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CHAPTER XLI.

1 Pharaoh's two dreams. 25 Joseph interpreteth them. 33 He giveth Pharaoh counsel. 38 Joseph is advanced. 50 He begetteth Manasseh and Ephraim. 54 The famine beginneth.

AND it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.

2 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favoured kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow.

3 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favoured and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river.

4 And the ill favoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke.

5 And he slept and dreamed the second time and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, 'rank and good.

6 And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them.

7 And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.

8 And it came to pass in the morning, that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.

9 Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day:

10 Pharaoh was wroth with his servants, and put me in ward in the captain of the guard's house, both me and the chief baker:

11 And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream.

12 And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each man according to his dream he did interpret.

13 And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged.

14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.

15 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can

i Heb. fat. 2 Chap. 40. 12, &c.

EGYPTIAN KING ON HIS THRONE.

interpret it and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.

16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.

17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:

18 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured ; and they fed in a meadow:

19 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness:

20 And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine :

21 And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill favoured, as at the beginning. So I awoke.

22 And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good:

23 And, behold, seven ears, 'withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up

after them:

24 And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears and I told this unto the magicians ; but there was none that could declare it to me.

25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

26 The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.

3 Psal. 105. 20. 4 Heb. made him run. Heb. come to the inward parts of them.

5 Or, when thou hearest a dream, thou canst interpret it. 7 Or, small.

27 And the seven thin and 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.

28 This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh.

29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:

30 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;

31 And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.

32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is 'established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.

34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint 1officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.

35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.

36 And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land "perish not through the famine.

37 And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants. 38 ¶ And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?

39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art :

40 Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people 13be ruled only in the throne will I be greater than thou.

41 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.

42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of ''fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;

43 And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before

8 Heb. heavy. 9 Or, prepared of God. 10 Or, overseers. 13 IIeb. be armed, or, kiss.

19 Or, prince.

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land of Egypt.

46 T And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.

47 And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.

48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.

49 And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.

18

50 T8And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On

bare unto him.

15

51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn 20 Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.

52 And the name of the second called he "Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.

53 And the seven years of plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended.

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54 And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.

55 And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do.

56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth: And Joseph opened "all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.

57 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.

12 Psal. 105. 21. 1 Mac. 2. 53. Acts 7. 10.

17 Or, prince. 18 Chap. 46. 20, and 48. 5.

11 Heb. be not cut off 14 Or, silk. 15 Or, Tender father. 16 Heb. Abrech. 20 That is, forgetting. 21 That is, fruitful. 22 Psal. 105. 16.

23 Heb. all wherein was.

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Verse 2. There came up out of the river seven wellfavoured kine.'-It should be observed, as indicated by Rosenmüller, after Clement of Alexandria, that the ox, in the symbolical writings of the Egyptians, signifies agriculture and subsistence: and the river Nile being by its inundations the exclusive source of fertility in Egypt, the emergence of the oxen from its waters renders the application of the dream obvious when the clue is once obtained; and its identity with the other dream also becomes apparent. At the same time, the action of the oxen in coming up out of the water is quite natural, and such as Pharaoh might have witnessed every day. Animals of the buffalo kind, in hot countries, seem almost amphibious; they delight to stand for hours in the water, with their bodies immersed except the head; and they will swim the most broad and rapid rivers without reluctance or difficulty. This may be often witnessed in the Nile; and the writer has also seen it in the Tigris and other rivers of Asia. Dr. A. Clarke, not being aware how kine could be represented as coming up out of the river, concludes that the hippopotamus, or river-horse, is intended.

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11) translated flag;' by the Septuagint Bourouov: but in this place, as not knowing a proper Greek word for it, they content themselves by saying èv T xe, which is the original in different characters. We know at present of no river-herb which has so fair a title to be considered the achu as the palivaláλλa of Theophrastus and the Cyperus esculentus of the moderns. The genus Cyperus is distinguished by its elegant spikelets, which bear a row of scales on each side, wherein the seeds are concealed. The Cy perus esculentus is remarkable for the edible nature of its roots, which are in tubercles of about the size of a walnut; they contain much oil and starch, and were eaten, in the days of Theophrastus, as Tpaynuára, or sweetmeats. He tells us that every part of the plant was eaten by sheep and oxen. He speaks also of a different kind which grows in the lakes and marshes, and is given to cattle when green, and laid up in a state of dryness as winter fodder. It was given them while they were at work and when they required the best food. It seems, therefore, that the vision represented one of the best kinds of pasturage, if not the very best, for the cattle of Egypt.

5. Seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk.-M. de Lamarck is of opinion that several kinds of wheat, which are generally looked upon by botanists as distinct species, are all of them only varieties of the Triticum hibernumLammas or winter wheat. And when we consider the varieties that arise from cultivation, and that the originals cannot be found in a state of nature, this opinion seems to be founded upon reason and analogy. Nothing certain about the original country of the wheat is known: Sicily, Siberia, and Persia, have been in their turn pointed out as claimants, but without any unequivocal evidence. If we were to suggest Egypt as the birth-place of the wheat we should not, perhaps, be far from the truth; since the first time we hear of it, in the most ancient of all histories, is in Egypt, from whence the cultivated wheat might have extended to the islands of the Mediterranean, and subsequently to Greece, and her colonies to the westward.

Compare this passage with v. 47, where it is said that 'the earth brought forth by handfuls: by which we are probably to understand that each stalk, in the plentiful years, produced as much corn as, popularly speaking, the hand could grasp. This, or even more than this productiveness is not at this day unusual in Egypt. Mr. Jowett, in his Christian Researches, states that, when in Egypt, he plucked up at random a few stalks out of the thick cornfields. We counted the number of stalks which sprouted from single grains of seed, carefully pulling to pieces each root, in order to see that it was one plant. The first had seven stalks; the next three; then eighteen; then fourteen. Each stalk would bear an ear.' Even greater numbers

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CYPERUS ESCULENTUS.

TRITICUM COMPOSITUM.

than these are mentioned by Dr. Shaw, and still more by Pliny. It also often happens that one of the stalks will bear two ears, while each of these ears will shoot out into a number of lesser ears; affording a most plentiful increase. But in the present case the species was probably the Triticum compositum, or Egyptian wheat, which is extensively cultivated in Egypt, and which naturally bears several ears upon one stalk. The extraordinary fulness of the ears seems to have been the matter for admiration in this instance especially; the lateral ears are of much inferior size and fulness to the erect central one.

6. Blasted with the east wind.'-The blighting effect which a shrewd and eager' wind has upon vegetation is often exemplified among us in early spring. Nothing but observation can make us sensible of the wide difference between a sheltered and an unsheltered spot, in reference to the health of some plants, during spring and autumn. In severe climates a plant may often be seen in full blossom a few inches from the snow. Just under the brow of some eminence, in a little recess, it will seem to enjoy all the advantages of a more genial season, simply because it was sheltered from the wind, and the air about it was tranquil.

8. All the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof. The same classes of persons re-appear in Exod. vii. 11; and in the sequel they are represented as the wise men of the nations, the possessors of secret arts. Now we find in Egyptian antiquity an order of persons to whom that which is here ascribed to the magicians, is entirely appropriate. The priests had a double office-the practical worship of the gods. and the pursuit of that which, in Egypt, was accounted as wisdom. The first belonged to the so-called prophets; the second to the holy scribes (iepoypaupaтeis, hierogrammatists). These last were the learned men of the nation; as in the Pentateuch they are called wise men, so the classical writers call them sages. These men were applied to for explanation and aid in all things that lay beyond the circle of common knowledge and action. Thus, in severe cases of sickness, for example, along with the physician a holy scribe was called,

bably do on a similar occasion; but, carefully considered, this is one of many passages in which the truth of the Scripture narrative is attested by an incidental and slight allusion to remarkable customs, which no mere inventor would think of noticing, or notice without explaining. Shaving was a remarkable custom of the Egyptians, in which they were distinguished from other oriental nations, who carefully cherished the beard, and regarded the loss of it as a deep disgrace. That this was the feeling of the Hebrews, we shall frequently have occasion to observe: but here Joseph shaves himself in conformity with an Egyptian usage, of which this passage conveys the earliest intimation, but which is confirmed not only by the subsequent accounts of Greek and Roman writers, but by the ancient sculptures and paintings of Egypt, in which the male figure is usually beardless. It is true that in sculptures some heads have a curious rectangular beard, or rather beard-case attached to the chin; but this is proved to be an artificial appendage, by the same head being represented sometimes with and at other times without it; and still more by the appearance of a band which passes along the jaws and attaches it to the cap on the head, or to the hair. It is possible that this appendage was never actually worn, but was used in sculpture to indicate the male character: but it seems quite as likely that it was sometimes worn as a part of high dress. This peculiar beard, with its attaching ligature, is clearly shown in the Memnon's head in the British Museum. (See Professor Long's Egyptian Antiquities, vol. ii. 81, 82.) From all this it is quite clear that Joseph could not appear before

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who, from a book and astrological signs, determined whether recovery was possible. The interpretation of dreams, and also divination, belonged to the order of holy scribes. In times of pestilence they applied themselves to magic arts to avert the disease (Drumann, Inschrift von Rosetta, pp. 120, 122, 130). A passage in Lucian, cited by Jablonski (Panth. Egypt. Proll. p. 31, sq.), furnishes a particularly interesting parallel to the accounts in the Pentateuch respecting the practice of magic in Egypt. There was with us in the vessel, a man of Memphis, one of the holy scribes, wonderful in wisdom, and skilled in all stores of Egyptian knowledge. It was said of him that he had lived twenty-three years in subterranean sanctuaries, and that he had been there instructed in magic by Isis.' See Hengstenberg's Egypt and the Books of Moses, pp. 29, 30. 11. He shaved himself.'-This is what we should pro

