And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old [art] thou?
Ver. 8. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob.] This king took not pleasure, as those Persian kings did, in a wild retiredness, or stern austerity, but in a mild affableness, and heart attracting courtesy, He shows not himself strange or stoical, but sweet and sociable. So Atticus seemed in his carriage, cornraunls infimis, par principibus. Adrian, the Emperor, would most courteously confer with the lowest. Vespasian was wont, not only to greet the chief senators, but even private persons; inviting them many times to his table; himself again going to their houses, especially if he found them learned and virtuous. a Pharaoh might find Jacob both these; and so make very good use of him, as his faithful counsellor. Princes had learned men ever with them, called monitors or remembrancers (μνημονες): as Dio had his Plato; Scipio, his Polybius, &c. Abimelech made much of Abraham, and afterwards of Isaac; some think it was for their skill in physic and astronomy. b Why might not Pharaoh find and favour the same worth in Jacob, and learn the same wisdom from him, that his senators, by his appointment, did of his son Joseph?
a Corn. Nepos. Spartan. Dio.
b Patriarchae praecipue professionis medicae studiosi fuerunt, ut Abraham, Isaac, Iacob: unde regibus grati, quos postea in doctrina Christiana simul instituerunt. - Melanc.