tion took place in obedience to the command of the king, and the high-priest of On the less dared to disobey the king, since according to the result of modern investigations, the Pharaohs themselves at all times were invested with the highest sacerdotal dignity, and consequently possessed not an external authority merely, over the priesthood. The transaction assumes an entirely different aspect when we consider that Joseph did not by any means marry the daughter of the high-priest while a foreign shepherd, but after he had been fully naturalized by the king, had assumed the Egyptian dress, taken an Egyptian name, etc. Chap. 43: 32 shows, that Joseph had formally withdrawn from the community of his own people, and connected himself with the Egyptians. In the circumstance that this is represented as necessary, as well as in the fact that Pharaoh believed it important to give a firm basis to the position of Joseph by a union with the daughter of the high-priest of On, we plainly recognize the traces of that Egyptian intolerance, which v. Bohlen fails to perceive here, and which in later times certainly appears to have very much increased. To this we shall have occasion hereafter to advert. Joseph collects the Produce of the Seven Years of Plenty. The labors of Joseph described in chap. 41: 48, 49, in building store-houses, are placed vividly before us in the paintings upon the monuments, which show how common the store-house was in ancient Egypt. In a tomb at Elethya a man is represented whose business it evidently was to take account of the number of bushels which another man acting under him measures. The inscription is as follows: The writer or registrar of bushels, Thutnofre. Then follows the transportation of the grain. From the measurer others take it in sacks and carry it to the store-houses. In the tomb of * Leemans, lettre to Mr. Salvolini, p. 14. Amenemhe at Beni Hassan, there is the painting of a great store-house, before whose door lies a large heap of grain, already winnowed. The measurer fills a bushel in order to pour it into the uniform sacks of those who carry the grain to the corn-magazine. The carriers go to the door of the store-house and lay down the sacks before an officer who stands ready to receive the corn. This is the overseer of the storehouse. Near by stands the bushel with which it is measured and the registrar who takes the account. At the side of the windows there are characters which indicate the quantity of the mass which is deposited in the magazine. Compare with this the clause,* "Until he left numbering," in verse 49. By these paintings, light is also thrown upon the remark in Ex. 1: 11: "And they [the Israelites] built for Pharaoh treasure-cities."+ Famine in Egypt and the adjoining Countries. The declaration that famine seized at the same time upon Egypt and the adjoining country, appears at first view suspicious, and indeed with reference to this also, v. Bohlen has very confidently charged the author with ignorance of the natural condition of Egypt. The climate and tillage of Egypt do not stand in even the most remote connection with Palestine. In Egypt fertility depends, not as in Palestine, on the rains, but entirely on the overflowing of the Nile. But on a closer examination the suspicion changes into its direct opposite. The account of the author is shown to be entirely in ac * Rosellini, II. p. 324 seq. + According to Champollion, Briefe, S. 228, the wide halls of the great palace at Thebes, which are surrounded by large colonnades, all have the name Manosk, according to the Egyptian inscription, i. e. the place of the harvest, and hence is derived, the place where corn is measured. Is this Manosk probably the same as the Hebrew, cordance with natural phenomena, and the reproach of "ignorance respecting the country of Egypt" comes back upon him who made the accusation. Had the author known Egypt only by hearsay, he would probably have written in the manner that v. Bohlen demands of him. The fruitfulness of Egypt depends, it is true, upon the inundations of the Nile. But these are occasioned, as even Herodotus knew, by the tropical rains which fall upon the Abyssinian mountains.* These rains have the same origin with those in Palestine. "It is now decided," says Le Père,† “that the Nile owes its increase to the violent rains which proceed from the clouds that are formed upon the Mediterranean Sea, and carried so far by the winds, which annually at nearly the same time blow from the north. There are not wanting also other examples of years of dearth common to Egypt with the adjoining countries. crizit describes a famine which took place in Egypt, on account of a deficiency in the increase of the Nile in the year of the Hejra 444, which at the same time extended over Syria and even to Bagdad. which were Thus M a But v. Bohlen goes so far as even to impute it to the author's "ignorance of the natural condition of Egypt," that he represents a famine as coming upon this country at all. The overflowing of the Nile never fails to take place altogether, or for several years in succession, and the Delta is fruitful even without it, etc. And yet there is scarcely a land on the earth in which famine has raged, so often and so terribly as in this same Egypt, or a land that so very much needs the measures which Joseph adopted for the preservation of the people. Macrizi could write a whole volume on the famines in Egypt! The swelling of the Nile a few feet above or below what is necessary proves alike destructive.§ Parti + Descr. t. 7. p. 576. * Ritter Erdk. 1. S. 835. cular instances of famine which history has handed down to us, are truly horrible, and the accounts of them are worthy of notice also, inasmuch as they present the services of Joseph in behalf of Egypt in their true light. Abdollatiph* relates thus: "In the year 569 (1199) the height of the flood was small almost without example. The consequence was a terrible famine accompanied by indescribable enormities. Parents consumed their children, human flesh was in fact a very common article of food; they contrived various ways of preparing it. They spoke of it and heard it spoken of as an indifferent affair. Man-catching became a regular business. The greater part of the population were swept away by death. In the following year also, the inundation did not reach the proper height, and only the low lands were overflowed. Also much of that which was inundated could not be sown for want of laborers and seed, much was destroyed by worms which devoured the seed corn; also of the seed which escaped this destruction, a great part produced only meagre shoots which perished." Compare with this account the "thin ears and blasted with the east wind," in chap. 41: 6. Macrizit has given an account of the famine in 457, which was not at all less severe than that of 596. The calif himself nearly perished with hunger. Joseph, his Brethren and the Egyptians SIT at an According to chap. 43: 32, at the entertainment to which Joseph invited his brethren, they sat apart from the Egyptians, while Joseph was again separated from both. The author shows the reason of this in the remark: "Because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an * Page 332 seq. De Sacy. t In Quatremère, t. 2. p. 401 seq. Herodotus* also re abomination to the Egyptians." marks, that the Egyptians abstained from all familiar intercourse with foreigners, since these were unclean to them, especially because they slew and ate the animals which were sacred among the Egyptians. "Therefore (since the Egyptians honor much the cow) no Egyptian man or woman will kiss a Greek upon the mouth, they also use no knife or fork or kettle of a Greek, and will not even eat any flesh of a clean beast if it has been cut up with a Grecian knife.” The circumstance that Joseph eats separately from the other Egyptians is strictly in accordance with the great difference of rank, and the spirit of caste which prevailed among the Egyptians. It appears from chap. 43: 33, that the brothers of Joseph sat before him at the table, while according to patriarchal practice they were accustomed to recline. It appears from the sculptures, that the Egyptians also were in the habit of sitting at table, although they had couches. Sofas were used for sleeping. In a painting in Rosellini,|| "each one of the guests sits upon a stool, which in accordance with their custom took the place of the couch." The Practice of Divining by Cups. The steward of Joseph, chap. 44: 5, in order to magnify the value of the cup which his brothers were said to have stolen, designates it as that out of which he divineth. Jamblichus, in his book on Egyptian mysteries, mentions the practice of divining by cups. That this superstition, as * 2. 41. From this passage it may be inferred with how much propriety v. Bohlen has asserted, that the Egyptians abstained from all animal food. See chap. 18: 4, "rest yourselves." || Ros. 11. 2. p. 439, T. 79. § Wilk. 2. p. 201. ¶ 3 Part, § 14. p. 68. |