לגור בארץ, not because we are short of money, but because there is no grazing land in Canaan as long as the famine lasts.

אנשי חיל, men capable of being major commandants or political ministers. The word חיל here means something as in Ruth 3,11 a combination of ability and integrity. The author claims to have found that the expression אנשי חיל can be used directly to apply to cattle breeders.

מעט ורעים, seeing that Pharaoh’s question of how old he was appeared to Yaakov as being motivated by his extremely old appearance, he told him that he was not nearly as old as he might look, but that the various troubles in his life he had endured had left their mark on his appearance.

ותלה, similar to the word ותכה in Job 17,7 ותכה מכעס עיני, where it means: ”my eyes fail from vexation.” The letter ה is part of the root, this is why it has the mappik, similar to נגה אור in Job 22,28.in the word נגה. [indicates the letter is not a pronoun. Ed.]

ארץ מצרים וארץ כנען, however, people living further away than the people of Canaan did not come to Egypt to buy their food there. Either the journey was too long and tedious, or the famine was not as severe in their countries.

העביר אותו לערים, a stratagem also employed by Sancheriv when he conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel and forcibly exchanged the populations of that kingdom with people from the north. (compare Kings II 18,32). The purpose behind this was to prevent uprisings by populations who had no roots in their countries and therefore had no good reason to start a rebellion.

ויקרבו ימי ישראל למות, whenever a person is reported as about to make his last will and testament to his children, the introductory phrase is that he felt death approaching, i.e. ויקרבו. When Yitzchok was about to bestow the blessing on Esau, the Torah also prefaced this by describing that he felt himself close to death (27,1-20) [even if the word for approaching used there was not the same as here, i.e. ויקרבו. Ed.] He did say: “I do not know the day of my death.” In Kings I 2,1 when David gives his final instructions to his son Solomon, we also read the preface ויקרבו ימי דוד למות ויצו, “when David felt death approaching, he commanded, etc.” Actually, our paragraph commences with the words וישב ישראל בארץ מצרים, “Israel settled down in the land of Egypt,” (verse 27 in our chapter.) The words ויחי יעקב בארץ מצרים in our verse must be understood as a direct continuation of verse 27. The Jewish communities were not willing to conclude the reading of the weekly portion with the words ותהי הארץ לפרעה, “the land belonged permanently to Pharaoh.” This is why they added verse 27 as the final verse of Parshat Vayigash.

שים נא ידך, we already explained this expression on 24,2 when Avraham requested an oath from his servant Eliezer using the same words.

"And Israel bowed low": To Joseph, from the place where he was at [the top of] the bed.