EGYPTIAN BEARD-CASF.

the king without having his beard closely shaved. 'So particular,' says Wilkinson, were they on this point, that to have neglected it was a subject of reproach and ridicule; and whenever they intended to convey the idea of a man of low condition, or a slovenly person, the artists represented him with a beard.' The same writer states that, although foreigners who were brought to Egypt had beards on their arrival in the country, we find that as soon as they were employed in the service of this wicked people, they were obliged to conform to the cleanly habits of their masters; their beards and heads were shaved, and they adopted a close cap' (Anct. Egyptians, iii. 357; iv. 4-6). The priests shaved not only the beard but the head; and others, if they did not shave the head with a razor, were accustomed to wear it cropped very close. The abundant and long hair which often covers the head of figures in the monuments, was probably false, like our wigs. This was considered by the neighbouring nations, and especially the Asiatics, as a peculiar and distinguishing characteristic of the Egyptians (Rozellini, Monumenti dell' Egitto, ii. 2, 395).

15. Pharaoh, np.-This is the name or rather honorary title given throughout Scripture, to the Egyptian kings. It stands without addition in the earlier books, and assumes, to those unacquainted with its meaning, the aspect of a proper name, like Ptolemy at a later age, in the sampe country; and like Cæsar, in the Roman empire; but in later books the proper name of the particular sovereign is sometimes added. It is an Egyptian word; and its signification is, therefore, not to be sought in the Hebrew language; and it is a striking fact in corroboration of the high antiquity of this book, and of the connection of its author with Egypt, that this native Egyptian title of the kings occurs. Josephus intimates that it meant the king' in the Egyptian language; and this seems to be confirmed by our finding the word 'king' written in the dialect of Memphis as OURO, and, with the masculine article, POURO, which is a sufficiently near resemblance to the Hebrew form of the word. It has, however, been more recently suggested that the word is identical with the Egyptian word PHRA, 'the sun,' which, in the monuments, is placed as an hierogly-" phic symbol over the titles of kings; and it is correctly observed that the Hebrew word may be exactly so read if we disregard the points. There is, perhaps, less difference

between these views than appears at first sight; for it is not only possible, but highly probable, that the Egyptians should make the name of the sun a royal title, and that custom should at length render it equivalent to 'king.'

34. Let Pharaoh.....appoint officers over the land.'We have every reason to conclude that these officers were similar to the nomarchs of a later date, and the beys of a more recent period. At the time Egypt first became known in profane history, it was divided into nomes or districts, over each of which was an officer or governor with the title of nomarch. These functionaries, like the beys of the present system, superintended all the agricultural regulations established for the interests of the peasant, or connected with the claims of government in their several districts.

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42. Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand.'-This was, no doubt, a principal circumstance in Joseph's investiture in the high office of chief minister to the king of Egypt. Investiture by a ring is not unknown in the history of Europe during the middle ages But the present ring was undoubtedly a signet or seal-ring, which gave validity to the documents to which it was affixed, and by the delivery of which, therefore, Pharaoh delegated to Joseph the chief authority of the state. The king of Persia in the same way gave his seal-ring to his successive ministers Haman and Mordecai; and in Esther viii. 8, the use of such a ring is expressly declared:-'The writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse.' The possession of such a ring, therefore, gave absolute power in all things to the person to whom it was entrusted. This may in some degree be understood by the use of a seal among ourselves to convey validity to a legal instrument or public document; and still more, perhaps, by the use of the Great Seal, the person who holds which is, at least nominally the second person in the state. But our usages do not perfectly illustrate the employment of the seal as it exists in the East, because we require the signature in addition to the seal; whereas in the East, the seal alone has the effect which we give to both the seal and the signature. The Orientals do not usually sign their names. They have seals in which their names and titles are engraven, and with which they make an impression with thick ink on all occasions for which we use the signature. To give a man

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This cut represents different seal-rings of ancient Egypt, and are very curious, not only as such, but for the specimens of ancient sealengraving which they offer. It will be observed that in some of the specimens the stone is a cube engraved on each of its four sides, and made to revolve in the ring, so that any of the inscriptions might be used at the option of the possessor. The hands in the centre of the engraving are copied from a mummy-case in the British Museum, and are those of a female. They serve to show the manner in which finger-rings were worn, and the awkward profusion in which they were exhibited by the women of ancient Egypt. The bracelets will also engage the notice of the reader, as illustrating the principal form of an ornament so often mentioned in the Scriptures.]

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