Genesis 47:11 - Exposition

And Joseph placed his father and his brethren ( i.e. gave them a settlement, the import of which the next clause explains), and gave them a possession ( i.e. allowed them to acquire property) in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses ,—either that district of Goshen in which Jacob and his family first settled (Michaelis, Rosenmüller), or, what seems more probable, the land of Goshen itself ( LXX ; Keil, Hengstenberg, Kalisch, et alii ) , being so named proleptically from the town Rameses, which was subsequently built ( Exodus 1:11 ), or, if the town existed in the time of Joseph, and was only afterwards fortified by the Israelites, deriving its designation from the name of its chief city'— as Pharaoh had commanded.