had no lack of bread, and consequently no need to apply to Joseph, though they were indebted to his forethought. In 55 they are famishing, and have to buy their food from Joseph: this view is connected with 4713ff..—56. opened all that was in them] Read with G 'all the granaries,' though the Hebrew text cannot be certainly restored (v.i.)—57 prepares for the next scene of the drama (ch. 42).
State granaries, for the sustenance of the army, the officials and the
serfs, were a standing feature of Egyptian administration (Erman, LAE,
107 f.; cf. 433 f.), and were naturally drawn upon for the relief of the
populace in times of scarcity (ib. 126). The 'superintendent of the
granaries' was a high officer of state, distinct, as a rule, from the vizier
or T'ate (p. 469); but a union of the two dignities was just as easy under
exceptional circumstances as the combination of the Premiership with
the Chancellorship of the Exchequer would be with us (see Erman, 89).
We can readily understand that such a wise and comprehensive provision
impressed the imagination of the Israelites, and was attributed by
them to a divine inspiration of which one of their ancestors was the
medium (cf. Gu. 384).—Besides these general illustrations of the writer's
acquaintance with Egyptian conditions, two special parallels to this
aspect of Joseph's career are cited from the monuments: (1) Ameny, a
monarch under Usertsen I. (12th dynasty), records on his grave at Beni-Hasan
that when years of famine came he ploughed all the fields of his
district, nourished the subjects of his sovereign and gave them food, so
that there was none hungry among them. (2) Similarly, on a grave of
the 17th dynasty at El-Kab: "When a famine arose, lasting many years,
I distributed corn to the city in each year of the famine" (see ATLO2,
390; Dri. 346 f.). For the sale of grain to foreigners, we have the case
of Yanḫamu, governor of Yarimutu, in the Amarna letters (see below on
4713ff.).—It is impossible to desire a fuller demonstration of the Egyptian
background of the Joseph-stories than ch. 41 affords. The attempt to
minimise the coincidences, and show that "in a more original and shorter
form the story of Joseph had a N Arabian and not a Palestinian and
Egyptian background, and consequently that 'Pharaoh, king of Egypt,'
should be 'Pir'u, king of Miṣrim'" (TBI, 454-473), tends to discredit
rather than confirm the seductive Muṣri-theory, which is pushed to such
an extravagant length.
- understanding.—56. (
Hebrew characters)] [E] (Hebrew characters). The context imperatively
demands a noun [G (
Greek characters), S [Syrian: **]). Lagarde (Sym. i. 57) suggested
a Heb. equivalent of Talmud. (Hebrew characters); We. some derivative of (Hebrew characters);
De. Ba. and Kit. (combining [E] and S) (Hebrew characters).—(Hebrew characters)] Pt. (Hebrew characters) (Hi.);
cf. 426.—(Hebrew characters)] G om.—57. (Hebrew characters)1] Better (Hebrew characters) as G (cf. 54).
