Genesis: 1a 1b 1c 1d 2a 2b 2c 2d 3 4a 4b 4c/5 6a 6b 7 8 9 10 11a 11b 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25a 25b 26a 26b 27 28a 28b 29 30a 30b 31a 31b/32a 32b 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44a 44b 45 46 47a 47b 48 49 50
SEDRA MI KETS - Genesis 41:1 - 44:17
41:1 VA YEHI MI KETS SHENATAYIM YAMIM U PHAR'OH CHOLEM VE HINEH OMED AL HA YE'OR
וַיְהִי מִקֵּץ שְׁנָתַיִם יָמִים וּפַרְעֹה חֹלֵם וְהִנֵּה עֹמֵד עַל הַיְאֹר
KJ: And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.
BN: Now it happened, two full years later, that Pharaoh had a dream, and he saw himself standing by the river.
SHENATAYIM: Is there any significance in it being two years? The impression earlier was that Yoseph had already served "one season in ward" when the previous tale arose; so this would make it the three that we anticipated. But this says MI KETS SHENATAYIM YAMIM, so the "full" two years really does mean "full", and the KETS again tells us this a festival - we understood both the new moon and the new year in the last chapter (in lunar calendars the new year will always fall on the new moon), and therefore Pharaoh's birthday.
CHOLEM (חלם): Is this a genuine dream, or the telling of an Egyptian myth?
YE'OR (יאר): the Egyptian word for a river, specifically in the Memphitic dialect, it was used almost exclusively of the Nile.
The third series of dreams, is this a story about Yoseph or about dreaming?
In Mitsrayim (Egypt) the role of the priest was both astrological, cultic and oracular; we can again presume that Yoseph's priestly training was in the latter, and if he is now being called to make auguries and readings for Pharaoh then he must have finished his training and risen into the higher ranks of the priesthood. The Yisra-Elite priesthood read the auguries in the twelve lights on the High Priest's ephod (Exodus 28:15 ff but also see my notes here), and tended to regard all other forms of divination as pagan and abominable (c.f. any text of the Prophets).
41:2 VE HINEH MIN HA YE'OR OLOT SHEVA PAROT YEPHOT MAR'EH U VERIY'OT BASAR VA TIR'EYNAH BA ACHU
וְהִנֵּה מִן הַיְאֹר עֹלֹת שֶׁבַע פָּרוֹת יְפוֹת מַרְאֶה וּבְרִיאֹת בָּשָׂר וַתִּרְעֶינָה בָּאָחוּ
KJ: And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favoured kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow.
BN: And behold, seven bullocks came up out of the river, well-favoured and fat-fleshed; and they grazed on the reed-grass.
How do we distinguish religious liturgy from historical occasion, especially in a world in which kings are the representatives on Earth of the gods, and therefore all political ceremony has an element of the liturgical built into it? The number seven here is too important to ignore. It is YHVH's sacred number of course, but much more than that, the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine are an early prefiguration of the Jubilee, and those Jubilee laws will be created in the Sinai Desert (Leviticus 25), in the wake of the exodus from Egypt.
PAROT (פרות) cannot be ignored either. We would have expected BAKAR or MIKNEH from earlier references to cattle, but PAROT is aurally very close to PHARAOH, and the sounds are rhythms and cadences are always a key feature of the Bible-writer's style. A purely aural pun then.
YAPHOT MAR'EH (יפות מראה): strange choice of term, usually used of handsome people, especially women. Poti-Phar's wife, by pure coincidence, described Yoseph thus earlier - Yoseph yepheh to'ar viy'pheh mar'eh (יוֹסֵף יְפֵה תֹאַר וִיפֵה מַרְאֶה) - Genesis 39:6
ACHU (אחו): another Egyptian loan-word, specifically the reed-grass of the Nile. Osher (Osiris) is Lord of the Nile, of course, which is worth noting with respect to Yoseph's role and Mosheh's birth. But also the dreams relate to the Nile, which seems to indicate a link of the Nile to the famine: however, we know from recent comparable situations in the Sudan and Eritrea, that in Upper Egypt the failure of the crop is always caused by drought; whereas, in Lower Egypt, where the Nile deltas into the Mediterranean, the failure of the crop is attributable to Nile inundation rather than to drought.
The notion of a land beset by famine and saved by the return of the Fisher-King belongs here.
41:3 VE HINEH SHEVA PAROT ACHEROT OLOT ACHAREYHEN MIN HA YE'OR RA'OT MAR'EH VE DAKOT BASAR VA TA'AMODNAH ETSEL HA PAROT AL SEPHAT HA YE'OR
וְהִנֵּה שֶׁבַע פָּרוֹת אֲחֵרוֹת עֹלוֹת אַחֲרֵיהֶן מִן הַיְאֹר רָעוֹת מַרְאֶה וְדַקּוֹת בָּשָׂר וַתַּעֲמֹדְנָה אֵצֶל הַפָּרוֹת עַל שְׂפַת הַיְאֹר
KJ: 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.
BN: And after that, seven different bullocks came up behind them from the river, ill-favoured and lean-fleshed; and they stood by the other bullocks on the bank of the river.
RA'OT (רעות): precisely the use of RA (רע) and ZA'APH (זעף) that was explained in the last chapter (Genesis 40:6 ff) - not "sad" at all, but discountenanced by hunger.
41:4 VA TO'CHALNA HA PAROT RA'OT HA MAR'EH VE DAKOT HA BASAR ET SHEVA HA PAROT YEPHOT HA MAR'EH VE HA BERIY'OT VA YIYKATS PAR'OH
וַתֹּאכַלְנָה הַפָּרוֹת רָעוֹת הַמַּרְאֶה וְדַקֹּת הַבָּשָׂר אֵת שֶׁבַע הַפָּרוֹת יְפֹת הַמַּרְאֶה וְהַבְּרִיאֹת וַיִּיקַץ פַּרְעֹה
KJ: And the ill favoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke.
BN: And the ill-favoured and lean-fleshed bullocks ate up the seven well-favoured and fat bullocks. Then Pharaoh woke up.
PAROT/PAR'OH (פרעה/הפרות): only the Ayin (ע) distinguishes the two.
There is, as even my 4th graders were able to point out, a fundamental problem here, which is that cattle are vegetarian. My usual answer when this is raised is: but it all happened in dream, and in dream even the impossible is possible. It doesn't usually convince them.
I wonder if we can also date the tale from the fact that it is cattle, and not sheep? Taurus (4320 to 2160 BCE) for the cattle, Aries (2160 to 0 BCE) if it were sheep, as it has been throughout the Ya'akov tales thus far - click here.
41:5 VA YIYSHAN VA YACHALOM SHENIT VE HINEH SHEVA SHIBALIM OLOT BE KANEH ECHAD BERIY'OT VE TOVOT
וַיִּישָׁן וַיַּחֲלֹם שֵׁנִית וְהִנֵּה שֶׁבַע שִׁבֳּלִים עֹלוֹת בְּקָנֶה אֶחָד בְּרִיאוֹת וְטֹבוֹת
KJ: And he slept and dreamed the second time: and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
BN: And he slept and dreamed a second time; and this time seven ears of corn came up from a single stalk, healthy and strong.
41:6 VE HINEH SHEVA SHIBALIM DAKOT U SHEDUPHOT KADIM TSOMCHOT ACHARAYHEN
וְהִנֵּה שֶׁבַע שִׁבֳּלִים דַּקּוֹת וּשְׁדוּפֹת קָדִים צֹמְחוֹת אַחֲרֵיהֶן
KJ: And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them.
BN: And behold seven ears, thin and blasted by the east wind, sprung up after them.
The east wind, known as the chamsin = "fifty", because it tends to last fifty days; aka the sirocco - and definitely around the spring new year. This would add weight to the alternative argument of drought causing the famine. But cf the Shema - all matters vegetal were attributed to the beneficence of the gods and the quality of propitiation.
41:7 VA TIVLA'NAH HA SHIBALIM HA DAKOT ET SHEVA HA SHIBALIM HA BERIY'OT VE HA MEL'E'OT VA YIYKATS PAROH VE HINEY CHALOM
וַתִּבְלַעְנָה הַשִּׁבֳּלִים הַדַּקּוֹת אֵת שֶׁבַע הַשִּׁבֳּלִים הַבְּרִיאוֹת וְהַמְּלֵאוֹת וַיִּיקַץ פַּרְעֹה וְהִנֵּה חֲלוֹם
KJ: And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.
BN: And the thin ears devoured the seven healthy and strong ears, and Pharaoh woke up, and it was all just a dream.
I presume that I don't need to state the 4th graders response on this occasion.
41:8 VA YEHI VA BOKER VA TIPA'EM RUCHO VA YISHLACH VA YIKRA ET KOL CHARTUMEY MITSRAYIM VE ET KOL CHACHAMEYHA VA YESAPER PAR'OH LAHEM ET CHALOMO VE EYN POTER OTAM LE PHAR'OH
וַיְהִי בַבֹּקֶר וַתִּפָּעֶם רוּחוֹ וַיִּשְׁלַח וַיִּקְרָא אֶת כָּל חַרְטֻמֵּי מִצְרַיִם וְאֶת כָּל חֲכָמֶיהָ וַיְסַפֵּר פַּרְעֹה לָהֶם אֶת חֲלֹמוֹ וְאֵין פּוֹתֵר אוֹתָם לְפַרְעֹ
KJ: 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.
BN: And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent a summons to all the seers of Mitsrayim, and all its wise men; and Pharaoh told them his dreams, but none of them could interpret them to Pharaoh.
CHARTUMEY (חרתמי): interpreting dreams was not an approved Beney Yisra-Eli practice; nor is the word CHARTUM a Yehudit word; it appears in fact to mean "sacred scribes", but perhaps what they wrote down were auguries, horoscopes and prophecies, and thereby acquired the description as a sobriquet. The word "magician" comes from the Greek "magi", itself a typical Greek mispronunciation and false translation, in this case of the Persian "magush", which was the name given to the priests of Zoroaster; it would not have been known or used in Egypt at this time, or known anywhere until several hundred years after this time, so the English translation is an anachronism.
And of course this is not the sort of dream that people actually dream, but rather the sort of dream that story-tellers make up for didactic purposes.
Though they cannot have been very good magicians or very wise men to be unable to interpret a dream as obvious as this one!
And how would they have come dressed to Pharaoh's presence? In coats of many colours perhaps.
41:9 VA YEDABER SAR HA MASHKIM ET PAR'OH LEMOR ET CHATA'AI ANI MAZKIR HA YOM
וַיְדַבֵּר שַׂר הַמַּשְׁקִים אֶת פַּרְעֹה לֵאמֹר אֶת חֲטָאַי אֲנִי מַזְכִּיר הַיּוֹם
KJ: Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day:
BN: Then the Head Butler spoke to Pharaoh saying, "Today has reminded me of a wrong that I have done...
41:10 PAR'OH KATSAPH AL AVADAV VA YITEN OTI BE MISHMAR BEIT SAR HA TABACHIM OTI VE ET SAR HA OPHIM
פַּרְעֹה קָצַף עַל עֲבָדָיו וַיִּתֵּן אֹתִי בְּמִשְׁמַר בֵּית שַׂר הַטַּבָּחִים אֹתִי וְאֵת שַׂר הָאֹפִים
KJ: 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:
BN: "Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, me and the Head Baker...
41:11 VA NACHALMAH CHALOM BE LAILAH ECHAD ANI VE HU ISH KE PHITRON CHALOMO CHALAMNU
וַנַּחַלְמָה חֲלוֹם בְּלַיְלָה אֶחָד אֲנִי וָהוּא אִישׁ כְּפִתְרוֹן חֲלֹמוֹ חָלָמְנוּ
KJ: And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream.
BN: "And we dreamed a dream one night, I and he; each of us dreamed - according to the interpretation of his dream...
How do you dream "according to the dream's interpretation"? The dream comes first, while sleeping; the interpretation comes later, when awake.
41:12 VE SHAM ITANU NA'AR IVRI EVED LE SAR HA TABACHIM VA NESAPER LO VA YIPHTAR LANU ET CHALOMOTEYNU ISH KA CHALOMO PATAR
וְשָׁם אִתָּנוּ נַעַר עִבְרִי עֶבֶד לְשַׂר הַטַּבָּחִים וַנְּסַפֶּר לוֹ וַיִּפְתָּר לָנוּ אֶת חֲלֹמֹתֵינוּ אִישׁ כַּחֲלֹמוֹ פָּתָר
KJ: 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.
