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"And Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon and he shaved and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.

"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: And I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall send Pharaoh an answer of peace. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, &c. . . . . And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. And the seven thin ill-favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine. This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: and there shall arise after them seven years of famine ; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land; and the plenty shall not be known in the land of Egypt by reason of the famine following; for it shall be very grievous." Gen. xli. 14—31.

The Nile, the waters, and the loam thereof, are the only agents whereby a single blade of grass springs up, or a single corn-blossom expands throughout the land of Egypt. This most patent and unanswerable fact is as fully acknowledged in all the different versions, both of the prediction and the fulfilment of this remarkable narrative, as its im

portance demands. Such being undeniably the case, we have no difficulty in saying what would be the causes of the events predicted. Both the plenty and the famine would originate in some great and marked disturbance of the course and measure of the annual overflow. No such events have since taken place; and the circumstances are altogether of so extraordinary a character, that we may fairly look for some traces of such a disturbance remaining to this day in a land where nothing alters. This point we shall consider hereafter.

"And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his court. And Pharaoh said unto his courtiers, Can we find such an one as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed. thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art." Gen. xli. 37, 38.

This full acknowledgment of the Divine Being who had imparted such wisdom to the Hebrew slave, comports but ill with our notions of an

Egyptian idolater; but, nevertheless, we find in the inspired narrative of these very remote periods, many similar proofs that, however mixed up with fable, a conviction of the existence and power of the true God had by no means entirely departed from among men, as at later periods of the history of idolatry. See Gen. xii. 17, 18, &c.

"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art. Thou shall be over my house; and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled; only in the throne will I be greater than thou." Gen. xli. 39, 40.

The office of Joseph is a not uncommon one among the princes of Egypt. It corresponds to the mayor or prefect of the palace of the old French court.

"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck. And he made him to ride in the second chariot that he had; and they cried before him ab rech, and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I, Pharaoh, declare, that without thee shall no man lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." Gen. xli. 41-44.

The princes of Egypt gloried in a long array of titles. Two more titles are here conferred upon Joseph. That of ab rechi. e., a pontifical prince, or "pure prince." This is a common title in the ancient tombs. The other title is also often read "the overseer, steward of the land." The ceremonies that attended his inauguration admit of pictorial illustration from the temples of Egypt, of those somewhat later periods when royal monuments first appear. Of these remote times, all,

there,

save the pyramids, that princes.

remains, is of individual

"And Pharaoh called Joseph's name tsaphnath paaneah, and he gave unto him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah the priest of On. And Joseph went forth (from Pharaoh) a prefect over the land of Egypt." Gen. xli. 45.

All these words are confessedly Egyptian. They have never been otherwise interpreted. This circumstance justifies our search, in the cotemporary remains of ancient Egypt, for the other names and titles which have already occurred to us. The attempts that have been made to interpret tsaphnath paaneah, began with the Greek translators of the Septuagint version of the Bible, which was made in Egypt about 240 B. C., when all tradition had past away, and before the faculty of critical examination had been imparted to men. They are mere para

nomastic guesses, only proving the persuasion of those who made them that the words are Egyptian. The names of offices with which we have already dealt, were at a somewhat earlier period (in the times of Ezra) assimilated to other words from other languages, their original Egyptian meanings being also entirely lost. Thus the office saris was

then made identical with a Persian word of somewhat similar sound, but meaning "eunuch: " a gloss which throws into intolerable confusion both the inspired narrative, and, with some writers, the history of Egypt also. The word sar underwent the same fate. Its root is common, both to the Hebrew and the Egyptian languages, but with widely different modifications. The Hebrewsar means a prince:" the Egyptian word sar means a "mayor," or "prefect" only. The former meaning was applied to the Egyptian word at this time also, with much confusion to the narrative. The cotemporary monuments of ancient Egypt have restored both to us.

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Tsaphnath Paaneah will now require our attention. It is evidently two words. Similar examples of names of princes consisting of two words might be cited from the cotemporary monuments. The first of these words has not yet been found in the name of any prince of the epoch of Joseph. But if we assume that it must have embodied some allusion to the qualities in Joseph, on account of which

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