Genesis By The Slice

[WebersHome]

Gen 38:12-17

-
†. Gen 38:12a . . As time went by, Judah's wife Bath-shua died.

This event left Judah single, and eligible to remarry; so that Tamar and
Judah are now both single adults; however, Tamar is betrothed, and that
makes things a little complicated.

†. Gen 38:12b . . After he got over her passing, Judah went up to
Timnah to his sheepshearers, together with his friend Hirah the
Adullamite.

Timnah-- a.k.a. Tibneh: a deserted site southwest of Zorah, and two miles
west of Ain Shems --was roughly 11 miles northwest from ancient Adullum
towards Bethlehem.

†. Gen 38:13-14a . . And it was told Tamar, saying: Look, your
father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep. So she took
off her widow's garments, covered herself with a veil and wrapped
herself, and sat in an open place which was on the way to Timnah;

The Hebrew words for "open place" are weird. They mean "an open eye".
One of those words-- the one for "eye" --can also mean a spring or an
artesian well (e.g. Gen 16:7). A wayside rest, like as can be usually found on
many modern Federal highways, would probably qualify as an example of
the "open place" to which Gen 38:14 refers.

Tamar's rest stop likely included a source of water, not for cars, but for the
animals that men either herded, rode upon, or used for pack animals when
they traveled up and down the primitive trails and roads of ancient Palestine.

Sheep-shearing occurs sometime in the spring, so the weather in Palestine
at that season was sunny and warm. Veils weren't an eo ipso indication that
a woman was loose, since Rebecca had worn one upon meeting her spouse
to-be Isaac (Gen 24:65). Although the text says that Tamar's veil covered
her face (vs. 15), it likely not only covered her face, but her whole body,
because veils were more like a burqa than the little mask-like nets that
women sometimes wear to funerals; except that burqa's are cumbersome
and ugly, whereas Tamar's veil was a lightweight wrap, and likely quite
colorful and eye-catching; and conveyed an altogether different message
than a woman in mourning.

†. Gen 38:14b . . for she saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had
not been given to him as wife.

Actually, Shelah wasn't the one who owed Tamar an Israeli baby; it was
Judah, the head of the clan, and that's why he's the one she's coming after
rather than Judah's son. Tamar is a scary girl; and one you wouldn't want to
trifle with. Not many women would have had the chutzpah to do what she
did. To begin with, for a lone woman to sit out along a remote road,
unescorted, like she did, was inherently dangerous, and could have led to all
sorts of mischief.

†. Gen 38:15a . .When Judah saw her, he thought she was a
prostitute,

The particular kind of prostitute in this episode is from the Hebrew word
qedeshah (ked-ay-shaw') which isn't your typical working girl, but rather a
devotee raising money for an established religion (Gen 38:21) typically an
idolatrous kind of religion centered upon the worship of a goddess like
Ashtoreth (a.k.a. Astarte). So one might say that a qedeshah's services were
for a worthy cause.

†. Gen 38:15b . . for she had covered her face.

It's just amazing how difficult it is sometimes to recognize familiar people
when they turn up in places we least expect them. Take Jesus for example.
When he revived after his ordeal on the cross, people didn't know him right
off: close friends like Mary Magdalena didn't recognize him at first even at
close proximity (John 20:13-16). Another example is when Jesus came out
to his followers' boat during a storm on open water. At first they thought he
was a ghost, and Peter wouldn't believe it was Jesus until he gave him the
power to walk on water himself (Matt 14:25-29).

†. Gen 38:16-18a . . Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law,
he went over to her by the roadside and said: Come now, let me
sleep with you. And what will you give me to sleep with you? she
asked. I'll send you a young goat from my flock; he said. Will you
give me something as a pledge until you send it? she asked.

The Hebrew word for "pledge" is 'arabown (ar-aw-bone') which means a
pawn (given as security) as in pawn shop. This is the very first place in the
Bible where that word is used. In the usury business, an 'arabown is
forfeited if the borrower fails to repay his loan. This is a very important
principle in the plan of salvation.

"In him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the
Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory." (Eph
1:13-14)

In nutshell; the above means that if God should change His mind about
sparing a sealed person, they would keep the Holy Spirit even in hell since
the Spirit himself is the pledge; which of course would result in quite an
embarrassment for God since He's otherwise well-known to be a man of His
word.

But of course God won't renege because doing so would not only embarrass
Himself, but embarrass His son too as Jesus has given his word that
believers have nothing to fear.

"I assure you, those who heed my message, and believe in God who sent
me, have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they
have already passed from death into life." (John 5:24)

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 38:18-29

-
†. Gen 38:18a . . He said: What pledge should I give you? Your seal
and its cord, and the staff in your hand; she answered.

The items that Tamar required for a pledge were akin to a photo ID or a
thumb print in those days. Judah's staff wasn't just a kendo stick or a
walking cane or a shepherd's crook. It was more like a king's scepter,
specially made just for him, and served the express purpose of identifying
him as the head of his tribe. Staffs were made of either wood or metal, and
usually capped with a masthead. The quality of the staff would of course
depend upon the material wherewithal of the person ordering it.

Judah's seal could have been a small, uniquely engraved cylinder, or
possibly a ring (e.g. Jer 22:24) but wasn't always worn on a finger. Way
back in Judah's day, seals were sometimes worn around the neck with a
necklace; or attached to personal walking sticks and/or staffs with a lanyard,
and forced into wax or soft clay to leave an impressed "signature". The
whole shebang-- seal, cord, and staff --was often a unit; and there were no
two alike.

The staff, with its cord and seal, was, of course, quite worthless for a shrine
prostitute's purposes. In dollar value, it was nothing, as it couldn't be sold or
traded. However, its value to Judah was why it was a good pledge item. He
would certainly want it back.

†. Gen 38:18b-23 . . So he gave them to her and mated with her, and
she conceived by him. After she left, she took off her veil and put on
her widow's clothes again.

. . . Meanwhile, Judah sent the young goat by his friend the
Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he
did not find her. He asked the men who lived there: Where is the
shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim? There hasn't
been any shrine prostitute here; they said.

. . . So he went back to Judah and said: I didn't find her. Besides, the
men who lived there said there hasn't been any shrine prostitute
here. Then Judah said: Let her keep what she has or we will become
a disgrace. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn't
find her.

It might seem silly that Judah was concerned for his tribe's honor in this
matter, but in those days, cult prostitutes did have a measure of respect in
their community, and it wasn't unusual for every woman in the community
to be expected to take a turn at supporting their "church" in that manner; so
cult prostitution wasn't really looked upon as a vice but rather as a sacred
obligation.

Judah's failure to pay up could be construed by locals as mockery of their
religion's way of doing business, thus insulting those who believed and
practiced it; so he emphasized his effort to find the woman and make good
on his I.O.U. This appears to me the first instance of religious tolerance in
the Bible; and the circumstances are intriguing: to say the least.

†. Gen 38:24 . . And it came to pass, about three months after, that
Judah was told, saying: Tamar your daughter-in-law has played the
harlot; furthermore she is with child by harlotry.

At this time, Tamar was living with her dad; so Judah wouldn't have known
she was expecting unless a rumor mill brought the news around.

The word for "harlot" in Gen 38:24 is zanah (zaw-naw'), and the word for
"harlotry" is zanuwn (zaw-noon') and both mean adultery. Tamar is accused
of adultery because at this point, she's assumed betrothed (though not yet
married) to Shelah. (cf. Matt 1:18-19)

†. Gen 38:24 . . So Judah said: Bring her out and let her be burned!