BN: "Anyway, there was this young man with us, an Ivri, the servant of the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he explained our dreams to us; each of us the explanation of his own dream...
Which answers my question at Genesis 40:15.
41:13 VA YEHI KA ASHER PATAR LANU KEN HAYAH OTI HESHIV AL KANI VE OTO TALAH
וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר פָּתַר לָנוּ כֵּן הָיָה אֹתִי הֵשִׁיב עַל כַּנִּי וְאֹתוֹ תָלָה
KJ: And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged.
BN: "And it came about, exactly as he said it would. I was restored to my office, and he was hanged."
41:14 VA YISHLACH PAR'OH VA YIKRA ET YOSEPH VA YERIYTSUHU MIN HA BOR VA YEGALACH VA YECHALEPH SIMLOTAV VA YAVO EL PAR'OH
וַיִּשְׁלַח פַּרְעֹה וַיִּקְרָא אֶת יוֹסֵף וַיְרִיצֻהוּ מִן הַבּוֹר וַיְגַלַּח וַיְחַלֵּף שִׂמְלֹתָיו וַיָּבֹא אֶל פַּרְעֹה
KJ: 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.
BN: Then Pharaoh sent instructions for Yoseph to be summoned, and they brought him in a hurry out of the dungeon. And he shaved, and changed his clothes, and came into the presence of Pharaoh.
BOR (בור): note again the use of this term. "Jail" and "pit" appear to become interchangeable terms, or is it that two versions are being merged?
Then he must have spent two years in jail since the butler and baker story; did he perhaps spend a whole year there beforehand? Note that he is about to be "resurrected" from the pit, from the dungeon of the underworld, and will rise again in the world (he was already number one with Poti-Phar; now he will be number one to Pharaoh) and will find himself seated on the right hand of his lord and master, from where he will come to judge the living and the dead.
What does changing his raiment involve? Putting on a coat of many colours - his priestly gown?
End of first fragment
41:15 VA YOMER PAR'OH EL YOSEPH CHALOM CHALAMTI U POTER EYN OTO VA ANI SHAMA'TI ALEYCHA LEMOR TISHMA CHALOM LIPHTOR OTO
וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה אֶל יוֹסֵף חֲלוֹם חָלַמְתִּי וּפֹתֵר אֵין אֹתוֹ וַאֲנִי שָׁמַעְתִּי עָלֶיךָ לֵאמֹר תִּשְׁמַע חֲלוֹם לִפְתֹּר אֹתוֹ
KJ: 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.
BN: And Pharaoh said to Yoseph, "I have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can explain it. I have heard it said of you, that when you hear a dream you can explain it."
Which Pharaoh are we actually dealing with - name and date? Alas, if this is the period of the Hyksos, which is to say the 15th dynasty, which is to say circa 1640–1540 BCE, we do not have a lot of archaeological information. Four Pharaohs are known: Khamudi was the last, so he is likely to have been the Pharaoh of the Mosheh story. Apepi was Khamudi's father. Khyan has a name whose meaning links neatly to this tale, but that is scarcely enough for a speculation, let alone a fully fledged hypothesis; and Sheshi may not even have been Hyksos, but Nubian. And even this is far more information than you will find at most "expert" sites; the Metropolitan Museum in New York, for example, has a list of Pharaohs which simply calls this the "Second Intermediate" period, and leaves it blank.
41:16 VA YA'AN YOSEPH ET PAR'OH LEMOR BIL'ADAI ELOHIM YA'ANEH ET SHELOM PHAROH
Which Pharaoh are we actually dealing with - name and date? Alas, if this is the period of the Hyksos, which is to say the 15th dynasty, which is to say circa 1640–1540 BCE, we do not have a lot of archaeological information. Four Pharaohs are known: Khamudi was the last, so he is likely to have been the Pharaoh of the Mosheh story. Apepi was Khamudi's father. Khyan has a name whose meaning links neatly to this tale, but that is scarcely enough for a speculation, let alone a fully fledged hypothesis; and Sheshi may not even have been Hyksos, but Nubian. And even this is far more information than you will find at most "expert" sites; the Metropolitan Museum in New York, for example, has a list of Pharaohs which simply calls this the "Second Intermediate" period, and leaves it blank.
41:16 VA YA'AN YOSEPH ET PAR'OH LEMOR BIL'ADAI ELOHIM YA'ANEH ET SHELOM PHAROH
וַיַּעַן יוֹסֵף אֶת פַּרְעֹה לֵאמֹר בִּלְעָדָי אֱלֹהִים יַעֲנֶה אֶת שְׁלוֹם פַּרְעֹה
KJ: And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.
BN: And Yoseph answered Pharaoh saying, "It is not in me; Elohim will give Pharaoh a complete answer."
BILADAI ELOHIM: This allows us to discount the apparently arrogant claim to divinity suggested for Genesis 40:8. It turns out to have been merely a matter of poor phrasing on that occasion.
SHELOM (שלום): Most translations give "an answer of peace", which is frankly meaningless. SHALOM, as explained previously, means "wholeness", and so the translation here should be "a complete answer".
As with the Mosheh stories later, as with Eli-Yahu (Elijah) and the priests of Ba'al (1 Kings 18), the object of this phase of the story, emphasised by this verse, is to show that the Beney Yisra-Eli god is more powerful than any other, that heathen magic cannot compete with Elohim (Elohim throughout this story; never YHVH), and that Elohim can perfectly well better them at their own magic if he chooses, but with his own people he does not choose as he has higher things for them. But it does allow us to date the re-writing of this tale, if not the original writing, to a very late time.
Compare this mastery of the Egyptian magicians by a Habiru with the Mosheh-Aharon story later (Exodus 7:10 ff).
41:17 VA YEDABER PAR'OH EL YOSEPH BA CHALOMI HINENI OMED AL SEPHAT HA YE'OR
וַיְדַבֵּר פַּרְעֹה אֶל יוֹסֵף בַּחֲלֹמִי הִנְנִי עֹמֵד עַל שְׂפַת הַיְאֹר
KJ: And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:
BN: And Pharaoh told Yoseph, "In my dream, behold I was standing on the bank of the river...
Note the use of the word "hineni" yet again, albeit in an unusual context this time, and quite possibly a slightly different meaning.
As a piece of story-telling, this is about to enter a rivalry with Eli-Ezer in Padan Aram for repetitiveness and longevity. Be warned!
41:18 VE HINEH MIN HA YE'OR OLOT SHEVA PAROT BERIY'OT BASAR VIY'PHOT TO'AR VA TIR'EYNAH BA ACHU
וְהִנֵּה מִן הַיְאֹר עֹלֹת שֶׁבַע פָּרוֹת בְּרִיאוֹת בָּשָׂר וִיפֹת תֹּאַר וַתִּרְעֶינָה בָּאָחוּ
KJ: And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow:
BN: "And behold, seven bullocks came up out of the river, fat-fleshed and well-favoured; and they grazed on the reed-grass...
41:19 VE HINEH SHEVA PAROT ACHEROT OLOT ACHAREYHEN DALOT VE RA'OT TO'AR ME'OD VE RAKOT BASAR LO RA'IYTI CHA HENAH BE CHOL ERETS MITSRAYIM LA RO'A
וְהִנֵּה שֶׁבַע פָּרוֹת אֲחֵרוֹת עֹלוֹת אַחֲרֵיהֶן דַּלּוֹת וְרָעוֹת תֹּאַר מְאֹד וְרַקּוֹת בָּשָׂר לֹא רָאִיתִי כָהֵנָּה בְּכָל אֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם לָרֹעַ
KJ: 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:
BN: "And behold, seven other bullocks came up after them, thin and very ill-favoured and lean-fleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Mitsrayim for skinniness...
Are the differences in the dream and the telling mere story-teller's license?
Again the word RA is being translated inconsistently - and remember that RA in Egyptian is also the name of the principal deity, though that does not appear to be part of the word-play here.
Is it significant that these are cows, not bulls? The goddess of the cow in Egypt was Hat-Hor (the goddess of the cow in the Jacobite world, as we have seen, was Le'ah).
41:20 VA TO'CHALNAH HA PAROT HA RAKOT VE HA RA'OT ET SHEVA HA PAROT HA RI'SHONOT HA BERIY'OT
וַתֹּאכַלְנָה הַפָּרוֹת הָרַקּוֹת וְהָרָעוֹת אֵת שֶׁבַע הַפָּרוֹת הָרִאשֹׁנוֹת הַבְּרִיאֹת
KJ: And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine:
BN: "And the lean and ill-favoured bullocks ate up the first seven bullocks...
41:21 VA TAVO'NAH EL KIRBENAH VE LO NODA KI VA'U EL KIRBENAH U MAR'EYHEN RA KA ASHER BA TECHILA VA IKATS
41:21 VA TAVO'NAH EL KIRBENAH VE LO NODA KI VA'U EL KIRBENAH U MAR'EYHEN RA KA ASHER BA TECHILA VA IKATS
וַתָּבֹאנָה אֶל קִרְבֶּנָה וְלֹא נוֹדַע כִּי בָאוּ אֶל קִרְבֶּנָה וּמַרְאֵיהֶן רַע כַּאֲשֶׁר בַּתְּחִלָּה וָאִיקָץ
KJ: 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.
BN: "And when they had eaten them, you couldn't tell that they had eaten them, because they were just as ill-favoured as at the beginning. That was when I woke....
As far as we know from the telling here, Pharaoh did not say any of this to his own wise men, and some of it is quite significant to anyone undertaking an interpretation.
If a dream is a presaging of the determined future, as seemed to be the underlying belief of the butler and baker story, then how is it that Yoseph can change the future of this dream?
41:22 VA ER'E BA CHALOMI VE HINEH SHEVA SHIBALIM OLOT BE KANEH ECHAD MELE'OT VE TOVOT
וָאֵרֶא בַּחֲלֹמִי וְהִנֵּה שֶׁבַע שִׁבֳּלִים עֹלֹת בְּקָנֶה אֶחָד מְלֵאֹת וְטֹבוֹת
KJ: And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good:
BN: "And I saw in my dream, and behold, seven ears grew up on a single stalk, healthy and strong.
Not bothering to tell us that he had first gone back to sleep. Or was this the next night?
41:23 VE HINEH SHEVA SHIBALIM TSENUMOT DAKOT SHEDUPHOT KADIM TSOMCHOT ACHAREYHEM
וְהִנֵּה שֶׁבַע שִׁבֳּלִים צְנֻמוֹת דַּקּוֹת שְׁדֻפוֹת קָדִים צֹמְחוֹת אַחֲרֵיהֶם
KJ: And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, andblasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:
BN: "And behold seven ears, withered, thin and blasted by the east wind, sprung up after them.
41:24 VA TIVLA'NA HA SHIBALIM HA DAKOT ET SHEVA HA SHIBALIM HA TOVOT VA OMAR EL HA CHARTUMIM VE EYN MAGID LI
וַתִּבְלַעְןָ הָשִׁבֳּלִים הַדַּקֹּת אֵת שֶׁבַע הַשִׁבֳּלִים הַטֹּבוֹת וָאֹמַר אֶל הַחַרְטֻמִּים וְאֵין מַגִּיד לִי
KJ: 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.
BN: "And the thin ears swallowed up the seven strong ears. And I told this to the seers, but no one could explain it to me."
Which is slightly surprising, because compared to some of Freud's work, this is actually a pretty simple riddle to explain - yes, riddle.
Again, the word "magicians" in the English translations is erroneous. A magician was originally a Magus (properly Magush - جادو گر), one of the Zoroastrian priests, and while King Koresh (Cyrus) was a Zoroastrian and would have appreciated the Redactor making the connection, he would surely also have felt that his Magi had access to the truths of Ahura Mazda, whereas the pagan priests of ancient Egypt were mere "sorcerers" and "wizards" who conducted superstitious rituals of no divine status whatsoever (as Magush has come to mean in the Christian world). We cannot really use the word "magicians" then, can we?
