Genesis 47:2 - Exposition

And he took some of his brethren, even five men ,—literally, from the end, or extremity, of his brethren ; not from the weakest, lest the king should select them for courtiers or soldiers (the Rabbis, Oleaster, Pererius, and others); or the strongest and most handsome, that the Egyptian monarch and his nobles might behold the dignity of Joseph's kindred (Lyre, Thostatus, and others); or the youngest and oldest, that the ages of the rest might be therefrom inferred (Calvin); but from the whole body of his brethren (Gesenius, Rosenmüller, Keil, Kalisch, et alii ) he took five teen— and presented them unto Pharaoh (cf. Acts 7:13 ).