Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they [are] in the land of Goshen.
Ver. l. Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh.] This was great wisdom in him, to do nothing for his friends, though he were so great a favourite, without the king's privity and approbation. There wanted not those that waited for his halting; envy attends upon honour, a and always aimeth at the highest; as the tallest trees are weakest at the tops. Melancthon tells us he once saw a certain ancient piece of coin, having on the one side Zopyrus, on the other Zoilus. It was an emblem of kings' courts, saith he; b where calumnies accompany the well-deserving, as they did Daniel, Datames, Hannibal, c &c. Difficillimum inter mortales est gloria invidiam vincere, saith Sallust. d How potent that quick-sighted and sharp-fanged malignity is, we may guess by that question, Proverbs 27:4 .
a Scipioni obtrectabat Carbo; Alcibiadi Hyperbolus; Homero Zoilus; Ciceroni Clodius. Habuerunt et suos cucullos omnes docti et heroici.
b Manlii, loc. com., p. 414.
c Corn. Nepos, in Vita Datamis et Hannib.
d Sal., in Catilin.