Since there were no Federal, nor any State, nor any Municipal laws in
existence in primitive Palestine, local sheiks like Judah were the Supreme
Court of their own tribes. Though Tamar was living back at home with her
dad, she remained under Judah's jurisdiction because of her past marriages
to two of Judah's sons.

NOTE: I suspect Judah saw this turn of events as a golden opportunity to
save his last surviving son from marrying Ms. Black Widow.

†. Gen 38:25a . .When she was brought out,

It's odd to me that Judah didn't attend Tamar's execution: possibly because
he couldn't look her in the eye for reneging on his promise to give her
Shelah. However; Judah was in for a very big jolt to his nervous system
because Tamar produced a surprise witness.

†. Gen 38:26 . . she sent to her father-in-law, saying: By the man to
whom these belong, I am with child. And she said: Please determine
whose these are-- the signet and cord, and staff. So Judah
acknowledged them and said: She has been more righteous than I,
because I did not give her to Shelah my son. And he never saw her
again.

Actually, neither Judah nor Tamar were "righteous" in this matter. His
comment was relative. Though both had behaved rather badly; Tamar held
the high moral ground. It's like movies today. The good guys and the bad
guys are no longer distinctly moral and immoral and/or scrupulous and
unscrupulous. Often both sides of the equation are immoral and
unscrupulous; with the "good" guys just being more likable.

†. Gen 38:27-28 . .When the time came for her to give birth, there
were twins in her womb! While she was in labor, one of them put out
his hand, and the midwife tied a crimson thread on that hand, to
signify: This one came out first.

According to modern medicine, a baby isn't really born until it's head is
outside the womb; so that it's legal (in some states) to kill babies with a so
called "dilation and extraction" abortion; which is a term coined by Ohio
abortionist Dr. Martin Haskell for an abortion method in which he removes a
baby's brain while it's head is still partially within the womb, and then
completes the delivery by extracting the corpse. But in Tamar's day, even
the exit of so much as a hand was counted birth: thus Zerah became
Tamar's legal firstborn son.

†. Gen 38:29 . . But just then he drew back his hand, and out came
his brother; and she said: What a breach you have made for yourself!
So he was named Perez (which means: break (as in break through a
barrier or force a way through; viz: buck the line and/or go out of
turn). Afterward his brother came out, on whose hand was the
crimson thread; he was named Zerah (which means: a rising of light;
viz: morning).

Well . . regardless of Zerah's primo-genitive prerogatives, God bypassed him
in Judah's line to Messiah; which, by Divine appointment went to Perez, the
second-born. (Matt 1:1-3)

NOTE: You'd think holy propriety would demand that the sacred line to
Messiah be pure. I mean, after all, a child of adultery and incest hardly
seems like a proper ancestor for the King of Kings. But no, an ancestry of
adultery and/or incest makes no difference to Christ. In point of fact, in time
a famous harlot from Jericho named Rahab produced yet another male in the
line to the lamb of God (Matt 1:5). And let's not forget Ruth who descended
from Lot sleeping with one of his own daughters in a cave. (cf. Gen 19:36
37, Ruth 4:10, and Matt 1:5)

According to Rom 8:3 Christ didn't come in the likeness of innocent flesh;
no, he came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and his ancestry certainly proves it.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 39:1-7

-
†. Gen 39:1-3 . .Now when Joseph arrived in Egypt with the
Ishmaelite traders, he was purchased by Potiphar, a member of the
personal staff of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Potiphar was the
captain of the palace guard. The Lord was with Joseph and blessed
him greatly as he served in the home of his Egyptian master.
Potiphar noticed this and realized that The Lord was with Joseph,
giving him success in everything he did.

The identity of the Pharaoh during this moment in history is a total mystery,
and even that fact is a mystery in itself because Egypt was normally quite
meticulous in recording its accomplishments, and the names of Egypt's
dynastic successions are recorded practically without a break thru the Old,
Middle, and New Kingdoms, clear on back to 3,000 BC. But for some reason,
so far unexplained, a blank occurs in its history between 1730 to 1580 BC.

This absence of information puzzles Egyptologists; and thus far has only
been satisfactorily explained by the conquering-- and subsequent dominance
--of Egypt by an ancient people called the Hyksos; who were Semitic tribes
from Syria and Canaan. The Hyksos were of a different mentality than the
Egyptians and apparently weren't inclined to keep a meticulous record of
their own accomplishments as had their vanquished predecessors before
them. Not only is there a dearth of documents from that period, but there
aren't even any monuments to testify of it. If perchance Joseph was in Egypt
during the Hyksos, that might explain why there exists not one shred of
archaeological evidence to corroborate the Bible in regards to its story of
Joseph in Egypt.

Joseph's success was, of course, in regards to his proficiency, and in no way
says anything about his personal prosperity because as a slave, he had no
income, owned no property, controlled no business ventures, nor maintained
some sort of investment portfolio.

How Potiphar found out that Yhvh was Joseph's god isn't said. But in
knowing, he quite naturally credited Yhvh with Joseph's proficiency because
people in those days were very superstitious. Even Potiphar's own name,
which in Egyptian is Pa-di-pa-ra, means "the gift of the god Ra".

†. Gen 39:3-6a . .So Joseph naturally became quite a favorite with
him. Potiphar soon put Joseph in charge of his entire household and
entrusted him with all his business. From the day Joseph was put in
charge, Yhvh began to bless Potiphar for Joseph's sake. All his
household affairs began to run smoothly, and his crops and livestock
flourished. So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative
responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he
didn't have a worry in the world, except to decide what he wanted to
eat!

This was all idyllic for Mr. Aristocrat; but unfortunately, there was a fly
poised to plop itself into the ointment.

†. Gen 39:6b-7 . .Now Joseph was young, well built, and handsome.
After a while, his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said;
Sleep with me.

The apparent overture wasn't a request. Since Joseph was a slave, it wasn't
necessary for Potiphar's wife to seduce him. She only had to give him an
order, and he was expected to obey it.

It's not uncommon to find women who feel trapped in an unfulfilling
marriages. Henry David Thoreau once wrote that the mass of men lead lives
of quiet desperation. Well; some of that "mass of men" includes women.

Potiphar's wife (call her Anna for convenience) was an amorously active
woman married to the wrong man. No children are listed for her husband so
it's very possible Potiphar was a eunuch; a distinct possibility in ancient
palaces. He might have been an older man too, maybe a bit too old. Anna
probably didn't marry for love; but for security. That's understandable since
women of that day didn't have a lot of career options, nor a minority status,
nor retirement benefits, nor entitlements like Medicare and Social Security.
For women in Anna's day, marriage was often a matter of survival rather
than a matter of the heart.

She was obviously still lively and maybe would have enjoyed dinner out and
salsa dancing once or twice a week; while Potipher probably barely had
enough energy left to plop down and fall asleep in his La-Z-Boy recliner after
working 12-14 hours a day in the palace and just wanted to be left alone in
his man cave with a can of beer and CNN. There are women who prefer
older men; sometimes much older. But there are cougers, like Anna, who
prefer the young ones; however, sometimes life just doesn't give them any
options.

