Psalm 105:20

The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

105:8-23 Let us remember the Redeemer's marvellous works, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth. Though true Christians are few number, strangers and pilgrims upon earth, yet a far better inheritance than Canaan is made sure to them by the covenant of God; and if we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, none can do us any harm. Afflictions are among our mercies. They prove our faith and love, they humble our pride, they wean us from the world, and quicken our prayers. Bread is the staff which supports life; when that staff is broken, the body fails and sinks to the earth. The word of God is the staff of spiritual life, the food and support of the soul: the sorest judgment is a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. Such a famine was sore in all lands when Christ appeared in the flesh; whose coming, and the blessed effect of it, are shadowed forth in the history of Joseph. At the appointed time Christ was exalted as Mediator; all the treasures of grace and salvation are at his disposal, perishing sinners come to him, and are relieved by him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The king sent and loosed him - Released him from prison. Genesis 41:14. The object was that he might interpret the dreams of Pharaoh.

The ruler of the people, and let him go free - Hebrew, "peoples," in the plural - referring either to the fact that there were "many" people in the land, or that Pharaoh ruled over tributary nations as well as over the Egyptians.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. his word came—His prophecy (Ge 41:11-20) to the officers came to pass, or was fulfilled (Jud 13:12, 17; 1Sa 9:6, explain the form of speech).

the word of the Lord—or, "saying," or "decree of the Lord."

tried him—or, "proved him," by the afflictions it appointed him to endure before his elevation (compare Ge 41:40-43).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The king sent and loosed him,.... That is, Pharaoh king of Egypt sent messengers to the prison, and ordered Joseph to be loosed, as soon as ever he heard the account which the chief butler gave of him, and of his skill in interpreting dreams.

Even the ruler of the people; or "peoples": the subjects of Pharaoh's kingdom being very numerous.

And let him go free, ordered his fetters to be taken off, and him to be set at liberty, to go where he pleased; or, however, that he might come to court, whither he was brought, and which was the end of his releasement; see Genesis 41:14, in this he was a type of Christ in his resurrection from the dead; who for a while was under the dominion of death, was held with the pains and cords of it, and was under the power and in the prison of the grave; but it was not possible, considering the dignity of his person, and the performance of his work as a surety, that he should be held here. Wherefore the cords and pains of death were loosed, and he was brought out of prison; God his Father, the King of kings, sent an angel from heaven, to roll away the stone of the sepulchre, and let the prisoner free; so that he was legally and judicially discharged and acquitted; as it was proper he should, having satisfied both law and justice; he was justified in the Spirit when he rose from the dead, and all his people were justified in him, for he rose again for their justification.

Geneva Study Bible

The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. The king sent. &c.] Genesis 41:14

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - The king sent and loosed him (see Genesis 41:14). Even the ruler of the people. Pharaoh, ruler of the Egyptians. Let him go free; i.e. made him a free man, instead of a prisoner and a slave. Psalm 105:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"To call up a famine" is also a prose expression in 2 Kings 8:1. To break the staff of bread (i.e., the staff which bread is to man) is a very old metaphor, Leviticus 26:26. That the selling of Joseph was, providentially regarded, a "sending before," he himself says in Genesis 45:5. Psalm 102:24 throws light upon the meaning of ענּה ב. The Kerמ רגלו is just as much without any occasion to justify it as עינו in Ecclesiastes 4:8 (for עיניו). The statement that iron came upon his soul is intended to say that he had to endure in iron fetters sufferings that threatened his life. Most expositors take בּרזל as equivalent to בּבּרזל, but Hitzig rightly takes נפשׁו as an object, following the Targum; for ברזל as a name of an iron fetter

(Note: Also in ancient Arabic firzil (after the Aramaic פרזלא) directly signifies an iron fetter (and the large smith's shears for cutting the iron), whence the verb. denom. Arab. farzala, c. acc. pers., to put any one into iron chains. Iron is called בּרזל from בּרז, to pierce, like the Arabic ḥdı̂d, as being the material of which pointed tools are made.)

can change its gender, as do, e.g., צפון as a name of the north wind, and כבוד as a name of the soul. The imprisonment (so harsh at the commencement) lasted over ten years, until at last Joseph's word cam to pass, viz., the word concerning this exaltation which had been revealed to him in dreams (Genesis 42:9). According to Psalm 107:20, דברו appears to be the word of Jahve, but then one would expect from Psalm 105:19 a more parallel turn of expression. What is meant is Joseph's open-hearted word concerning his visions, and אמרת ה is the revelation of God conveying His promises, which came to him in the same form, which had to try, to prove, and to purify him (צרף as in Psalm 17:3, and frequently), inasmuch as he was not to be raised to honour without having in a state of deep abasement proved a faithfulness that wavered not, and a confidence that knew no despair. The divine "word" is conceived of as a living effectual power, as in Psalm 119:50. The representation of the exaltation begins, according to Genesis 41:14, with שׁלח־מלך

(Note: Here שׁלח is united by Makkeph with the following word, to which it hurries on, whereas in Psalm 105:28 it has its own accent, a circumstance to which the Masora has directed attention in the apophthegm: שׁלוחי דמלכא זריזין שׁלוחי דחשׁוכא מתינין (the emissaries of the king are in haste, those of darkness are tardy); vid., Baer, Thorath Emeth, p. 22.)

and follows Genesis 41:39-41, Genesis 41:44, very closely as to the rest, according to which בּנפשׁו is a collateral definition to לאסּר (with an orthophonic Dag.) in the sense of בּרצונו: by his soul, i.e., by virtue of his will (vid., Psychology, S. 202; tr. p. 239). In consequence of this exaltation of Joseph, Jacob-Israel came then into Egypt, and sojourned there as in a protecting house of shelter (concerning גּוּר, vid., supra, p. 414). Egypt is called (Psalm 105:23, Psalm 105:27) the land of Chaam, as in Psalm 78:51; according to Plutarch, in the vernacular the black land, from the dark ashy grey colouring which the deposited mud of the Nile gives to the ground. There Israel became a powerful, numerous people (Exodus 1:7; Deuteronomy 26:5), greater than their oppressors.