41:25 VA YOMER YOSEPH EL PAR'OH CHALOM PAR'OH ECHAD HU ET ASHER HA ELOHIM OSEH HIGID LE PHAR'OH
וַיֹּאמֶר יוֹסֵף אֶל פַּרְעֹה חֲלוֹם פַּרְעֹה אֶחָד הוּא אֵת אֲשֶׁר הָאֱלֹהִים עֹשֶׂה הִגִּיד לְפַרְעֹה
KJ: And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.
BN: And Yoseph said to Pharaoh, "Pharaoh's two dreams are really one; what Ha Elohim is about to do he has declared to Pharaoh...
CHALOM PAR'OH ECHAD: Then why give him two dreams? see verse 32.
We are entitled to ask why the god of the Beney Yisra-El would reveal to an Egyptian Pharaoh, who is either unaware of his existence or anyway wouldn't believe in him, what he is about to do.
Perhaps the answer lies in the text, where it says HA ELOHIM = "the gods".
If this is not an account of the Hyksos, then the other option worth considering, as noted above, is the number of possible links to Akhenaten, and especially to On (Heliopolis), which have come up, and which would enable us to date the story much more exactly. He was originally Amenhotep IV of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, but in the fifth year of his 17-year reign he instructed his people to cease worshipping the pantheon of gods and to worship only the sun-disc who he named Aten; he also moved the capital from Thebes to the site that is now known as Tel El Amarna but was then called On. He died in either 1336 or 1334 BCE.
On only became Heliopolis under the Greeks much later; at this time it was On, the centre of sun worship in Mitsrayim (Egypt). Cleopatra's Needle on the Thames Embankment originally came from On. The high priest of Aten at On was named Meri-Re, the Re linking him to Ra the sun-god, which was pre-Hyksos.
Surf The Site
Genesis: 1a 1b 1c 1d 2a 2b 2c 2d 3 4a 4b 4c/5 6a 6b 7 8 9 10 11a 11b 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25a 25b 26a 26b 27 28a 28b 29 30a 30b 31a 31b/32a 32b 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44a 44b 45 46 47a 47b 48 49 50
But more importantly we should ask ourselves, since we know that their god appeared in dreams to many famous Beney Yisra-El, including Av-Raham earlier, was this the form in which he appeared to them: as a riddle? After all, this was the great ancient art of oracle-giving and soothsaying. We have hinted as much on many occasions previously.
41:26 SHEVA PAROT HA TOVOT SHEVA SHANIM HENAH VE SHEVA HA SHIBALIM HA TOVOT SHEVA SHANIM HENAH CHALOM ECHAD HU
שֶׁבַע פָּרֹת הַטֹּבֹת שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים הֵנָּה וְשֶׁבַע הַשִּׁבֳּלִים הַטֹּבֹת שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים הֵנָּה חֲלוֹם אֶחָד הוּא
KJ: The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.
BN: "The seven healthy bullocks are seven years; and the seven healthy ears are seven years; the dream is one...
Then, again, why give him two dreams? see verse 32.
41:27 VE SHEVA HA PAROT HA RAKOT VE HA RA'OT HA OLOT ACHAREYHEN SHEVA SHANIM HENAH VE SHEVA HA SHIBALIM HA REKOT SHEDUPHOT HA KADIM YIHEYU SHEVA SHENEY RA'AV
וְשֶׁבַע הַפָּרוֹת הָרַקּוֹת וְהָרָעֹת הָעֹלֹת אַחֲרֵיהֶן שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים הֵנָּה וְשֶׁבַע הַשִׁבֳּלִים הָרֵקוֹת שְׁדֻפוֹת הַקָּדִים יִהְיוּ שֶׁבַע שְׁנֵי רָעָב
KJ: 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.
BN: "And the seven lean and ill-favoured bullocks that came up after them are seven years, as are the seven empty ears blasted by the east wind; they shall be seven years of famine...
41:28 HU HA DAVAR ASHER DIBARTI EL PAR'OH ASHER HA ELOHIM OSEH HER'AH ET PAR'OH
הוּא הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתִּי אֶל פַּרְעֹה אֲשֶׁר הָאֱלֹהִים עֹשֶׂה הֶרְאָה אֶת פַּרְעֹה
KJ: This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh.
BN: "This is what I am telling Pharaoh; that what Ha Elohim is about to do he has shown to Pharaoh...
The English translation here is staggeringly inaccurate (why would he tell him in the past tense as though he had already told him?). DAVAR does indeed mean "a thing", but it also has a host of other meanings, of which the main one is "word", whence LEDABER = "to speak". The Yehudit puns on this with HA DAVAR ASHER DIBARTI, so really any English translator ought to have been able to work out how to translate it: "This then is the word that I shall speak..."
41:29 HINEH SHEVA SHANIM BA'OT SAVA GADOL BE CHOL ERETS MITSRAYIM
הִנֵּה שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים בָּאוֹת שָׂבָע גָּדוֹל בְּכָל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
KJ: Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:
BN: "Behold, seven years of great plenty are coming to the whole of the land of Mitsrayim...
SAVA (שבע): One of the neatest of all the verbal puns in the Tanach; without pointing, the words SAVA (שבע) and SHEVA (שבע) are indistinguishable. See multiple previous notes on the usages and puns on SHEVA, which, again, is YHVH's sacred number seven.
"Boom and bust" appears to be Yoseph's economic forecast. How would we react if the Chancellor presented his budget in the form of "I had a dream, and this is how my soothsayers at the Finance Ministry have interpreted it"?
41:30 VE KAMU SHEVA SHENEY RA'AV ACHAREYHEN VE NISHKACH KOL HA SAVA BE ERETS MITSRAYIM VE CHILAH HA RA'AV ET HA ARETS
וְקָמוּ שֶׁבַע שְׁנֵי רָעָב אַחֲרֵיהֶן וְנִשְׁכַּח כָּל הַשָּׂבָע בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם וְכִלָּה הָרָעָב אֶת הָאָרֶץ
KJ: 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;
BN: "But seven years of famine shall follow after them; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Mitsrayim, because the famine will consume the land...
41:31 VE LO YIVADA HA SAVA BA ARETS MIPNEY HA RA'AV HA HU ACHEREY-CHEN KI CHAVED HU ME'OD
KJ: And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.
BN: "And no one will even know what plenty means in the land, because of the extent of the famine that is going to follow...
41:32 VE AL HISHANOT HA CHALOM EL PAR'OH PA'AMAYIM KI NACHON HA DAVAR ME IM HA ELOHIM U MEMAHER HA ELOHIM LA'ASOTO
KJ: 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.
BN: "That is why the dream was given to Pharaoh twice, to show that this has already been determined Ha Elohim, and that Ha Elohim will shortly bring it to pass...
We are still in the realm of HA ELOHIM, the gods. Can we assume the term is a convenience by the Redactor, to allow YHVH worshippers to presume YHVH, to allow those who understand it must have been an Egyptian god to have their say. In which case, is Ha Elohim always a euphemism?
This verse is the answer to the comment in verses 25 and 26.
41:33 VE ATAH YER'E PHAR'OH ISH NAVON VE CHACHAM VIYSHIYTEHU AL ERETS MITSRAYIM
KJ: Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.
BN: "And now let Pharaoh seek out a man who is both discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Mitsrayim...
He is rather overstepping his brief now; he has been asked to interpret a dream, not to advise on matters of national economic planning. Or is he just being opportunistic?
And besides, as with the butler and baker previously, there can be no proof of what he is prophesying until the future actually unfolds. This is the equivalent of a sacked junior clerk from the finance ministry coming up with a briefing paper, based on unreliable data and speculative economic forecasting – and then finding himself appointed Treasury Secretary (mind you, if he predicted boom and bust in a capitalist economy, he is unlikely not to be correct - so maybe Yoseph understood the Egyptian agricultural equivalent).
41:34 YA'ASEH PHAR'OH VA YAPHKED PEKIDIM AL HA ARETS VE CHIMESH ET ERETS MITSRAYIM BE SHEVA SHENEY HA SAVA
KJ: Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.
BN: "Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the land, and collect in a fifth of the produce of the land of Mitsrayim during the seven years of plenty...
Let alone write the budget.
Go back to Av-Raham at Be'er Sheva for a moment; is it possible it was Bar Sava - the well of the famine? It was very dry after all, as Yitschak found.
41:35 VA YIKBETSU ET KOL OCHEL HA SHANIM HA TOVOT HA BA'OT HA ELEH VE YITSBERU VAR TACHAT YAD PA'ROH OCHEL BE ARIM VE SHAMARU
KJ: 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.
BN: "And let them gather in all the food of these good years that are to come, and lay up corn for food, under the authority of Pharaoh, in store cities, and let them keep it there...
Already presuming the role of chief minister.
And of course, this may have been the practice in Egypt for centuries, so is this a case of retrospective aggrandisement by the Redactor? Or of the Beney Yisra-El trying to claim the credit for one of the better economic strategies of the ancient world?
This is also the origin of the store cities, which the Habiru (see my note to Genesis 40:15), or possibly the Beney Yisra-El, were later said to have built in slavery. We do in fact have archaeological evidence that the temples of Egypt housed vast grain stores, and that one of the roles of the priests was the collection and distribution of grain; so there is a historical base to this tale. It simply is not a Beney Yisra-Eli base.
41:36 VE HAYAH HA OCHEL LE PHIKADON LA ARETS LE SHEVA SHENEY HA RA'AV ASHER TEHEYEYNA BE ERETS MITSRAYIM VE LO TIKARET HA ARETS BA RA'AV
KJ: 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.
BN: "And that food shall provide a store for the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Mitsrayim; that way the land will not perish through the famine."
Throughout the language and grammar is particularly ancient (תִּהְיֶיןָ for example, where we would expect TIHEYEH - תִּהְיֶה) - does this suggest a very old text; is there an Egyptian equivalent?
As it happens, it is a very good economic strategy; though doubtless one of which Ayn Rand or her contemporary disciples would never approve, it having the merit of altruism, and the grave danger of providing for the collective rather than indulging the greed and narcissism and self-interest of the pure individual. In this lies the source of the difference, which the Mosaic Code will elaborate, between a society founded on a Bill of Rights, and one, such as the Jewish, Christian and Muslim, founded on a Charter of Responsibilities.
Unfortunately, having declared this in his manifesto, the future Prime Minister, once in office, will carry out something radically different - a system of nationalised collectivisation which prefigures the world of Magna Carta and the serfdom of the Czars, though actually it will look more like the 5-year-plans of that other Joseph, Stalin. But at least the ethical theory is stated!
41:37 VA YIYTAV HA DAVAR BE EYNEY PHAR'OH U VE EYNEY KOL AVADAV
KJ: And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
BN: And what he said looked good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
Note that word AVADAV (עבדיו), used here to mean "courtiers" or "ministers", not "servants" or "slaves". Refer back to Yoseph's arrival in Mitsrayim, but also forward to AVADIM HAYINU BE MITSRAYIM ("we were slaves in Egypt"), the Mosheh story. I will be questioning the meaning of AVADIM throughout the Mosaic legends.
41:38 VA YOMER PAR'OH EL AVADAV HA NIMTSA CHA ZEH ISH ASHER RU'ACH ELOHIM BO
KJ: And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?
BN: And Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom lies the spirit of Elohim?"
ELOHIM: This cannot be what Pharaoh actually said; he would have referred to Ra, or Horus, or even possibly the Aten (sun disc), but never Elohim (or actually Ha Elohim).
And of course this verse provides the great argument against the hereditary monarchy. A people needs a leader of skill and vision, not simply some guy who got the job because his father had it. The answer to Pharaoh's question ought to be: "Sire, we do not need to look for such a man, he is already here before us, seated on the throne." But alas he isn't. This Pharaoh didn't even have the nous to interpret his own dream, or to recognise that Yoseph might be the right man for the job.
End of second fragment
41:39 VA YOMER PAR'OH EL YOSEPH ACHAREY HODIY'A ELOHIM OT'CHA ET KOL ZOT EYN NAVON VE CHACHAM KAMOCHA
KJ: And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:
BN: Then Pharaoh said to Yoseph, "Given that Elohim has shown you all this, clearly there is no one as discreet and wise as you...