So then, what's a desperate housewife to do when her husband is old and
boring, and here's this strapping, virile young slave guy around the house
with you all day long? Well . .you're either going to drink a lot, get *****y,
take pills, or make a move and see what happens. Unfortunately, Anna isn't
going to be a very good sport about it.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 39:8-23

-
†. Gen 39:8-18 . . But Joseph refused. Look; he told her; my master
trusts me with everything in his entire household. No one here has
more authority than I do! He has held back nothing from me except
you, because you are his wife. How could I ever do such a wicked
thing? It would be a great sin against God.

. . . She kept putting pressure on him day after day, but he refused
to sleep with her, and he avoided her as much as possible. One day,
however, no one else was around when he was doing his work inside
the house. She came and grabbed him by his shirt, demanding: Sleep
with me! Joseph tore himself away, but as he did, his shirt came off.
She was left holding it as he ran from the house.

. . .When she saw that she had his shirt and that he had fled, she
began screaming. Soon all the men around the place came running.
My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to humiliate us; she
sobbed. He tried to rape me, but I screamed. When he heard my loud
cries, he ran and left his shirt behind with me.

. . . She kept the shirt with her, and when her husband came home
that night, she told him her story. That Hebrew slave you've had
around here tried to humiliate me; she said. I was saved only by my
screams. He ran out, leaving his shirt behind!

Joseph's situation parallels a case in Harper Lee's book To Kill A Mockingbird
where a promiscuous woman accuses an innocent man of rape in order to
cover up her own indiscretions.

Scorned women can be very cruel. When I was a youthful, good-looking guy,
the wife (whom I was careful to avoid) of a good friend accused me to her
husband of going off on her with abusive language in a tirade. To defend
myself and expose his wife for the liar that she was, would have meant
causing my friend deep humiliation; so I elected to keep silent and take the
pain. Our friendship was of course ruined, and we parted. A few months
later, I was told they divorced. Like that was any big surprise.

†. Gen 39:19-20a . .When his master heard the story that his wife
told him, namely; "Thus and so your slave did to me" he was furious.
So Joseph’s master had him put in prison, where the king’s prisoners
were confined.

I've no doubt Potiphar didn't believe a word of his wife's story or otherwise
he would have put Joseph to death rather than in a cushy jail where political
prisoners were kept, but what was he to do? Stick up for a slave over his
wife? Not happening. So Joseph was sacrificed to keep peace in the home.

†. Gen 39:20-23 . . But while Joseph was there in the prison, Yhvh
was with him; He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the
eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all
those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that
was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under
Joseph's care, because Yhvh was with Joseph and gave him success
in whatever he did.

A trustee's lot in prison is much more agreeable than regular inmates.
Joseph was very fortunate to have the Lord in his corner otherwise he might
have been neglected; but as a trustee, he could roam about the cell block
like as if he were one of the guards.

It would appear to the uninformed that Joseph had a natural aptitude for
management; but actually he didn't; no, he was supernaturally-gifted. That
is quite an advantage-- a resentful rival might even say: an unfair
advantage.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 40:1-4a

-
Joseph was 17 when he arrived in Egypt, and 30 when he became prime
minister. So 13 years of his young adulthood were wasted in servitude and
prison; and all that time without even so much as a date or a girlfriend.
More than a full decade of the best years of his life went by with no female
companionship whatsoever. A man's libido peaks in the years between 18
and 24, then begins tapering off as he gradually gets older. Since there is no
record of Joseph's association with a special girl back home in Palestine, I
think it's safe to conclude that he had never cuddled with a girl in his entire
life till he got married sometime in his thirties. So you can see that Joseph
was not only robbed of the best years of his life, but totally missed out on
something that's very important to the psychological well being of the
average red-blooded guy.

It isn't unusual for young people to finish college expecting to be instantly
promoted to positions of leadership and good pay; and then to their dismay,
often find themselves laboring in construction or the fast food industry. My
own son graduated with a degree in Journalism from the University of
Oregon, and as of this writing had a low-paying job as a bank teller.
Sometimes the fast track starts off on a side track.

As Joseph got older, and began to realize that life was passing him by, and
that his youth was ebbing away, he no doubt began to wonder if maybe his
current situation wasn't permanent; and as the days and years continued to
go by one after another, he must have become frightened, depressed, and
desperate as he saw no plausible way to remedy his predicament and get his
life back.

We used to joke among ourselves as professional welders that adverse
conditions in the workplace build character. (chuckle) Like as if any blue
collar skull needs "character" for anything. However, people destined for
greatness can benefit immensely from character-building experiences that
serve to temper their success.

I've seen people's leadership and responsibility handed to them on the silver
platter of privilege; resulting in their treating lower ranking employees with
thoughtless contempt, cruelty, and a superiority complex. If those managers
had only started out laboring in construction, selling luggage, shackled in
slavery, or convicted of crimes they didn't commit; then maybe they would
have developed a sensitivity that would have made them, not just
managers, but great managers.

Under normal circumstances, Joseph's alleged crime was punishable by
death. So then, since he wasn't executed, but instead put in a prison
normally reserved for political prisoners, his circumstances tend to support
the opinion that Potiphar didn't believe his wife's story at all.

†. Gen 40:1a . . Some time later,

Exactly how long Joseph had been in prison prior to this next section is
uncertain. However, his age would have been near 28 since it will be just
two years afterwards that he's released (Gen 41:1).

†. Gen 40:1b-4a . . the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt
gave offense to their lord the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with
his two courtiers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put
them in custody, in the house of the chief steward, in the same
prison house where Joseph was confined. The chief steward
assigned Joseph to them, and he attended them.

The "chief steward" was Mr. Potiphar (Gen 39:1).

Exactly what these two muckity-mucks did to warrant being placed in
custody isn't said, but since both men's functions were directly related to
Pharaoh's nourishment; it's reasonable to assume their offenses most likely
had something to do with the King's table. Perhaps the beverages, as well as
the food, just happened to be tainted both at the same time, thus
suggesting a conspiracy to poison their master. Since they weren't
summarily executed, it's apparent that they're just suspects at this point,
and being held without bail until Potiphar's secret service completed an
investigation into the matter. It's entirely possible that some of the lower
ranking members of the kitchen staff are being held too, though not in the
same place.

Cupbearers weren't just flunky taste-testers, but were savvy advisors: thus,
in a position of great influence. They were also saddled with the
responsibility of supervising the King's vineyards in order to ensure their
potentate received only the very best beverages deserving of the rank. So
cupbearers were very competent men who knew a thing or two about not
only diplomacy, but also the wine business. Egyptian documents testify to
their wealth and power (cf. Neh 2:1).

Although the baker wasn't up as high as a cupbearer, his duties were still
critical. He didn't just make cookies and coffee cake, and/or supervise the
kitchen staff, but did the shopping too. He sniffed all the meats, fowls, and
fishes, and nibbled all the vegetables before they were ever brought inside
the castle. Without the benefit of refrigeration, his responsibility was very
great since his master could easily become gravely ill, and quite possibly die,
from eating spoiled foods.

To be placed at the service of these two high ranking courtiers was really an
honor, even though they were just as much locked up as Joseph. However,
he was a slave and they were courtiers; so there was a big difference in rank
even behind bars. But the two men had it pretty cushy. They weren't treated
like common convicts; no, they each had a very competent, fully
experienced butler with impeccable references at their service-- Mr. Joseph
ben Jacob.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

-
†. Gen 40:4b-8a . . After they had been in custody for some time,
each of the two men-- the cupbearer and the baker of the king of
Egypt, who were being held in prison --had a dream the same night,
and each dream had a meaning of its own.

