If it must be so] There is no wisdome in striving with necessitie; when we cannot frame our condition to our wils, we must bring downe our wils to our condition; and it was better that one should be adventured upon some uncertaine danger, then that all the family should be left to the certaine danger of famine. best fruits] In Hebrew, take of the melodie, musick, or singing of the earth. That is, excellent fruits, which are received with praise, and used with delight. a present] Jacob resolving to referre the matter concerning himselfe, and his sonnes to Gods providence, doth yet use his owne prudence to speed his purpose and therefore to ingratiat them in the favour of that great Lord in Egypt (whom he knew not to be his good sonne Joseph) he sends a present, which (as Solomon sheweth) is a meanes to pacifie anger, and to obtaine favour, Proverbs 21:14. &Proverbs 18:16. &Proverbs 17:8. a little balme, and a little honey &c.] Balme was very precious, and therefore a little of that might be a competent present, and a little honey though Canaan were said to be a Land flowing with milke, and honey, Leviticus 20:24. and in many other places, yet in a time of so great dearth, honey being of use for humane sustenance, a little of it with other things might be accepted. spices] The Hebrew word is Nechoth, which some render by the gumme of the Balme tree; some, Waxe; some, aromatick, or odoriferous spices: others more generally, desireable things; some (as the Vulgar Latine in this place) expresse it by the word Storax, which signifieth a kind of tree, and the teare, or gum which issueth out of it, of which Diascorides writeth, lib. 1. cap. 78. &Plin. lib. 12. cap. 25. nuts] Or, Terebinth nuts; or, nuts of the Turpentine tree; the originall word is not (as some observe) found any where, but here, in the holy Scripture.