This verse is extremely odd. He has succeeded in offering an interpretation, but there is no evidence that he is right. Surely Pharaohs (even third-rate ones) do not appoint men as Chief Vizier, especially foreigners just brought up from the dungeon, unless there is strong evidence of worthiness for the post. Background check. Previous employer references. Priestly-training certificate and end-of-course tutor report. Maybe Yoseph is wrong. Why does he not wait and see? Why does he not just steal the idea and try it out, and take the credit if it proves right, and abrogate the blame if it doesn't – that's what every other politician in the world would do? To which the answer is: because of who Yoseph really was: the prophetic oracle of Osher (Osiris).
Note the Vav (ו) that appears in both Ot'cha (אותך) and Kemocha (כמוך); generally thus far it has been absent. Language variations in time and place, but useful to us in placing and dating the various texts.
NAVON: Is he "discerning and wise" because he has the power of prophecy, the ability to read dreams? I ask because a Prophet is a NEVI, and at the very least this makes for yet another aural pun. NAVON is written without a final-letter Aleph (א), where NEVI has one (נבא); however, NEVI is a Chaldean word, the source of Aramaic, and we know that the final-letter Aleph is a commonplace in that language; so they could indeed be the same word.
This is further endorsed by the fact that the planet Mercury, which is the planet associated with prophecy, is NEVO in Yehudit, again without the final-letter Aleph, and gives the name of Mount Nevo (Nebo), where Mosheh goes to die in Numbers 33:47. Navon occurs many times in the Tanach - click here.
Note also that he says ELOHIM and not HA ELOHIM on this occasion.
41:40 ATA TIHEYEH AL BEITI VE AL PIYCHA YISHAK KOL AMI RAK HA KIS'E EGDAL MIMECHA
KJ: Thou shalt 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.
BN: "You shall have authority over my house, and according to your word shall all my people be ruled; only the throne I be greater than you."
The same brief that he has had twice before.
RAK HA KIS'E EGDAL MIMECHA: There is no pronoun here; it says "only the throne will be greater than you", which describes Pharaoh in every facet and role and feature; it is a clear statement of hierarchy, where the translation seems to give Yoseph equality "except when I'm sitting on my throne".
Is a change of religion implied here? We know that Akhenaten introduced a new priesthood with the cult of the sun disc; that the Hyksos did something similar, imposing their gods and priesthood when they conquered; and we will see later that Mosheh did the same when he re-established this Yosephan priesthood after the flight from Egypt. The link from Yah Suph (יה סוף - possibly the original name of Joseph) to Mosheh's travels to the Yam Suph (ים סוף - the Red Sea) should not be forgotten in this context, nor the fact that Yoseph settles his family later in Goshen, which is precisely the same region; all of which adds weight to the view that the whole legend from Yoseph to Mosheh is in fact Midyanite and not Beney Yisra-Eli.
Saying he was made grand vizier is all very well; as with tribal sheikhdoms and kingships of cities, a religious as well as a temporal role attaches; and in On (Heliopolis), as in Memphis before and Avaris later, there are mythological connections that we cannot ignore...
41:41 VA YOMER PAR'OH EL YOSEPH RE'EH NATATI OT'CHA AL KOL ERETS MITSRAYIM
KJ: And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
BN: And Pharaoh said to Yoseph, "See, I have set you over the entire land of Mitsrayim."
A phrase that one might normally use for a king in the political sphere or a pope in the religious. What exactly was Yoseph's role, and how did it fit with Pharaoh's continuing predominance?
OT'CHA: the Vav (ו) again disappears.
41:42 VA YASAR PAR'OH ET TABA'TO ME AL YADO VA YITEN OTAH AL YAD YOSEPH VA YALBESH OTO BIGDEY SHESH VA YASEM REVID HA ZAHAV AL TSAVA'RO
KJ: 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;
BN: And Pharaoh removed his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Yoseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck.
Signet ring. But wait a moment, didn't Yehudah give a signet ring to Tamar as part of his pledge? In fact, well, yes and no. Tamar in Genesis 38:36 asked Yehudah to give her his CHOTEMET, which is indeed a signet ring (and we questioned such a thing in a pre-alphabetic age). Here Pharaoh gives Yoseph his TAB'A, which is the royal seal, and may or may not have come in the form of a signet ring.
SHESH (שש): fine linen, worn only by the royal family and the very highest officials. Multi-coloured? Probably.
REVID HA ZAHAV: A golden collar, to be exact, if archaeological finds are to be taken on trust, which they usually are. Like the wedding ring, it denoted status - and in this case it confirms both Yoseph's high status as vizier, but also his continuing status as a possession of the Pharaoh. The priestly dog-collar to this day reflects the same tradition: position and servitude.
41:43 VA YARCHEV OTO BE MIRKEVET HA MISHNEH ASHER LO VA YIKRE'U LEPHANAV AVARECH VE NATON OTO AL KOL ERETS MITSRAYIM
KJ: And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
BN: And he gave him his second chariot to ride in; and they cried "Abrech – Kneel" as he went by; and he set him over the entire land of Mitsrayim.
SECOND CHARIOT (במרכבת המשנה): This is an important clue, because we know from various Biblical accounts and other records that the Hyksos were able to conquer Kena'an and Mitsrayim (Egypt) principally because they had early Iron Age tools, had tamed the horse, and harnessed them to iron-wheeled chariots. (On the other hand, the later redactors regularly got their history wrong, and even more regularly introduced anachronisms.)
ABRECH (אברך): presumably linked to the Yehudit BERECH (ברך) = "a knee"; whence the command "kneel!" What we do not know is how to pronounce it, which is why AVARECH is used in the transliteration, and ABRECH in the translation, and AVRECH is suggested here as a third option; it could be any of these.
Hints of the Purim-Haman (correctly Chaman, a stone idol) story in this - or at least of the nature of despotism. Worth comparing.
41:44 VA YOMER PAR'OH EL YOSEPH ANI PHAR'OH U VIL'ADEYCHA LO YARIM ISH ET YADO VE ET RAGLO BE CHOL ERETS MITSRAYIM
KJ: And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.
BN: And Pharaoh said to Yoseph, "I am Pharaoh, but without your agreement, no man shall so much as lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Mitsrayim."
As with all these tales that try to impose history where history doesn't obviously belong, several different historical memories tend to get mixed up - we shall see this especially in the Mosaic legends. The historical basis for the rise to supreme authority of a non-Pharonic indivisual would seem to be the rise, at the time of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (circa 1350 BCE) and IV (circa 1340 BCE; aka Akhenaten), of a Semitic general named Yanhamu, mentioned in the Tel Amarna letters as controlling the granaries of Yarimuta (Yarmut - ירמות - in Joshua 12:11) and ruling Egypt's domain in Kena'an (but in Kena'an, not in Egypt itself, note). Yanmahu had a high-ranking Beney Yisra-Eli colleague named Dudu, Dodi or Dodai (cf 2 Samuel 23:9 & 24; Judges 10:1), which are all variant forms of the name David (and still used as such in modern Ivrit).
41:45 VA YIKRA PHAR'OH SHEM YOSEPH TSAPHNAT PA'NE'ACH VA YITEN LO ET ASNAT BAT POTI-PHERA KOHEN ON LE ISHAH VA YETS'E YOSEPH AL ERETS MITSRAYIM
KJ: And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.
BN: And Pharaoh gave Yoseph the official name Tsaphnat-Pa'ne'ach,; and he gave him Asnat, the daughter of Poti-Phera the priest of On, for a wife. And Yoseph went out over the land of Mitsrayim.
The renaming echoes that of Av-Ram and Ya'akov earlier, of Yedid-Yah (another variant of David, oddly enough) as Shelomoh (Solomon) later. Given that we are told explicitly that the name-change here is quasi-coronational, we have significant evidence for what was happening on those previous occasions. See also Numbers 13:16, where Hoshe'a's name is changed to Yehoshu'a (Joshua) at the time of his appointment to a senior command - הוֹשֵׁעַ - יְהוֹשֻׁעַ - and of course that name in Yehudit means "anointed", which was the equivalent of "crowned" in our world.
TSAPHNAT PA'NE'ACH (צפנת פענח): thus confirming Yoseph as a priest as well as being chief minister; as Pharaoh was the god as well as the king. The name is probably an incorrect rendering of Tsaphnato Pa'anhi = "nourisher (food/man) of life". An equivalent of British Prime Minister James Callaghan's marvellous creation, the Minister for Drought.
ASNAT (אסנת): its root links the name to the Libyan goddess Neith, the Berber goddess Tannit, who is the Kena'ani Anat (Anatha), wife of Ba'al (Ba'al Hamon to the Libyans and Berbers) and priestess of Yirme-Yahu's (Jeremiah's) home town of Beit Anatot (Bethany).
Why is it necessary to give him such an important wife? To establish his authority? Is he not a eunuch incapable of fathering children? Or is it a priestly-marriage à la May King?
POTI-PHERA (פוטי פרע): this must be understood as a priestly title, not a mere military one as before hinted; but it also tells us that the earlier story of Yoseph and Poti-Phar is really this story mis-told; for clearly it is the same person. Can we really believe that, having had him jailed for apparently trying to rape his wife, Poti-Phar would then agree to give his daughter in marriage? To which the answer, given the marriage-customs of the Egyptian royal family at that epoch, may have to be yes.
41:31 VE LO YIVADA HA SAVA BA ARETS MIPNEY HA RA'AV HA HU ACHEREY-CHEN KI CHAVED HU ME'OD
וְלֹא יִוָּדַע הַשָּׂבָע בָּאָרֶץ מִפְּנֵי הָרָעָב הַהוּא אַחֲרֵי כֵן כִּי כָבֵד הוּא מְאֹד
KJ: And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.
BN: "And no one will even know what plenty means in the land, because of the extent of the famine that is going to follow...
41:32 VE AL HISHANOT HA CHALOM EL PAR'OH PA'AMAYIM KI NACHON HA DAVAR ME IM HA ELOHIM U MEMAHER HA ELOHIM LA'ASOTO
וְעַל הִשָּׁנוֹת הַחֲלוֹם אֶל פַּרְעֹה פַּעֲמָיִם כִּי נָכוֹן הַדָּבָר מֵעִם הָאֱלֹהִים וּמְמַהֵר הָאֱלֹהִים לַעֲשֹׂתוֹ
KJ: 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.
BN: "That is why the dream was given to Pharaoh twice, to show that this has already been determined Ha Elohim, and that Ha Elohim will shortly bring it to pass...
We are still in the realm of HA ELOHIM, the gods. Can we assume the term is a convenience by the Redactor, to allow YHVH worshippers to presume YHVH, to allow those who understand it must have been an Egyptian god to have their say. In which case, is Ha Elohim always a euphemism?
This verse is the answer to the comment in verses 25 and 26.
41:33 VE ATAH YER'E PHAR'OH ISH NAVON VE CHACHAM VIYSHIYTEHU AL ERETS MITSRAYIM
וְעַתָּה יֵרֶא פַרְעֹה אִישׁ נָבוֹן וְחָכָם וִישִׁיתֵהוּ עַל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
KJ: Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.
BN: "And now let Pharaoh seek out a man who is both discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Mitsrayim...
He is rather overstepping his brief now; he has been asked to interpret a dream, not to advise on matters of national economic planning. Or is he just being opportunistic?
And besides, as with the butler and baker previously, there can be no proof of what he is prophesying until the future actually unfolds. This is the equivalent of a sacked junior clerk from the finance ministry coming up with a briefing paper, based on unreliable data and speculative economic forecasting – and then finding himself appointed Treasury Secretary (mind you, if he predicted boom and bust in a capitalist economy, he is unlikely not to be correct - so maybe Yoseph understood the Egyptian agricultural equivalent).
41:34 YA'ASEH PHAR'OH VA YAPHKED PEKIDIM AL HA ARETS VE CHIMESH ET ERETS MITSRAYIM BE SHEVA SHENEY HA SAVA
יַעֲשֶׂה פַרְעֹה וְיַפְקֵד פְּקִדִים עַל הָאָרֶץ וְחִמֵּשׁ אֶת אֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בְּשֶׁבַע שְׁנֵי הַשָּׂבָע
KJ: Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.
BN: "Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the land, and collect in a fifth of the produce of the land of Mitsrayim during the seven years of plenty...