. . .When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they
were dejected. So he asked Pharaoh's officials who were in custody
with him in his master's house: Why are your faces so sad today? We
both had dreams; they answered, but there is no one to interpret
them. Then Joseph said to them: Do not interpretations belong to
God?

Actually, in the literal, Joseph said: Aren't interpretations with the gods?
Because the word for "God" is 'elohiym (el-o-heem') which isn't one of the
creator's proper names, but a generic plural noun for all gods, both the true
and the false.

†. Gen 40:8b . . Please tell me.

There's no record up to this point of Joseph ever interpreting a dream, not
even his own. He dreamed in the past (e.g. Gen 37:5-7, Gen 37:9) but at
the time he didn't know what his dreams meant; and in this particular
instance, I seriously doubt he believed himself able to interpret a one. I
think he was just curious. Jail is boring; what else was there to talk about?
So what's going to happen next was probably just as big a surprise to him as
it was to them.

Incidentally, there's no record of God ever speaking one-on-one with Joseph.
He believed God was providentially active in his life, but was given no
apparitions of any kind whatsoever to corroborate his confidence other than
the fulfillment of his interpretations of people's dreams; which aren't eo ipso
evidence of God at work. (e.g. Acts 16:16)

People's dreams normally don't stick in their memories for very long; but
these two men's dreams seemed (to them anyway) to be of a mysteriously
symbolic significance, and so disturbing that they can't get the details out of
their minds. In psychoanalysis, dreams are of interest because they're often
expressions of subconscious anxieties and inner conflicts rather than
portents and/or omens. Dreams are both common and normal, and surely
no one should try to derive a message from God out of them. But these
men's dreams defied psychoanalysis because they were so weird and
unnatural.

Had they been at liberty, they no doubt would have contacted one of
Pharaoh's astrologers, or an occultist or a diviner, or a highly intuitive wiz
kid to tell them the meanings. But for now they're stuck with Joseph-- a nice
enough young fellow; but a total unknown in their world regarding matters
of paranormal precognition.

†. Gen 40:9-13 . .Then the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph.
He said to him: In my dream, there was a vine in front of me. On the
vine were three branches. It had barely budded, when out came its
blossoms and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in
my hand, and I took the grapes, pressed them into Pharaoh's cup,
and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.

. . . Joseph said to him: This is its interpretation: The three branches
are three days. In three days Pharaoh will pardon you and restore
you to your post; you will place Pharaoh's cup in his hand, as was
your custom formerly when you were his cupbearer.

From whence Joseph got his interpretation isn't stated. Genesis doesn't say
he heard a voice, nor does it clearly say that God gave Joseph the
interpretation. For all Joseph knew, (and them too) he was just taking a wild
guess. It probably came right out of his head sort of like intuition or an
imaginative locution.

†. Gen 40:14 . . But remember me when all is well with you again,
and do me the kindness of mentioning me to Pharaoh, so as to free
me from this place.

Don't worry, he won't; nor did he promise to.

†. Gen 40:15 . . For in truth, I was kidnapped from the land of the
Hebrews; nor have I done anything here that they should have put
me in the dungeon.

Joseph was telling the truth, but not the whole truth. He was in prison for
the crime of rape. Whether he actually did it or not is immaterial. And he
wasn't realistic: Joseph couldn't reasonably expect a courtier to take the
word of a criminal; and a slave at that.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 40:16-19

-
†. Gen 40:16a . .When the chief baker saw how favorably he had
interpreted,

Apparently, for reasons unstated, the baker was somewhat reluctant to
share his dream with Joseph at first, but relented when the first dream had a
happy ending.

†. Gen 40:16b-17 . . he said to Joseph: In my dream, similarly, there
were three openwork baskets on my head. In the uppermost basket
were all kinds of food for Pharaoh that a baker prepares; and the
birds were eating it out of the basket above my head.

Birds are usually an ill omen in Scripture; sort of like the connotation borne
by serpents. So, now it comes out why the baker was reluctant to tell his
dream. If Pharaoh ever suspected that his food was being picked over by
birds, he would be very disappointed in the quality of the care that a
potentate had a right to expect from his own personal team of cooks. Food
left uncovered, exposed and out in the open, is certainly not food fit for a
king.

The baker's dream may have been his subconscious at work reminiscing the
error of his ways. Up till now, the baker had no doubt insisted upon his
innocence; which was nothing less than feigned since he knew very well with
whom the real fault lay between himself and the cupbearer. Apparently
Pharaoh had actually gotten some sort of food poisoning, and the
investigation underway by Potiphar sought to find the source; and likely to
determine if it was in any way evidence of a conspiracy to assassinate
Pharaoh.

†. Gen 40:18-19 . . Joseph answered: This is its interpretation: The
three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift off your
head and gibbet you upon a pole; and the birds will pick off your
flesh.

It's lucky for the baker that he would be already dead before the gibbeting
because a common method of gibbeting in those days was impaling; which
was a grizzly spectacle. Wooden poles, about three to four inches in
diameter were sharpened to a pencil point and forcibly inserted into the
abdomen, up into the rib cage to catch on the spine in back of the throat;
and the pole was then set upright to suspend the victim above the ground
like human shish kabob.

I'm looking here at an impaling on an Assyrian stone relief-- in the
July/August 2006 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review --commissioned by
Sennacherib for his palace at Ninevah to celebrate the capture of Lachish.
The victims are three Israelites who still have their heads; strongly
suggesting that they were alive when the poles were run into their bellies
and up into their upper torsos.

Nobody could possibly survive an injury like that for more than a few
seconds. The pole would not only penetrate the stomach, but also the liver,
diaphragm, lungs, some large blood vessels, and the bronchial tubes;
resulting in almost instant death-- quite excruciating, and very bloody.
Public impaling was no doubt a very effective deterrent to insurrection; and
nobody in those days seemed overly concerned about executing criminals in
a "humane" manner. Cruel and unusual punishments were the norm; and
nobody dared stage an "Occupy Wall Street" protest about them lest their
days end in like fashion.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 40:20-23

-
†. Gen 40:20a . . Pharaoh's birthday came three days later, and he
gave a banquet for all his officials and household staff.

What really is the purpose of a birthday party anyway if not to celebrate the
continuance of your own existence?

For guys in Pharaoh's position (e.g. Kim Jong Un of N. Korea, Robert Mugabe
of Zimbabwe, and Thein Sein of Myanmar) life is good: better than what you
could ever hope to ask for; and of course that's cause for celebration. But for
the majority of their subjects, life wasn't all that good, and nothing to
celebrate. No doubt relatively few Egyptians in that day derived a significant
amount of pleasure from their own existence.

People normally count Job as one of the most righteous men who ever lived,
yet when he lost his health and wealth, Job cursed the day of his birth and
wished he was never born. (Job 3:1-26)

†. Gen 40:20b-23 . . He sent for his chief cup-bearer and chief baker,
and they were brought to him from the prison. He then restored the
chief cup-bearer to his former position, but he sentenced the chief
baker to be impaled on a pole, just as Joseph had predicted.
Pharaoh's cup-bearer, however, promptly forgot all about Joseph,
never giving him another thought.

