And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds:
Read Chapter 43
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Nevertheless Benjamin, the youngest, was kept back and still stayed close to his loving father. The bonds of the law held him back, and ancestral custom. The famine was increasing because he was coming late. Two brothers, Reuben and Judah—that is, humility and confession—make intercession on his behalf. He has them as guarantees with his father; to them Benjamin is entrusted. One of them is the firstborn, the other restored to life. The firstborn represents the law; the one restored to life, the gospel. The young Benjamin is led down by them and arrives, accompanied by good fragrances and carrying with him the cement with which stones of marble are fastened together; thus by his own preaching as by a spiritual cement he might fasten together living stones. He also carries honey, which destroys the harmful effects of an internal wound, without the bitter pain of any cutting. Such indeed was the preaching of Paul that it destroyed the festering infection and drained off the tainted fluid...
Best fruits: Hebrew literally, "of the praise, or song of the earth "or of those things for which the country is most renowned, and which are not found in Egypt. (Origen)
Balm. Literally, rosin, resinæ; but here by that name is meant balm. (Challoner) See chap. xxxvii. 25.
Honey, or all sorts of sweet fruit.
Storax: Septuagint, "incense "or perfumes. It is like balm; thick, odoriferous, and medicinal.
Myrrh, (stactes); Hebrew Lot. A liquor stamped from fresh myrrh pilled, with a little water. (Calmet)
Sometimes it is translated Gutta, a drop. (Psalm xliv. 9.) (Menochius)
Turpentine. St. Jerome and the Septuagint seem to have read Bothmin instead of the present Hebrew Batenim, which some translate, "nuts of the pistacium "(Bo chart); which hand in clusters, and are of an oblong shape. Vitellius first brought them out of Syria. (Pliny, Natural History xv. 22.)
Almonds; Septuagint nuts, of which almonds are one species. (Menochius)