Let alone write the budget.
Go back to Av-Raham at Be'er Sheva for a moment; is it possible it was Bar Sava - the well of the famine? It was very dry after all, as Yitschak found.
41:35 VA YIKBETSU ET KOL OCHEL HA SHANIM HA TOVOT HA BA'OT HA ELEH VE YITSBERU VAR TACHAT YAD PA'ROH OCHEL BE ARIM VE SHAMARU
וְיִקְבְּצוּ אֶת כָּל אֹכֶל הַשָּׁנִים הַטֹּבֹת הַבָּאֹת הָאֵלֶּה וְיִצְבְּרוּ בָר תַּחַת יַד פַּרְעֹה אֹכֶל בֶּעָרִים וְשָׁמָרוּ
KJ: 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.
BN: "And let them gather in all the food of these good years that are to come, and lay up corn for food, under the authority of Pharaoh, in store cities, and let them keep it there...
Already presuming the role of chief minister.
And of course, this may have been the practice in Egypt for centuries, so is this a case of retrospective aggrandisement by the Redactor? Or of the Beney Yisra-El trying to claim the credit for one of the better economic strategies of the ancient world?
This is also the origin of the store cities, which the Habiru (see my note to Genesis 40:15), or possibly the Beney Yisra-El, were later said to have built in slavery. We do in fact have archaeological evidence that the temples of Egypt housed vast grain stores, and that one of the roles of the priests was the collection and distribution of grain; so there is a historical base to this tale. It simply is not a Beney Yisra-Eli base.
41:36 VE HAYAH HA OCHEL LE PHIKADON LA ARETS LE SHEVA SHENEY HA RA'AV ASHER TEHEYEYNA BE ERETS MITSRAYIM VE LO TIKARET HA ARETS BA RA'AV
וְהָיָה הָאֹכֶל לְפִקָּדוֹן לָאָרֶץ לְשֶׁבַע שְׁנֵי הָרָעָב אֲשֶׁר תִּהְיֶיןָ בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם וְלֹא תִכָּרֵת הָאָרֶץ בָּרָעָב
KJ: 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.
BN: "And that food shall provide a store for the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Mitsrayim; that way the land will not perish through the famine."
Throughout the language and grammar is particularly ancient (תִּהְיֶיןָ for example, where we would expect TIHEYEH - תִּהְיֶה) - does this suggest a very old text; is there an Egyptian equivalent?
As it happens, it is a very good economic strategy; though doubtless one of which Ayn Rand or her contemporary disciples would never approve, it having the merit of altruism, and the grave danger of providing for the collective rather than indulging the greed and narcissism and self-interest of the pure individual. In this lies the source of the difference, which the Mosaic Code will elaborate, between a society founded on a Bill of Rights, and one, such as the Jewish, Christian and Muslim, founded on a Charter of Responsibilities.
Unfortunately, having declared this in his manifesto, the future Prime Minister, once in office, will carry out something radically different - a system of nationalised collectivisation which prefigures the world of Magna Carta and the serfdom of the Czars, though actually it will look more like the 5-year-plans of that other Joseph, Stalin. But at least the ethical theory is stated!
41:37 VA YIYTAV HA DAVAR BE EYNEY PHAR'OH U VE EYNEY KOL AVADAV
וַיִּיטַב הַדָּבָר בְּעֵינֵי פַרְעֹה וּבְעֵינֵי כָּל עֲבָדָיו
KJ: And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
BN: And what he said looked good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
Note that word AVADAV (עבדיו), used here to mean "courtiers" or "ministers", not "servants" or "slaves". Refer back to Yoseph's arrival in Mitsrayim, but also forward to AVADIM HAYINU BE MITSRAYIM ("we were slaves in Egypt"), the Mosheh story. I will be questioning the meaning of AVADIM throughout the Mosaic legends.
41:38 VA YOMER PAR'OH EL AVADAV HA NIMTSA CHA ZEH ISH ASHER RU'ACH ELOHIM BO
וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה אֶל עֲבָדָיו הֲנִמְצָא כָזֶה אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים בּוֹ
KJ: And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?
BN: And Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom lies the spirit of Elohim?"
ELOHIM: This cannot be what Pharaoh actually said; he would have referred to Ra, or Horus, or even possibly the Aten (sun disc), but never Elohim (or actually Ha Elohim).
And of course this verse provides the great argument against the hereditary monarchy. A people needs a leader of skill and vision, not simply some guy who got the job because his father had it. The answer to Pharaoh's question ought to be: "Sire, we do not need to look for such a man, he is already here before us, seated on the throne." But alas he isn't. This Pharaoh didn't even have the nous to interpret his own dream, or to recognise that Yoseph might be the right man for the job.
End of second fragment
41:39 VA YOMER PAR'OH EL YOSEPH ACHAREY HODIY'A ELOHIM OT'CHA ET KOL ZOT EYN NAVON VE CHACHAM KAMOCHA
וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה אֶל יוֹסֵף אַחֲרֵי הוֹדִיעַ אֱלֹהִים אוֹתְךָ אֶת כָּל זֹאת אֵין נָבוֹן וְחָכָם כָּמוֹךָ
KJ: And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:
BN: Then Pharaoh said to Yoseph, "Given that Elohim has shown you all this, clearly there is no one as discreet and wise as you...
This verse is extremely odd. He has succeeded in offering an interpretation, but there is no evidence that he is right. Surely Pharaohs (even third-rate ones) do not appoint men as Chief Vizier, especially foreigners just brought up from the dungeon, unless there is strong evidence of worthiness for the post. Background check. Previous employer references. Priestly-training certificate and end-of-course tutor report. Maybe Yoseph is wrong. Why does he not wait and see? Why does he not just steal the idea and try it out, and take the credit if it proves right, and abrogate the blame if it doesn't – that's what every other politician in the world would do? To which the answer is: because of who Yoseph really was: the prophetic oracle of Osher (Osiris).
Note the Vav (ו) that appears in both Ot'cha (אותך) and Kemocha (כמוך); generally thus far it has been absent. Language variations in time and place, but useful to us in placing and dating the various texts.
NAVON: Is he "discerning and wise" because he has the power of prophecy, the ability to read dreams? I ask because a Prophet is a NEVI, and at the very least this makes for yet another aural pun. NAVON is written without a final-letter Aleph (א), where NEVI has one (נבא); however, NEVI is a Chaldean word, the source of Aramaic, and we know that the final-letter Aleph is a commonplace in that language; so they could indeed be the same word.
This is further endorsed by the fact that the planet Mercury, which is the planet associated with prophecy, is NEVO in Yehudit, again without the final-letter Aleph, and gives the name of Mount Nevo (Nebo), where Mosheh goes to die in Numbers 33:47. Navon occurs many times in the Tanach - click here.
Note also that he says ELOHIM and not HA ELOHIM on this occasion.
41:40 ATA TIHEYEH AL BEITI VE AL PIYCHA YISHAK KOL AMI RAK HA KIS'E EGDAL MIMECHA
אַתָּה תִּהְיֶה עַל בֵּיתִי וְעַל פִּיךָ יִשַּׁק כָּל עַמִּי רַק הַכִּסֵּא אֶגְדַּל מִמֶּךָּ
KJ: Thou shalt 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.
BN: "You shall have authority over my house, and according to your word shall all my people be ruled; only the throne I be greater than you."
The same brief that he has had twice before.
RAK HA KIS'E EGDAL MIMECHA: There is no pronoun here; it says "only the throne will be greater than you", which describes Pharaoh in every facet and role and feature; it is a clear statement of hierarchy, where the translation seems to give Yoseph equality "except when I'm sitting on my throne".
Is a change of religion implied here? We know that Akhenaten introduced a new priesthood with the cult of the sun disc; that the Hyksos did something similar, imposing their gods and priesthood when they conquered; and we will see later that Mosheh did the same when he re-established this Yosephan priesthood after the flight from Egypt. The link from Yah Suph (יה סוף - possibly the original name of Joseph) to Mosheh's travels to the Yam Suph (ים סוף - the Red Sea) should not be forgotten in this context, nor the fact that Yoseph settles his family later in Goshen, which is precisely the same region; all of which adds weight to the view that the whole legend from Yoseph to Mosheh is in fact Midyanite and not Beney Yisra-Eli.
Saying he was made grand vizier is all very well; as with tribal sheikhdoms and kingships of cities, a religious as well as a temporal role attaches; and in On (Heliopolis), as in Memphis before and Avaris later, there are mythological connections that we cannot ignore...
41:41 VA YOMER PAR'OH EL YOSEPH RE'EH NATATI OT'CHA AL KOL ERETS MITSRAYIM
וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה אֶל יוֹסֵף רְאֵה נָתַתִּי אֹתְךָ עַל כָּל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
KJ: And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
BN: And Pharaoh said to Yoseph, "See, I have set you over the entire land of Mitsrayim."
A phrase that one might normally use for a king in the political sphere or a pope in the religious. What exactly was Yoseph's role, and how did it fit with Pharaoh's continuing predominance?
OT'CHA: the Vav (ו) again disappears.
41:42 VA YASAR PAR'OH ET TABA'TO ME AL YADO VA YITEN OTAH AL YAD YOSEPH VA YALBESH OTO BIGDEY SHESH VA YASEM REVID HA ZAHAV AL TSAVA'RO
וַיָּסַר פַּרְעֹה אֶת טַבַּעְתּוֹ מֵעַל יָדוֹ וַיִּתֵּן אֹתָהּ עַל יַד יוֹסֵף וַיַּלְבֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ בִּגְדֵי שֵׁשׁ וַיָּשֶׂם רְבִד הַזָּהָב עַל צַוָּארוֹ
KJ: 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;
BN: And Pharaoh removed his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Yoseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck.
Signet ring. But wait a moment, didn't Yehudah give a signet ring to Tamar as part of his pledge? In fact, well, yes and no. Tamar in Genesis 38:36 asked Yehudah to give her his CHOTEMET, which is indeed a signet ring (and we questioned such a thing in a pre-alphabetic age). Here Pharaoh gives Yoseph his TAB'A, which is the royal seal, and may or may not have come in the form of a signet ring.
SHESH (שש): fine linen, worn only by the royal family and the very highest officials. Multi-coloured? Probably.
REVID HA ZAHAV: A golden collar, to be exact, if archaeological finds are to be taken on trust, which they usually are. Like the wedding ring, it denoted status - and in this case it confirms both Yoseph's high status as vizier, but also his continuing status as a possession of the Pharaoh. The priestly dog-collar to this day reflects the same tradition: position and servitude.
41:43 VA YARCHEV OTO BE MIRKEVET HA MISHNEH ASHER LO VA YIKRE'U LEPHANAV AVARECH VE NATON OTO AL KOL ERETS MITSRAYIM
וַיַּרְכֵּב אֹתוֹ בְּמִרְכֶּבֶת הַמִּשְׁנֶה אֲשֶׁר לוֹ וַיִּקְרְאוּ לְפָנָיו אַבְרֵךְ וְנָתוֹן אֹתוֹ עַל כָּל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
KJ: And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
BN: And he gave him his second chariot to ride in; and they cried "Abrech – Kneel" as he went by; and he set him over the entire land of Mitsrayim.
SECOND CHARIOT (במרכבת המשנה): This is an important clue, because we know from various Biblical accounts and other records that the Hyksos were able to conquer Kena'an and Mitsrayim (Egypt) principally because they had early Iron Age tools, had tamed the horse, and harnessed them to iron-wheeled chariots. (On the other hand, the later redactors regularly got their history wrong, and even more regularly introduced anachronisms.)
ABRECH (אברך): presumably linked to the Yehudit BERECH (ברך) = "a knee"; whence the command "kneel!" What we do not know is how to pronounce it, which is why AVARECH is used in the transliteration, and ABRECH in the translation, and AVRECH is suggested here as a third option; it could be any of these.
Hints of the Purim-Haman (correctly Chaman, a stone idol) story in this - or at least of the nature of despotism. Worth comparing.
41:44 VA YOMER PAR'OH EL YOSEPH ANI PHAR'OH U VIL'ADEYCHA LO YARIM ISH ET YADO VE ET RAGLO BE CHOL ERETS MITSRAYIM
וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה אֶל יוֹסֵף אֲנִי פַרְעֹה וּבִלְעָדֶיךָ לֹא יָרִים אִישׁ אֶת יָדוֹ וְאֶת רַגְלוֹ בְּכָל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
KJ: And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.