One might wonder how it was possible for the cup-bearer to not be
thoroughly amazed enough at the fulfillment of Joseph's predictions to begin
exclaiming his prison experience with such enthusiasm as to totally rivet the
attention of every single one of Pharaoh's courtiers and instantly secure
Joseph's freedom. But if we take into account the hand of God in the glove
of His people's history, then it seems reasonable to conclude that God didn't
want Joseph in the limelight just yet; so he put a mental block in the cup
man's head to silence him for the time being.

No doubt when Joseph was apprised of recent developments by his friend
Potiphar, he was deeply disappointed, and probably a bit consternated too.
Joseph probably assumed-- and with good reason --that those successful
predictions were his ticket to freedom at last.

But even if Pharaoh had taken note of Joseph at this particular point in the
narrative, he was still Potiphar's property, and would have to remain in
custody because of his "affair" with Potiphar's wife. Dreams or no dreams,
does anyone seriously believe that Pharaoh would have taken the word of a
slave over one of his own trusted courtiers?

So even had the cup-bearer brought Joseph's ability to Pharaoh's attention,
it probably wouldn't have succeeded in gaining him the degree of freedom
he really wanted. In point of fact, it may have even resulted in his death
because Pharaoh would certainly want to know why Joseph hadn't been
summarily executed on the spot for rape. No; bringing Joseph to Pharoah's
attention at this point would have caused problems for both the slave and
his master.

==================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 41:1-8

-
†. Gen 41:1a . .Two years later

Poor Joseph. He's now at the very threshold of his fourth decade of life and
still hasn't slept with a girl, nor does he even really have a life of his own. He
was under his dad's thumb for seventeen years as a kid, and now he's been
a slave in a foreign country for thirteen; and has nothing to show for it
whatsoever. Everybody would like their lives to count for something; but it
looks like Joseph's is slipping away like water through a leaky bucket.

The very young often don't think far enough ahead. It's not till they hit their
thirties that the aging process begins to work wonders on their perspective.
I'm 71 as of this writing, and every time I see someone in their eighties, it
only serves to make me sad as I realize that it's my own near-future I'm
looking at. One day I'll look back at 71 and be amazed how young that was
in comparison. But right now; I feel very old.

†. Gen 41:1b-7a . . Pharaoh had a dream, and behold, he was
standing by the Nile. And lo, from the Nile there came up seven
heifers, sleek and fat; and they grazed in the marsh grass. Then
behold, seven other heifers came up after them from the Nile,
ragged and bony, and they stood by the other heifers on the bank of
the Nile. And the ragged and bony heifers ate the seven sleek and fat
ones. Then Pharaoh awoke.

. . . And he fell asleep and dreamed a second time; and behold, seven
ears of grain came up on a single stalk, plump and good. Then
behold, seven ears, shriveled and dehydrated by the east wind,
sprouted up after them. And the shriveled ears devoured the seven
plump and full ears.

Pharaoh's dreams are all the more disturbing because they contain incidents
that are contrary to nature. Cows, as a rule, aren't carnivorous; and ears of
grain derive their nourishment from the stems of their own parent plant
rather than dining upon each other. The scenes in both dreams are
extremely violent with the cows and the ears not just sitting down to dinner,
but literally attacking their neighbors with desperate savagery, like ravenous
caribes: eating everything-- flesh, hide, hooves, bones, grains, chaff, and all
--raw and uncooked.

†. Gen 41:7b . .Then Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream.

The first dream was disturbing enough to wake Pharaoh from his sleep. But
the second was so vivid and so real that when he awoke, he was actually
surprised it was just a dream. And with that last dream, I'd not be surprised
he was very relieved to discover it wasn't a reality.

†. Gen 41:8a . .The next morning, as he thought about it, Pharaoh
became agitated as to what the dreams might mean. So he called for
all the magicians and wise men of Egypt and told them about his
dreams,

Magicians in those days were not the same as the sleight-of-hand
entertainers of our own day. Those occultists were scary; they used dark
arts that actually worked, and they were really and truly in touch with
paranormal powers. The magicians who opposed Moses (Ex 7:11) were able
to duplicate several of God's miracles; so ancient magicians were
legitimately powerful sorcerers and to be seriously reckoned with.

I think it was mentioned previously that "wise men" were highly educated
men of extraordinary intelligence; sort of like ancient college professors and
wiz kids. Although Moses himself isn't stated to have been a wise man; he is
stated to have been educated in all that Egypt had to offer. (Acts 7:22)

Incidentally, although Genesis never mentions God directly in Joseph's life,
Stephen confirms that it was God's providence that made the young man so
successful, and protected him from mortal harm. (Acts 7:9-10)

†. Gen 41:8b . . but not one of them could suggest what they meant.

No doubt the magicians and wise men would normally have guessed the
meaning of Pharaoh's dreams in an instant via their connections with the
dark world. But this time the dark world wasn't responsible for those two
dreams, and apparently God held the spirits in check and prevented them
from making any contact whatsoever with Pharaoh's counselors. That had to
be a very tense moment for the think tank. Potentates have been known to
execute brain trusts for failure to produce results. (Dan 2:1-12)

One might ask how the dark beings can interpret dreams to foretell future
events. Well . . there's a lot of activity going on in the unseen world; and
quite a bit of it is being done by good angels. All that the dark angels have
to do is spy on the good angels and they can pretty much figure out what's
coming up.

Whenever you see men digging a huge, deep, square hole in a city lot, then
logic and experience tells you that a new building is going up. Well . . the
dark world has had thousands of years of experience; so factor that in and
it's not too difficult to understand how they come to know so much about the
future. And then too, you have to expect that the dark world is digging their
own holes at the same time; and they'd quite naturally be experts on the
outcomes of those.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

-
†. Gen 41:9-13 . .Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh: Today I
am reminded of my shortcomings. Pharaoh was once angry with his
servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of
the captain of the guard. Each of us had a dream the same night, and
each dream had a meaning of its own.

. . . Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain
of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for
us, giving each man the interpretation of his dream. And things
turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us: I was restored to
my position, and the other man was hanged.

Why wait till now to talk about Josephs' abilities? Well . . first off, God more
than likely put a mental block in the cupbearers head to forget all about
Joseph; and that mental block could have been something as simple as a
very reasonable decision on the cupbearer's part. Pharaoh already had a
corps of magicians and wise men who were actually very proficient at their
jobs. What need was there to suggest taking on another one; and a Hebrew
slave at that?

No doubt during the performance of his duties over time, the cupbearer had
seen lots of dreams correctly interpreted, so Joseph's dog and pony show
was nothing new to him. The kind of mental block where people talk
themselves out of something, is quite normal and very common. But now,
circumstances are going to twinge the cupbearer's conscience, not just about
Josephs' ability, but the fact that Joseph had practically begged the man to
talk to Pharaoh and get him released as a return for the favor.

†. Gen 41:14a . . So Pharaoh sent for Joseph,

Normally, Egyptians didn't associate with Hebrews (cf. Gen 43:32) and that
cultural barrier no doubt factored in to the cupbearer's mental block. But
Pharaoh was at his wit's end, and was favorably disposed to swallow his
pride for a matter that, to him, seemed of the utmost importance to not only
himself, but also to the welfare of his whole country.

†. Gen 41:14b . . and he was quickly brought from the dungeon.

All this was done so that Joseph could appear in court that very day, not
some other time. Pharaoh was anxious.

