plainly, from the sacred writings, to have been the practice among the Jews. This, as a celebrated writer observes, explains the meaning of the excuse made by him that is desired to undertake the government. He alleges he hath not wherewithal to support the dignity of that station by such acts of liberality and hospitality as the law and custom required of persons in high rank. (R. Macculloch.)