BN: And Pharaoh said to Yoseph, "I am Pharaoh, but without your agreement, no man shall so much as lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Mitsrayim."
As with all these tales that try to impose history where history doesn't obviously belong, several different historical memories tend to get mixed up - we shall see this especially in the Mosaic legends. The historical basis for the rise to supreme authority of a non-Pharonic indivisual would seem to be the rise, at the time of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (circa 1350 BCE) and IV (circa 1340 BCE; aka Akhenaten), of a Semitic general named Yanhamu, mentioned in the Tel Amarna letters as controlling the granaries of Yarimuta (Yarmut - ירמות - in Joshua 12:11) and ruling Egypt's domain in Kena'an (but in Kena'an, not in Egypt itself, note). Yanmahu had a high-ranking Beney Yisra-Eli colleague named Dudu, Dodi or Dodai (cf 2 Samuel 23:9 & 24; Judges 10:1), which are all variant forms of the name David (and still used as such in modern Ivrit).
41:45 VA YIKRA PHAR'OH SHEM YOSEPH TSAPHNAT PA'NE'ACH VA YITEN LO ET ASNAT BAT POTI-PHERA KOHEN ON LE ISHAH VA YETS'E YOSEPH AL ERETS MITSRAYIM
וַיִּקְרָא פַרְעֹה שֵׁם יוֹסֵף צָפְנַת פַּעְנֵחַ וַיִּתֶּן לוֹ אֶת אָסְנַת בַּת פּוֹטִי פֶרַע כֹּהֵן אֹן לְאִשָּׁה וַיֵּצֵא יוֹסֵף עַל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
KJ: And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.
BN: And Pharaoh gave Yoseph the official name Tsaphnat-Pa'ne'ach,; and he gave him Asnat, the daughter of Poti-Phera the priest of On, for a wife. And Yoseph went out over the land of Mitsrayim.
The renaming echoes that of Av-Ram and Ya'akov earlier, of Yedid-Yah (another variant of David, oddly enough) as Shelomoh (Solomon) later. Given that we are told explicitly that the name-change here is quasi-coronational, we have significant evidence for what was happening on those previous occasions. See also Numbers 13:16, where Hoshe'a's name is changed to Yehoshu'a (Joshua) at the time of his appointment to a senior command - הוֹשֵׁעַ - יְהוֹשֻׁעַ - and of course that name in Yehudit means "anointed", which was the equivalent of "crowned" in our world.
TSAPHNAT PA'NE'ACH (צפנת פענח): thus confirming Yoseph as a priest as well as being chief minister; as Pharaoh was the god as well as the king. The name is probably an incorrect rendering of Tsaphnato Pa'anhi = "nourisher (food/man) of life". An equivalent of British Prime Minister James Callaghan's marvellous creation, the Minister for Drought.
ASNAT (אסנת): its root links the name to the Libyan goddess Neith, the Berber goddess Tannit, who is the Kena'ani Anat (Anatha), wife of Ba'al (Ba'al Hamon to the Libyans and Berbers) and priestess of Yirme-Yahu's (Jeremiah's) home town of Beit Anatot (Bethany).
Why is it necessary to give him such an important wife? To establish his authority? Is he not a eunuch incapable of fathering children? Or is it a priestly-marriage à la May King?
POTI-PHERA (פוטי פרע): this must be understood as a priestly title, not a mere military one as before hinted; but it also tells us that the earlier story of Yoseph and Poti-Phar is really this story mis-told; for clearly it is the same person. Can we really believe that, having had him jailed for apparently trying to rape his wife, Poti-Phar would then agree to give his daughter in marriage? To which the answer, given the marriage-customs of the Egyptian royal family at that epoch, may have to be yes.
On only became Heliopolis under the Greeks much later; at this time it was On, the centre of sun worship in Mitsrayim (Egypt). Cleopatra's Needle on the Thames Embankment originally came from On. The high priest of Aten at On was named Meri-Re, the Re linking him to Ra the sun-god, which was pre-Hyksos.
KOHEN (כהן): this term has only been been used once before, in Genesis 14:18 where Malki Tsedek is described as being KOHEN LE EL ELYON, the priest of El Elyon. See the note accompanying that verse. The Egyptian names for "priest" and "priestess" were "HEM" and "HEMET". Kohen derives from much further east, probably rooted in the Turkic KAYAN, which became the royal title KAGAN (хаан), and later KHAN, in Mongolia, as in Ghenghis Khan and Kublai Khan, and which is also found in Chinese as KAYAN (可汗).
On the basis of all this, who then was Yoseph really, where is the connection between him and the priesthood of On, and when is this tale set? The Hyksos invasion of Egypt is reckoned to have occurred around 1700 BCE, with their defeat by Ach-Mousa - or Ahmose - and the establishment of the 18th Dynasty in the late 16th century BCE). Ach-Mousa's son was Amenhotep I, and Akhenaten was the fourth to take that title, so considerably later. And yet Yoseph and his family are presented in a manner that suggests Hyksos, as does the period of slavery under the Hyksos which is the beginning of the Mosheh (Moses) story; while Mosheh himself appears to be a retelling of the Ach-Mousa story. Is it feasible that the two are in fact the same tale, one the Hyksos version, the other the 18th dynasty version, both Hebraised later on by those who remembered them, and then modified again by the Redactor, to make them fit the chronology of Yehudit history?
41:46 VE YOSEPH BEN SHELOSHIM SHANAH BE AMDO LIPHNEY PAR'OH MELECH MITSRAYIM VA YETS'E YOSEPH MI LIPHNEY PHAROH VA YA'AVOR BE CHOL ERETS MITSRAYIM
KJ: 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.
BN: And Yoseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Mitsrayim. And Yoseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
SHELOSHIM (שלשים): as was Jesus when he began his ministry; was this the fixed age for priests to complete their apprenticeships and be ordained? It raises a question however, as to how much time he has spent in Egypt, and what he was doing all that time. Genesis 37:2 states categorically that he was seventeen when his brothers sold him into slavery. After this he spent a period of time working for Poti-Phar before his arrest, followed by two years in jail, and yet he is thirty when he stands before Pharaoh.
Yet again the verb AVAR is used when it is not the obvious verb. Is this yet another case for it as an attempt to explain Habiru/Hebrews?
AVAR: "He passed over the entire land of Egypt" would make an interesting translation for the man about to initiate the Pesach! And if this was the time when he was castrated in order to be one of the Pharaoh's SERISIM (see my notes to Genesis 37:36), then it is highly likely that he would have limped - the literal meaning of LIPHSO'ACH (cf Leviticus 21:18, 2 Samuel 4:4, Isaiah 33:23 et al), and probably the origins of the festival: the coronation of Osher upon his return from the Underworld in the spring, and the start of the season of corn-planting! I imagine that Yoseph going "throughout all the land" was simply a Prime Minsterial tour of duty, to set up the criteria for the 7 Year Plan about to be initiated. The word used when the "angel of death" "passes over" the houses of the Habiru (Exodus 12:23) will also be PASACH, and rabbinically that is the source of the name of the festival; but likely it was a disguise, because rabbis do not usually like to imagine their deities, or even the messengers of those deities, limping.
And witnessing this limping here, we also now need to go back to Ya'akov at Penu-El (Genesis 32), and look again at what was happening when the "angel" "touched the hollow of Ya'akov's thigh so that it was put out of joint", and confirm our reading that Penu-El was his ritual castration and ascent to the priest-kingship in the original version of that tale.
41:47 VA TA'AS HA ARETS BE SHEVA SHENEY HA SAVA LIK'MATSIM
KJ: And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.
BN: And during the seven years of plenty, the earth brought forth in surfeit.
41:48 VA YIKBOTS ET KOL OCHEL SHEVA SHANIM ASHER HAYU BE ERETS MITSRAYIM VA YITEN OCHEL BE ARIM OCHEL SEDEH HA IR ASHER SEVIYVOTEYHA NATAN BETOCHA
KJ: 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.
BN: And he gathered up all the surplus grain that could be gathered, throughout the land of Mitsrayim, throughout the seven years, and laid up that grain in the store-cities; likewise the food grown in the fields surrounding every city.
YIKBOTS: The root of the word that also gives the Socialist "kibbutz" of modern Israel; a fact I only mention because Yoseph's highly successful economic strategy it is not a standard Capitalist strategy, but rather more a 7-year plan in the Socialist tradition
This implies that the store cities were already built.
I have left this in the standard English translation, which is bewilderingly messy; students of English might like to offer a more logically organised alternative.
As we witness the extraordinary process of enslavement, of the state taking ownership of absolutely everything, upon which Yoseph is now embarking, we need to keep in mind that this, precisely this, is the slavery against which Mosheh will rebel in the Book of Exodus. It establishes an extraordinary inner contradiction for the Torah, the explanation of which can only be that a Hyksos version of history was later adopted as Yisra-Eli, and an Ach-Mousa/aboriginal Egyptian version of the defeat of the Hyksos was likewise adopted as Yisra-Eli, and putting them in separate books would hopefully cause people not to notice the inner contradiction. Sadly, it has been noticed.
41:49 VA YITSBOR YOSEPH BAR KE CHOL HA YAM HARBEH ME'OD AD KI CHADAL LISPOR KI EYN MISPAR
KJ: And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.
BN: And Yoseph laid up corn like the sand of the sea, a huge abundance, until they gave up counting it, so much of it was there.
Yoseph as Osher (Osiris) the corn-gatherer, Egypt's John Barleycorn.
41:50 U LE YOSEPH YULAD SHNEY VANIM BE TEREM TAVO SHNAT HA RA'AV ASHER YALDAH LO ASNAT BA POTI-PHERA KOHEN ON
KJ: And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him.
BN: And to Yoseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, whom Asnat the daughter of Poti-Phera the priest of On mothered with him.
Slightly odd syntax again, but the meaning is clear enough. There cannot have been quite that much of a boom however, for 2 sons in 7 years infers 5 in which the fertility goddess did not look down so favourably! Nevertheless, he was either not required to become a eunuch after all, and we have yet another inner contradiction in the text, or it may have been that the ritual immolation was only symbolic (see my note to Menasheh, below); or perhaps, as Roman Emperors like to do, these were adopted.
Asnat and the sons are usually quite forgotten by the Jews; though it was the sons and not Yoseph who acquired tribal inheritances under Yehoshu'a (Joshua). Given that the mother's religion was so important to the Beney Yisra-El, what do we make of the ancestry of two major tribes being Poti-Phera's daughter, and the man who led us out, Mosheh himself, being brought up by Pharaoh's daughter, and then marrying a Midyanite and a Kushite? We have already witnessed the conflicts around this in numerous of the earlier tales, and now these far more important progenitors of Yisra-El turn out also to have married out. Later we will hear that Shelomoh (Solomon) married the then Pharaoh's daughter, and established for her a magnificent tomb and palace in Yeru-Shala'im. King David was maternally a Beney Mo-Av.
41:51 VA YIKRA YOSEPH ET SHEM HA BECHOR MENASHEH KI NASHANI ELOHIM ET KOL AMALI VE ET KOL BEIT AVI
KJ: And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.
BN: And Yoseph named his first-born Menasheh, "For Elohim has made me forget all my toil and my father's house".
MENASHEH (מנשה): Or MENASEH, which is the usual English pronunciation, generally written as Menasseh or Manasseh? There is a verb NASHAH (נשה) = "to borrow", though this is really an incorrect variant of NASHA (נשא). There is also a noun, NASHEH (נשה), which means "a nerve" or "tendon" passing through the thigh and leg to the ankle, properly nervus ischiaticus - the very nerve severed in the ritual immolation of kings when castration is only symbolic, and specifically the nerve taken from Ya'akov at Penu-El! The given explanation takes the Sheen as a Seen however, and roots it in NASA, despite the fact that it tallies not one jot with the aetiology given in the verse. Then is this giving of an explanation in itself incorrect, here and elsewhere; i.e. were children named for other reasons, as today? The answer to which has to be: the Redactor obviously thought that the meanings of these names mattered, because almost every name of place and person that comes up receives an etymological explanation; if they were just random names, there would not have been a need to do that.