†. Gen 41:14c . .When he had shaved and changed his clothes,

Shaving for an Egyptian meant not only trimming and sculpting their beards
(by now, Joseph must have looked like Rumpelstiltskin) but also cutting their
hair; actually shaving their scalps bald like Vin Diesel. According to
Herodotus, the Egyptians had extreme care for cleanliness and would let
their hair and beards grow out only during periods of mourning.

†. Gen 41:14c . . he came before Pharaoh.

Jiminy! Here's this no-account sheep rancher from the outback getting the
full-on attention of one of the most powerful, if not THE most powerful,
monarchs in the world of that day!

You know, there comes a day-- and that day may never come for some
people --when you get that big break. It's at that moment when you better
have your ducks in a row and your peas in their pods because opportunity
knocks only for those who are prepared for it. For all others, it's bye-bye;
and don't call us; we'll call you-- or worse. If Joseph blows his big moment,
he could very well end up not just sent back to prison for life; but gibbeted
just like the baker. This is a tense moment, and somebody's life is about to
change.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 41:15-25a

-
†. Gen 41:15 . . I had a dream last night; Pharaoh told him; and none
of these men can tell me what it means. But I have heard that you
can interpret dreams, and that is why I have summoned you.

Potiphar of course would have been responsible for delivering Joseph, and
probably informed him of the purpose. But just to set his mind at ease, I'm
assuming Pharaoh himself personally informs Joseph of the reason why he's
there because when prisoners like Joseph were summoned to a Pharaoh, it
was more than likely for trial.

†. Gen 41:16 . . It is beyond my power to do this; Joseph replied. But
God will tell you what it means and will set you at ease.

A verse like that is ambiguous since the Hebrew word translated "God" in
that verse is plural so that verse could just as accurately be read: "But the
gods will tell you what it means . . ." However, Pharaoh would have no
problem with the god being Yhvh because his land was literally infested with
gods and were a common part of everyday Egyptian life.

Although Mr. Pharaoh is probably not going to like what he hears, at least
he'll have the peace of mind of knowing what to expect. How many of us
really want our doctors to lie to us? No, we want the truth; even if it's
terminal cancer.

†. Gen 41:17a . . So Pharaoh told him the dream.

Pharaoh is really grasping at straws here since Joseph had no credentials nor
could produce any references aside from the cup-bearer's to recommend
him and vouch for his skills; and he had only one successful interpretation to
his credit thus far; so you can see just how desperate Pharaoh really is.

†. Gen 41:17b . . I was standing on the bank of the Nile River; he
said.

The Nile River's role in the dream is highly significant since it was a major
factor in Egypt's economy; especially its agriculture. Every year the Nile
overflowed it banks; leaving behind a deposit of silt; which kept a portion of
the land's flood plain replenished with a nice new layer of fresh topsoil. Take
away the Nile's flooding, and eventually the soils would become depleted in
an era when hardly anybody knew anything about crop rotation.

Not only that, but winds coming in from the eastern deserts would not only
dry the soils out and blow them away, but in the process leave behind sands
that would eventually render the land unproductive like during America's
depression era when its croplands turned into dust bowls.

Lower the Nile's water level significantly, and it would make irrigation very
difficult in a time without pumps powered by internal combustion engines or
electric motors.

Joseph is going to predict a famine; and in those days, as even now, famines
were caused by insufficient rainfall. Reduced rainfall results in less natural
irrigation and less runoff, so that Egypt's worst fears will be realized: crops
will wither, the Nile won't overflow its banks, and its levels will shrink.

Back in chapter 2, Genesis says that a flow welled up from the ground to
water the whole surface of the earth, and a river watered the garden of
Eden. River systems irrigate the subsoil and replenish aquifers. Lower a river
system too much, and see what happens.

I can recall an instance, I think it was somewhere in Australia, where the
natural aquifer below a farmer's land went down because a marsh nearby
was drained for commercial purposes. The aquifer was like a dam. When it
went down, salt water moved in to take its place and the stuff percolated up
and flooded the man's property. All his trees died and the land became good
for nothing. Tamper with nature too much; and nature will tamper with you.

†. Gen 41:18a . . when out of the river

That is so perfect because the Nile was Egypt's source of life; so that
whatever happened to the Nile, or whatever the Nile produced, effected
Egyptian life in a big way.

During Moses' confrontation with Pharaoh in the book of Exodus, the Nile
was turned into blood (Ex 7:17-25), and subsequently Egypt's streams,
rivers, ponds, and their pools. Next, God made the Nile produce myriads of
frogs (Ex 8:1-6), so that the frogs were so thick, they became a serious
infestation. So then, the Nile, which ordinarily was a blessing, became a
superfund site.

†. Gen 41:18b-24a . . there came up seven heifers, sleek and fat; and
they grazed in the marsh grass. After them, seven other heifers
came up-- ragged and bony, I had never seen such ugly cows in all
the land of Egypt. The hideous heifers ate up the seven fat heifers
that came up first. But even after they ate them, no one could tell
that they had done so; they looked just as hideous as before. Then I
woke up.

. . . In my dreams I also saw seven heads of grain, full and good,
growing on a single stalk. After them, seven other heads sprouted--
withered and thin and dehydrated by the east wind. The thin heads
of grain swallowed up the seven good heads.

This second dream sounds like a redux of The Little Shop Of Horrors.

†. Gen 41:24b . . I told this to the magicians, but none could explain
it to me.

Since Pharaoh's brain trust couldn't figure out the dreams, then they
certainly wouldn't be able to devise effective contingency plans to deal with
their meanings. It's always nice to know the future so you can get ready for
it; and certainly nobody likes to be kept in the dark.

†. Gen 41:25a . .Then Joseph said to Pharaoh:

Note Joseph's quick response time. He didn't even go off and pray about it
and wait for an answer from God-- no: right to it. Since Genesis doesn't say
that God spoke inside Joseph's head, or by an audible dictation that only his
own ears could hear; then I have to assume he figured out the meanings of
those dreams by intuition.

That's not an unreasonable assumption. Even in the secular world, there are
people who have the Midas touch; good investments just seem to come
second nature to them. And how about "gifted" musicians, painters, and
sculptors? I once watched spell bound as a young man drew pencil drawings
of super heroes. He made no erasures, and the heroes came out in perfect
physical proportion; in any posture he chose for them; and from any angle.

I asked him how he did it. He said he didn't know; they just came out. Well;
Joseph's gift wasn't music, or charcoal, or pencil, or mathematics, or paints,
or sculpture, or architecture, or engineering. His gift was dreams; and he
was really good at it too. But if you were to ask him how he did it; he'd not
answer "I don't know; they just come out". Instead; he would no doubt
answer it was a gift from the gods; especially one god in particular.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 41:25b-36

-
†. Gen 41:25b-32 . . Both dreams mean the same thing. God was
telling you what he is about to do. The seven fat cows and the seven
plump heads of grain both represent seven years of prosperity. The
seven thin, ugly cows and the seven withered heads of grain
represent seven years of famine. This will happen just as I have
described it, for God has shown you what he is about to do.

. . .The next seven years will be a period of great prosperity
throughout the land of Egypt. But afterward there will be seven
years of famine so great that all the prosperity will be forgotten and
wiped out. Famine will destroy the land. This famine will be so
terrible that even the memory of the good years will be erased. As
for having the dream twice, it means that the matter has been
decreed by God and that he will make these events happen soon.