The forgetting of his father's house is odd, because he hasn't – it's a Cartesian-existentialist thing: consciousness equals consciousness of something: if he remembers his father's house sufficiently to name his first-born "I have forgotten my father's house", then he cannot possibly have forgotten his father's house. So the explanation – which is miles away from the meaning of NASA anyway – is obviously an invention of the Redactor, and we can go back to MENASHEH and the sacred thigh to know his real name. Nicely ironic too, to name your son "the outcome of my symbolic castration"!
BECHOR: No question which is the first-born. But see Genesis 48:13 ff, when Yoseph brings his sons to Ya'akov for blessing: Ephrayim on his right hand and Menasheh on his left. Yoseph wants Menasheh blessed first, but Ya'akov gives preference to Ephrayim: a conflict between ultimo- and primo-geniture yet again. It seems to us odd that Yoseph has the first-born on his left hand, which is surely the wrong way round; but no, in a world of ultimogeniture it is the correct way round, as we have witnessed with the naming of Bin-Yamin, which means "son of the right hand", and who is the last-born. Ultimogeniture, of course, ceases to make sense when the first-born child is no longer sacrificed.
Although nothing specific is said here about birthrights and elder sons, it is Ephrayim whose name will be given to the northern kingdom of the land of Kena'an, not Menasheh; i.e. yet again the second-born will disinherit the first (though in fact, historically, the northern kingdom was probably named Ephrayim for an entirely different Ephrayim).
Is he then Menasseh or Menasheh? Answer: Menasheh.
41:52 VE ET SHEM HA SHENI KARA EPHRAYIM KI HIPHRANI ELOHIM BE ERETS ANYIY
KJ: And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
BN: And he named the second Ephrayim, "For Elohim has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction".
HIPHRANI: Endorsing my comment above about the need to explain every name, however falsely.
Note again that Yoseph only and always refers to Elohim, never YHVH.
ANYIY: the term "affliction" (עניי) is worth commenting on, especially as becoming Prime Minister of one of the greatest powers in the world at the time does not really gel with the idea of "affliction", which would anyway be AVONI (עָוֺנִי) in Yehudit, though the word here is ANYIY. But "affliction" - referencing forward takes us to the "slavery in Egypt" of Mosheh's time; referencing backwards reminds us that Rachel named her second son Ben-Oni (Genesis 35:18), and Ben-Oni either means "Child of On", which is Heliopolis, which is Asnat's city, where Yoseph has just fathered Menasheh and Ephrayim, or else it means "son of my affliction", from the same root that gives ANYIY here.
It might be interesting to see if there are Egyptian roots to the names of the two boys, and if so whether in fact they did not therefore have Egyptian names, later transformed into Yehudit and redefined; in the same way that Yoseph is named TSAPHNAT PA'NE'ACH.
End of third fragment.
41:53 VA TICHLEYNA SHEVA SHENEY HA SAVA ASHER HAYAH BE ERETS MITSRAYIM
KJ: And the seven years of plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended.
BN: And the seven years of plenty that were in the land of Mitsrayim came to an end.
41:54 VA TECHILEYNA SHEVA SHENEY HA RA'AV LAVO KA ASHER AMAR YOSEPH VA YEHI RA'AV BE CHOL HA ARATSOT U VE CHOL ERETS MITSRAYIM HAYAH LACHEM
KJ: 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.
BN: And the seven years of famine began to arrive, just as Yoseph had predicted; and there was famine in every land; but throughout the land of Mitsrayim there was bread.
TICHLEYNA/TECHILEYNA (תכלינה/תחלינה): again a nice play on words.
41:55 VA TIR'AV KOL ERETS MITSRAYIM VA YITS'AK HA AM EL PAR'OH LA LECHEM VA YOMER PAR'OH LE CHOL MITSRAYIM LECHU EL YOSEPH ASHER YOMAR LACHEM TA'ASU
KJ: 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.
BN: And when all the land of Mitsrayim was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said to all the Mitsrim, "Go to Yoseph; whatever he says, do."
Note that he still refers to him by his birth-name, not his priestly title Tsaphnat Pa'ne'ach, exactly as Ya'akov continues to be called Ya'akov, and only very occasionally Yisra-El. Or is that simply the Redactor simplifying?
41:56 VE HA RA'AV HAYAH AL KOL PENEY HA ARETS VA YIPHTACH YOSEPH ET KOL ASHER BA HEM VA YISHBOR LE MITSRAYIM VA YECHEZAK HA RA'AV BE ERETS MITSRAYIM
KJ: 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.
BN: And the famine spread across the whole face of the land; and Yoseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the Mitsrim; and the famine was severe in the land of Mitsrayim.
KOL ASHER BA HEM (כל אשר בהם): although it has been placed that way in the translation above, following common practice, there is no actual reference to the storehouses here, but rather the strange phrase that he "opened everything that was in them".
YISHBOR (ישבר): interesting etymology here. BAR (בר) in verse 49 meant "corn"; here LISHBOR (ישבר) means "to sell". But later LISHBOR (לשבר) will be used for "to break". Is that because you break off ears of corn, or because you break bread?
It also says much about the economic practices of the ancient world, that during the years of plenty, according to Yoseph's instruction in verse 34, "let Pharaoh do this, let him appoint overseers over the land, and collect in a fifth of the produce of the land of Mitsrayim during the seven years of plenty...", which is to say, the state took one-fifth of national produce as tax, but now, during the years of famine, the same corn is being sold back, not given back. So much for Socialism, which turns out just to be another form of Capitalism after all!
(update, during the COVID-19 "lockdown", May 2020 - interesting to compare Yoseph's economic response to the famine with the UK government's response, and that of many others around the world, to this devastator of the national economy: subsidised furloughing etc)
MITSRAYIM (מצרים): properly the Egyptians should be called Mitsrim (מצרים), and the land Mitsrayim (מצרים); the use here seems to suggest that the land was called Mitsray (מצרי) or METSER (מצר), which is obviously wrong.
If all these storehouses already existed, and this was as it claims the worst famine ever, then why was Rameses later building more store-cities; is the chronology perhaps wrong; were the slaves building the storehouses before Yoseph, and not after him? Whhich is to say: does the story in fact reflect time-honoured Egyptian practice, rather than prefigure and establish it? See my notes to verse 45, above.
41:57 VE CHOL HA ARETS BA'U MITSRAYMAH LISHBOR EL YOSEPH KI CHAZAK HA RA'AV BE CHOL HA ARETS
KJ: And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.
BN: And people from all the neighbouring countries came to Mitsrayim, to Yoseph, to buy corn; because the famine was severe in every land.
VE CHOL HA ARETS: the significance of stating this is that the people of Kena'an were able to come down, as Ya'akov will send his sons to do, because Kena'an at that time was a part of Egypt - something that was only the case during the era of the Hyksos, or briefly after their defeat by Ach-Mousa.
LISHBOR (לשבר): continuing the note from above, one of the large supermarket chains in modern Israel is named MASHBIR (משביר), from this root. The word BAR (בר) = "corn" is identical to the Aramaic word for "a son", though this may be pure coincidence. See also my note to Genesis 42:2, which adds clarification to this.
But why LISHBOR EL YOSEPH? Selling it to Yoseph.
Perhaps a little bit more investigation of Yoseph's name would reveal it as allegorical itself.
End of chapter 41.
41:46 VE YOSEPH BEN SHELOSHIM SHANAH BE AMDO LIPHNEY PAR'OH MELECH MITSRAYIM VA YETS'E YOSEPH MI LIPHNEY PHAROH VA YA'AVOR BE CHOL ERETS MITSRAYIM
וְיוֹסֵף בֶּן שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה בְּעָמְדוֹ לִפְנֵי פַּרְעֹה מֶלֶךְ מִצְרָיִם וַיֵּצֵא יוֹסֵף מִלִּפְנֵי פַרְעֹה וַיַּעֲבֹר בְּכָל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
KJ: 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.
BN: And Yoseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Mitsrayim. And Yoseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
SHELOSHIM (שלשים): as was Jesus when he began his ministry; was this the fixed age for priests to complete their apprenticeships and be ordained? It raises a question however, as to how much time he has spent in Egypt, and what he was doing all that time. Genesis 37:2 states categorically that he was seventeen when his brothers sold him into slavery. After this he spent a period of time working for Poti-Phar before his arrest, followed by two years in jail, and yet he is thirty when he stands before Pharaoh.
Yet again the verb AVAR is used when it is not the obvious verb. Is this yet another case for it as an attempt to explain Habiru/Hebrews?
AVAR: "He passed over the entire land of Egypt" would make an interesting translation for the man about to initiate the Pesach! And if this was the time when he was castrated in order to be one of the Pharaoh's SERISIM (see my notes to Genesis 37:36), then it is highly likely that he would have limped - the literal meaning of LIPHSO'ACH (cf Leviticus 21:18, 2 Samuel 4:4, Isaiah 33:23 et al), and probably the origins of the festival: the coronation of Osher upon his return from the Underworld in the spring, and the start of the season of corn-planting! I imagine that Yoseph going "throughout all the land" was simply a Prime Minsterial tour of duty, to set up the criteria for the 7 Year Plan about to be initiated. The word used when the "angel of death" "passes over" the houses of the Habiru (Exodus 12:23) will also be PASACH, and rabbinically that is the source of the name of the festival; but likely it was a disguise, because rabbis do not usually like to imagine their deities, or even the messengers of those deities, limping.
And witnessing this limping here, we also now need to go back to Ya'akov at Penu-El (Genesis 32), and look again at what was happening when the "angel" "touched the hollow of Ya'akov's thigh so that it was put out of joint", and confirm our reading that Penu-El was his ritual castration and ascent to the priest-kingship in the original version of that tale.
41:47 VA TA'AS HA ARETS BE SHEVA SHENEY HA SAVA LIK'MATSIM
וַתַּעַשׂ הָאָרֶץ בְּשֶׁבַע שְׁנֵי הַשָּׂבָע לִקְמָצִים
KJ: And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.
BN: And during the seven years of plenty, the earth brought forth in surfeit.
41:48 VA YIKBOTS ET KOL OCHEL SHEVA SHANIM ASHER HAYU BE ERETS MITSRAYIM VA YITEN OCHEL BE ARIM OCHEL SEDEH HA IR ASHER SEVIYVOTEYHA NATAN BETOCHA
וַיִּקְבֹּץ אֶת כָּל אֹכֶל שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים אֲשֶׁר הָיוּ בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם וַיִּתֶּן אֹכֶל בֶּעָרִים אֹכֶל שְׂדֵה הָעִיר אֲשֶׁר סְבִיבֹתֶיהָ נָתַן בְּתוֹכָהּ
KJ: 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.
BN: And he gathered up all the surplus grain that could be gathered, throughout the land of Mitsrayim, throughout the seven years, and laid up that grain in the store-cities; likewise the food grown in the fields surrounding every city.
YIKBOTS: The root of the word that also gives the Socialist "kibbutz" of modern Israel; a fact I only mention because Yoseph's highly successful economic strategy it is not a standard Capitalist strategy, but rather more a 7-year plan in the Socialist tradition
This implies that the store cities were already built.
I have left this in the standard English translation, which is bewilderingly messy; students of English might like to offer a more logically organised alternative.
As we witness the extraordinary process of enslavement, of the state taking ownership of absolutely everything, upon which Yoseph is now embarking, we need to keep in mind that this, precisely this, is the slavery against which Mosheh will rebel in the Book of Exodus. It establishes an extraordinary inner contradiction for the Torah, the explanation of which can only be that a Hyksos version of history was later adopted as Yisra-Eli, and an Ach-Mousa/aboriginal Egyptian version of the defeat of the Hyksos was likewise adopted as Yisra-Eli, and putting them in separate books would hopefully cause people not to notice the inner contradiction. Sadly, it has been noticed.
41:49 VA YITSBOR YOSEPH BAR KE CHOL HA YAM HARBEH ME'OD AD KI CHADAL LISPOR KI EYN MISPAR
וַיִּצְבֹּר יוֹסֵף בָּר כְּחוֹל הַיָּם הַרְבֵּה מְאֹד עַד כִּי חָדַל לִסְפֹּר כִּי אֵין מִסְפָּר
KJ: And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.
BN: And Yoseph laid up corn like the sand of the sea, a huge abundance, until they gave up counting it, so much of it was there.
Yoseph as Osher (Osiris) the corn-gatherer, Egypt's John Barleycorn.
41:50 U LE YOSEPH YULAD SHNEY VANIM BE TEREM TAVO SHNAT HA RA'AV ASHER YALDAH LO ASNAT BA POTI-PHERA KOHEN ON
וּלְיוֹסֵף יֻלַּד שְׁנֵי בָנִים בְּטֶרֶם תָּבוֹא שְׁנַת הָרָעָב אֲשֶׁר יָלְדָה לּוֹ אָסְנַת בַּת פּוֹטִי פֶרַע כֹּהֵן אוֹן
KJ: And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him.
BN: And to Yoseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, whom Asnat the daughter of Poti-Phera the priest of On mothered with him.
Slightly odd syntax again, but the meaning is clear enough. There cannot have been quite that much of a boom however, for 2 sons in 7 years infers 5 in which the fertility goddess did not look down so favourably! Nevertheless, he was either not required to become a eunuch after all, and we have yet another inner contradiction in the text, or it may have been that the ritual immolation was only symbolic (see my note to Menasheh, below); or perhaps, as Roman Emperors like to do, these were adopted.
Asnat and the sons are usually quite forgotten by the Jews; though it was the sons and not Yoseph who acquired tribal inheritances under Yehoshu'a (Joshua). Given that the mother's religion was so important to the Beney Yisra-El, what do we make of the ancestry of two major tribes being Poti-Phera's daughter, and the man who led us out, Mosheh himself, being brought up by Pharaoh's daughter, and then marrying a Midyanite and a Kushite? We have already witnessed the conflicts around this in numerous of the earlier tales, and now these far more important progenitors of Yisra-El turn out also to have married out. Later we will hear that Shelomoh (Solomon) married the then Pharaoh's daughter, and established for her a magnificent tomb and palace in Yeru-Shala'im. King David was maternally a Beney Mo-Av.
41:51 VA YIKRA YOSEPH ET SHEM HA BECHOR MENASHEH KI NASHANI ELOHIM ET KOL AMALI VE ET KOL BEIT AVI
וַיִּקְרָא יוֹסֵף אֶת שֵׁם הַבְּכוֹר מְנַשֶּׁה כִּי נַשַּׁנִי אֱלֹהִים אֶת כָּל עֲמָלִי וְאֵת כָּל בֵּית אָבִי
KJ: And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.
BN: And Yoseph named his first-born Menasheh, "For Elohim has made me forget all my toil and my father's house".
MENASHEH (מנשה): Or MENASEH, which is the usual English pronunciation, generally written as Menasseh or Manasseh? There is a verb NASHAH (נשה) = "to borrow", though this is really an incorrect variant of NASHA (נשא). There is also a noun, NASHEH (נשה), which means "a nerve" or "tendon" passing through the thigh and leg to the ankle, properly nervus ischiaticus - the very nerve severed in the ritual immolation of kings when castration is only symbolic, and specifically the nerve taken from Ya'akov at Penu-El! The given explanation takes the Sheen as a Seen however, and roots it in NASA, despite the fact that it tallies not one jot with the aetiology given in the verse. Then is this giving of an explanation in itself incorrect, here and elsewhere; i.e. were children named for other reasons, as today? The answer to which has to be: the Redactor obviously thought that the meanings of these names mattered, because almost every name of place and person that comes up receives an etymological explanation; if they were just random names, there would not have been a need to do that.
The forgetting of his father's house is odd, because he hasn't – it's a Cartesian-existentialist thing: consciousness equals consciousness of something: if he remembers his father's house sufficiently to name his first-born "I have forgotten my father's house", then he cannot possibly have forgotten his father's house. So the explanation – which is miles away from the meaning of NASA anyway – is obviously an invention of the Redactor, and we can go back to MENASHEH and the sacred thigh to know his real name. Nicely ironic too, to name your son "the outcome of my symbolic castration"!
BECHOR: No question which is the first-born. But see Genesis 48:13 ff, when Yoseph brings his sons to Ya'akov for blessing: Ephrayim on his right hand and Menasheh on his left. Yoseph wants Menasheh blessed first, but Ya'akov gives preference to Ephrayim: a conflict between ultimo- and primo-geniture yet again. It seems to us odd that Yoseph has the first-born on his left hand, which is surely the wrong way round; but no, in a world of ultimogeniture it is the correct way round, as we have witnessed with the naming of Bin-Yamin, which means "son of the right hand", and who is the last-born. Ultimogeniture, of course, ceases to make sense when the first-born child is no longer sacrificed.
Although nothing specific is said here about birthrights and elder sons, it is Ephrayim whose name will be given to the northern kingdom of the land of Kena'an, not Menasheh; i.e. yet again the second-born will disinherit the first (though in fact, historically, the northern kingdom was probably named Ephrayim for an entirely different Ephrayim).
Is he then Menasseh or Menasheh? Answer: Menasheh.
41:52 VE ET SHEM HA SHENI KARA EPHRAYIM KI HIPHRANI ELOHIM BE ERETS ANYIY
וְאֵת שֵׁם הַשֵּׁנִי קָרָא אֶפְרָיִם כִּי הִפְרַנִי אֱלֹהִים בְּאֶרֶץ עָנְיִי
KJ: And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
BN: And he named the second Ephrayim, "For Elohim has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction".
HIPHRANI: Endorsing my comment above about the need to explain every name, however falsely.
Note again that Yoseph only and always refers to Elohim, never YHVH.
ANYIY: the term "affliction" (עניי) is worth commenting on, especially as becoming Prime Minister of one of the greatest powers in the world at the time does not really gel with the idea of "affliction", which would anyway be AVONI (עָוֺנִי) in Yehudit, though the word here is ANYIY. But "affliction" - referencing forward takes us to the "slavery in Egypt" of Mosheh's time; referencing backwards reminds us that Rachel named her second son Ben-Oni (Genesis 35:18), and Ben-Oni either means "Child of On", which is Heliopolis, which is Asnat's city, where Yoseph has just fathered Menasheh and Ephrayim, or else it means "son of my affliction", from the same root that gives ANYIY here.
It might be interesting to see if there are Egyptian roots to the names of the two boys, and if so whether in fact they did not therefore have Egyptian names, later transformed into Yehudit and redefined; in the same way that Yoseph is named TSAPHNAT PA'NE'ACH.
End of third fragment.
41:53 VA TICHLEYNA SHEVA SHENEY HA SAVA ASHER HAYAH BE ERETS MITSRAYIM
וַתִּכְלֶינָה שֶׁבַע שְׁנֵי הַשָּׂבָע אֲשֶׁר הָיָה בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
KJ: And the seven years of plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended.
BN: And the seven years of plenty that were in the land of Mitsrayim came to an end.
41:54 VA TECHILEYNA SHEVA SHENEY HA RA'AV LAVO KA ASHER AMAR YOSEPH VA YEHI RA'AV BE CHOL HA ARATSOT U VE CHOL ERETS MITSRAYIM HAYAH LACHEM
וַתְּחִלֶּינָה שֶׁבַע שְׁנֵי הָרָעָב לָבוֹא כַּאֲשֶׁר אָמַר יוֹסֵף וַיְהִי רָעָב בְּכָל הָאֲרָצוֹת וּבְכָל אֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם הָיָה לָחֶם
KJ: 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.
BN: And the seven years of famine began to arrive, just as Yoseph had predicted; and there was famine in every land; but throughout the land of Mitsrayim there was bread.
TICHLEYNA/TECHILEYNA (תכלינה/תחלינה): again a nice play on words.
41:55 VA TIR'AV KOL ERETS MITSRAYIM VA YITS'AK HA AM EL PAR'OH LA LECHEM VA YOMER PAR'OH LE CHOL MITSRAYIM LECHU EL YOSEPH ASHER YOMAR LACHEM TA'ASU
וַתִּרְעַב כָּל אֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם וַיִּצְעַק הָעָם אֶל פַּרְעֹה לַלָּחֶם וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה לְכָל מִצְרַיִם לְכוּ אֶל יוֹסֵף אֲשֶׁר יֹאמַר לָכֶם תַּעֲשׂוּ
KJ: 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.
BN: And when all the land of Mitsrayim was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said to all the Mitsrim, "Go to Yoseph; whatever he says, do."
Note that he still refers to him by his birth-name, not his priestly title Tsaphnat Pa'ne'ach, exactly as Ya'akov continues to be called Ya'akov, and only very occasionally Yisra-El. Or is that simply the Redactor simplifying?
41:56 VE HA RA'AV HAYAH AL KOL PENEY HA ARETS VA YIPHTACH YOSEPH ET KOL ASHER BA HEM VA YISHBOR LE MITSRAYIM VA YECHEZAK HA RA'AV BE ERETS MITSRAYIM
וְהָרָעָב הָיָה עַל כָּל פְּנֵי הָאָרֶץ וַיִּפְתַּח יוֹסֵף אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר בָּהֶם וַיִּשְׁבֹּר לְמִצְרַיִם וַיֶּחֱזַק הָרָעָב בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
KJ: 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.
BN: And the famine spread across the whole face of the land; and Yoseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the Mitsrim; and the famine was severe in the land of Mitsrayim.
KOL ASHER BA HEM (כל אשר בהם): although it has been placed that way in the translation above, following common practice, there is no actual reference to the storehouses here, but rather the strange phrase that he "opened everything that was in them".
YISHBOR (ישבר): interesting etymology here. BAR (בר) in verse 49 meant "corn"; here LISHBOR (ישבר) means "to sell". But later LISHBOR (לשבר) will be used for "to break". Is that because you break off ears of corn, or because you break bread?
It also says much about the economic practices of the ancient world, that during the years of plenty, according to Yoseph's instruction in verse 34, "let Pharaoh do this, let him appoint overseers over the land, and collect in a fifth of the produce of the land of Mitsrayim during the seven years of plenty...", which is to say, the state took one-fifth of national produce as tax, but now, during the years of famine, the same corn is being sold back, not given back. So much for Socialism, which turns out just to be another form of Capitalism after all!
(update, during the COVID-19 "lockdown", May 2020 - interesting to compare Yoseph's economic response to the famine with the UK government's response, and that of many others around the world, to this devastator of the national economy: subsidised furloughing etc)
MITSRAYIM (מצרים): properly the Egyptians should be called Mitsrim (מצרים), and the land Mitsrayim (מצרים); the use here seems to suggest that the land was called Mitsray (מצרי) or METSER (מצר), which is obviously wrong.
If all these storehouses already existed, and this was as it claims the worst famine ever, then why was Rameses later building more store-cities; is the chronology perhaps wrong; were the slaves building the storehouses before Yoseph, and not after him? Whhich is to say: does the story in fact reflect time-honoured Egyptian practice, rather than prefigure and establish it? See my notes to verse 45, above.
41:57 VE CHOL HA ARETS BA'U MITSRAYMAH LISHBOR EL YOSEPH KI CHAZAK HA RA'AV BE CHOL HA ARETS
וְכָל הָאָרֶץ בָּאוּ מִצְרַיְמָה לִשְׁבֹּר אֶל יוֹסֵף כִּי חָזַק הָרָעָב בְּכָל הָאָרֶץ
KJ: And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.
BN: And people from all the neighbouring countries came to Mitsrayim, to Yoseph, to buy corn; because the famine was severe in every land.
VE CHOL HA ARETS: the significance of stating this is that the people of Kena'an were able to come down, as Ya'akov will send his sons to do, because Kena'an at that time was a part of Egypt - something that was only the case during the era of the Hyksos, or briefly after their defeat by Ach-Mousa.
LISHBOR (לשבר): continuing the note from above, one of the large supermarket chains in modern Israel is named MASHBIR (משביר), from this root. The word BAR (בר) = "corn" is identical to the Aramaic word for "a son", though this may be pure coincidence. See also my note to Genesis 42:2, which adds clarification to this.
But why LISHBOR EL YOSEPH? Selling it to Yoseph.
Perhaps a little bit more investigation of Yoseph's name would reveal it as allegorical itself.
End of chapter 41.
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