The "twice" method was first seen in Gen 37:5-11. Peter's vision (Acts 10:9
17) was the same one three times over, while Joseph's and Pharaoh's two
dreams apiece were redundant, indicating that God meant business and
wasn't going to change His mind regarding this matter. You know though,
with some people, no matter how many times, or in how many ways, you try
to tell them something, they refuse to listen; like when a girl keeps saying
NO to a boy's advances and he just keeps coming on anyway because for
some strange reason the boy thinks she doesn't mean it; and he's somehow
convinced that her protests aren't serious.

Everybody accepted Joseph's interpretation without question-- Pharaoh and
all the magicians and wise men (Gen 41:37) --and that is pretty amazing in
itself.

Suppose you were President Obama in San Diego for a one-night campaign
fund raiser and a Secret Service agent assigned to protect the President said
he heard that the Border Patrol had an illegal immigrant from Sinaloa in
custody for rape down in San Ysidro who says he knows exactly how to
balance the Federal budget, stop processed food from poisoning Americans,
eradicate genetically engineered crops, solve all your problems with Iran and
North Korea, and get America out of Afghanistan. Would you be interested? I
don't think so; you'd have to be pretty desperate.

I believe that while Pharaoh and his corps of geniuses were listening to
Joseph's interpretation, God was doing a number on their minds so that they
would accept what Joseph was telling them; and by the time he finished,
they were amazed that they hadn't thought of the interpretation themselves
because it seemed not only quite simple, and obviously true; but also the
only possible explanation.

God wasn't bringing all these things to pass for the purpose of embarrassing
or of dethroning the king of Egypt (not this one anyway). As a matter of
fact, Pharaoh's control over the country would be strengthened by these
events. The underlying purpose of it all had to do rather with God's plans
and purposes for the people of Israel. Therefore, not only did God give
Pharaoh the dreams, and give Joseph the true interpretation of the dreams,
but also provided an effective action plan for Egypt's survival.

People often complain that they can't respect a hell-fire God because He only
uses the threat of eternal suffering as coercion to get people in line. But the
Bible's talk of hell and eternal suffering isn't meant to intimidate people. No,
it's just like Pharaoh's dreams: talk of hell and eternal suffering is meant as
an early warning of things to come-- inevitable things.

A danger foreseen is half-avoided. - - Cheyenne proverb

†. Gen 41:33-36 . . Now therefore I suggest Pharaoh look out a man
discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. 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. And have
them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up
grain under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the
cities. 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.

A grain czar "wise and discreet" was necessary so that the man appointed
wouldn't be tempted to profit from his own country's misfortune like so
many of Wall Street's barracudas are wont to do. Thank God Pharaoh had
the cool to realize that what his country faced was not just long lines at the
gas pumps, but nothing less than a full blown national emergency.

On the other hand, a central bureaucracy could easily lead to despotism, red
tape, favoritism, cronyism, nepotism, corruption, payoffs, bribes, artificial
shortages, black marketing, and political manipulation; especially if all the
available food supplies were in the hands of self-serving corporations like
ENRON, Monsanto, Bechtel, and Nestlé.

The success of Joseph's plan relied heavily upon the integrity of its
administrator. The right man would be a savior; the wrong man could
become a tyrant; and if the top man was a crook, everybody under him
could be expected to be crooked too, and instead of a program intended to
help the poor, it would only serve as a golden opportunity to line the pockets
of officials like Indian Agents of the old west who embezzled Native
Americans out of thousands of dollars worth of food, tools, livestock,
implements, shelter, and clothing.

It's been shown by historians that tithing was practiced in ancient Egypt and
other nations, as a form of taxes or tribute to the king; but a 20 percent levy
would be very unusual, and might well be resisted, especially if enacted by
an unpopular sovereign. Thus, the chief administrator of Joseph's plan would
have to be skilled in diplomacy and persuasion: a veritable expert on how to
win friends and influence people.

Actually, the 20 percent wasn't a hardship. Egypt's agricultural production
was so good that no doubt at least 20 percent went to waste anyway even
after all the people were satisfied and Egypt's export commitments were
fulfilled. (Here in the USA, we waste upwards of 40% of our annual
purchases of food) Some citizens might gripe at first, but it's hard to feel
deprived when things are going good. The seven years of plenty would be a
time of bumper crops and overabundance; and heck, you could give the
children's food to the dogs and not hurt them. The only real malcontents in
Egypt would be people who are never happy about anything anyway.

Americans themselves have so much left over that there's enough perfectly
good food thrown out in the dumpsters behind super markets and fast food
chains like Wendy's, Carl's Jr, Subway, McDonalds. Arby's, Taco Bell,
Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Burger King to easily feed every homeless
person in the USA three meals a day. And that's not even counting all the
other restaurants and food courts that are tossing out literally tons of edible
garbage every hour of the business day.

Although someone might get the wrong impression, there was really no
indication in Joseph's presentation that he was throwing his hat in the ring.
Such a thought could hardly have crossed his sheep-herder's mind. The last
thing Joseph wanted was a long-term commitment to Federal employment in
a foreign country when the only thing on his mind was getting back home to
his dad in Hebron.

Joseph was not only an alien, but a slave; and a jailbird accused of rape. He
had never held a political office of any kind whatsoever. His only experience
in business management was the oversight of Potiphar's household affairs;
nor had he any experience in either running or participating in a bureaucracy
of the magnitude of which he spoke. But there are people like Joseph who
have a God-given natural aptitude in certain areas. The don't need training
and they don't need experience. They're like some combat platoon sergeants
who, when you throw them into the mouths of canons, don't panic and don't
get flustered. They perform like they've been doing that sort of thing all their
lives.

Joseph probably wasn't aware that he had a God-given knack for running a
big show like a national food bank. But God was, and that's exactly why He's
going to persuade those big shots to put His own man in charge because the
very survival of the people of Israel heavily depends upon an effective
contingency to meet those inevitable seven years of famine; and even after
the famine ended, there would still yet be a time of recovery before Egypt
got back up to speed.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 41:37-46

-
†. Gen 41:37-38 . . Joseph's suggestions were well received by
Pharaoh and his advisers. And Pharaoh said to his courtiers: Could
we find another like him, a man in whom is the spirit of the gods?

If there was one thing those old-time pagans valued, it was a connection to
the spirit world, and they sensed that Joseph had it. I think they were not
only in awe of him, but maybe even just a bit afraid of him too.

The Hebrew word for "gods" is 'elohiym (el-o-heem') which is both plural
and ambiguous, so you could just as easily translate it gods as God; but in
the Egypt of that day and age, "gods" makes more sense.

Joseph is going to become very popular with Pharaoh, and it's all to
'elohiym's credit.

"God was with him . . . and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of
Pharaoh, king of Egypt." (Acts 7:9-10)

The Greek word for "favor" in that verse is charis (khar'-ece) which is the
very word translated "grace" in English versions of the New Testament. So
then, you could say that Joseph found grace in the eyes of Pharaoh just like
Noah found grace in the eyes of God back in Gen 6:8.

Putting it all together, it says that Pharaoh was inclined to bless Joseph just
like God was inclined to bless Noah; viz: to do good for him; provide for him,
and protect him from harm. God trusted Noah, and assigned him the
Herculean task of building the ark. Pharaoh trusted Joseph, and assigned
him the Herculean task of implementing a plan to save his country from
certain ruin. Noah's ark kept the human race alive. Joseph's plan kept the
people of Israel alive (and the Egyptians). Quite a few parallels in Noah and
Joseph.

But in order for Joseph's plan to work, he had to have absolute power in the
country of Egypt. Everybody had to fear him so they'd be sure to cooperate.

†. Gen 41:39-43 . .Then Pharaoh said to Joseph; Since God has made
all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.
You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit
to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than
you. So Pharaoh said to Joseph; I hereby put you in charge of the
whole land of Egypt.

. . .Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on
Joseph's finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold
chain around his neck. He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in
command, and men shouted before him, "Make way!" Thus he put
him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.

Pharaoh's signet ring was for signing documents and authorizing whatever
purchases and requisitions Joseph might need to fulfill his duties; and for
mustering and/or conscripting the necessary manpower to get it all done.
That signet ring was terrifying. With it, Joseph could actually order people
gibbeted if he wanted and nobody would question it.

†. Gen 41:44 . . Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph; Though I am
Pharaoh, yet without your permission no one shall raise his hand or
foot in all the land of Egypt.

Although Joseph was directly responsible to Pharaoh and to no one else, his
powers were limited. He couldn't wage war or set foreign policy. He had no
say in the balance of trade, or the colonization of foreign lands. There were
other people taking care of those operations. Joseph's jurisdiction for the
moment was related to the task he was assigned, sort of like the head of
homeland security, a drug czar, or a FEMA commander. Joseph's position
was in supreme oversight of Egypt's domestic product.

†. Gen 41:45a . . Pharaoh then gave Joseph the name Tsophnath
Pa'neach, and he gave him for a wife Asenath daughter of Poti
phera, priest of On.

Tsophnath Pa'neach was an Egyptian name, same as Moses is an Egyptian
name; which reflected Joseph's transition from Palestinian goat-herder to a
naturalized Egyptian citizen; which of course had the effect of emancipating
him from slavery (cf. Acts 22:27-28).

Poti-phera is essentially the same name as Joseph's original master:
Potiphar.

The city of On was possibly Heliopolis, a city dedicated to the worship of the
Sun god.

Priests were a highly respected caste in Egypt. Having a father-in-law in the
priesthood secured Joseph a privileged social status appropriate for a man in
his position, and no doubt landed some good connections right in his lap.
There's no record that Joseph protested the marriage, but likely saw it as an
advantage he could exploit.

Joseph's fortunes bring to mind the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. For years
The Terminator was just a big clunky muscleman; an ex body builder from
Thal bei Graz Austria who made it good in Hollywood, and then one day
found himself Governor of Cah-lee-forn-yah. Mr. Schwarzenegger though, in
contrast to Joseph, is ambitious and worked hard for his success; it wasn't
handed to him on a silver platter like Joseph's, but you kind of get the idea.

Mr. Schwarzenegger, like Joseph, married well too: a Kennedy girl no less.
His marriage to Maria Shriver gave him an in with the Kennedy clan and
access to the speaking and writing skills of an intelligent, widely respected,
female journalist. A few political pundits are pretty sure that Maria's "Women
Joining Arnold" website was responsible for gaining her husband a large
block of female voters in the aftermath of his "groping" accusation. Good
connections are always an asset in the political world.

Everything Pharaoh did for Joseph worked in his favor towards giving him a
highly visible public profile.

†. Gen 41:45b-46a . .Thus Joseph emerged in charge of the land of
Egypt. Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of
Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Talk about climbing the ladder to success! Joseph went from slave to
aristocrat in just thirteen years; and with neither political, nor business
experience on his résumé whatsoever.

†. Gen 41:46b . . Leaving Pharaoh's presence, Joseph traveled
through all the land of Egypt.

That reminds me of how U.S. Presidents fly over disaster areas in a
helicopter to "assess" the situation. Well Joseph didn't have a whirlybird at
his disposal. If he was going to assess Egypt's agricultural assets first hand,
and decide where to strategically locate his granaries, then he would have to
do it in that spiffy government-provided conveyance that came with his job.
Joseph would actually get himself dirty down on the ground on Egypt's
highways, byways, townships, and farmlands, rather than cruising aloft in
the luxury and comfort of an Air Force One and delegating all the leg work to
a corps of go-fers and fact-finders.

Joseph hasn't seen his dad for 13 years now, and if there ever was a golden
opportunity for him to escape and get back to Canaan, this was it. But he
couldn't. Joseph was in a catch-22. If he went back home at this point, the
coming famine might destroy his own family. He had to stay and make sure
Egypt became the world's bread basket so his kin would have somewhere to
go and get food when those seven years of want finally came along.

True, Pharaoh could just appoint someone else to the task if Joseph deserted
his post, but Joseph couldn't take the chance his replacement wouldn't be a
devil instead of a savior. Sometimes, when you want the job done right, you
just have to do it yourself. Then too, taking off now might cause Pharaoh to
lose confidence in Joseph's predictions. He might suspect, and who wouldn't,
that Joseph made it all up just so's he could get out of jail. Then Pharaoh
would probably cancel any and all preparations for the years ahead. No,
Joseph was stuck.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 41:47-57

-
†. Gen 41:47-49 . . During the seven years of abundance the land
produced plentifully. Joseph collected all the food produced in those
seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each
city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. Joseph stored
up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much
that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure.

When there's small amounts to work with, it's easy to use small containers
to tally it. But Egypt's abundance was so great that it was impractical to tally
the grain with standard containers. Instead, I would think Joseph did it
simply by building his silos to a standard size and dimension. So, instead of
tallying "bushels" of grain, Joseph simplified the process by tallying silos.

Although storing the grain near the communities where it was grown was a
practical consideration for later distribution, it was also a wise diplomatic
move. When people see their hard-earned things carted off to the unknown,
it makes them nervous about getting their stuff back. Putting his granaries
nearby, reassured local growers and consumers that Joseph meant well by
them and wasn't just taxing their produce for personal profit.

I would like to think that Joseph employed local labor for the construction of
his granaries rather than contracting it out to a global construction company
that polished the apple with him via his father-in-law's contacts; thus once
again showing good faith by injecting wages into local economies. Little by
little, Joseph was gaining the Egyptians' trust, which must have no doubt
pleased Pharaoh well and made him feel pretty good about his choice of man
for the job.

Meanwhile, back on the home front, Joseph's marriage was holding up okay
and he became the father of two boys.

†. Gen 41:50 . . Before the years of famine came, Joseph became the
father of two sons, whom Asenath daughter of Poti-phera, priest of
On, bore to him.

In the Bible, it's the fathers who determine tribal ancestry; so the two boys
were Hebrews by birth rather than Egyptians. I don't know how Mr. Poti
phera felt about that, but what was he to do? One of the most powerful, if
not the most powerful, monarchs on earth had arranged his daughter's
marriage to Joseph so there really wasn't much he could say about it.

†. Gen 41:51 . . Joseph named his older son Manasseh, for he said;
God has made me forget all my troubles and the family of my father.

The meaning of Manessah's name in Hebrew is self explanatory. However,
there is just no way that Joseph forgot all about his family. That verse has to
be interpreted according to the progress of the narrative. I seriously doubt
that God deleted Joseph's memory; but rather, helped him to get over
doting about his misfortunes. Doting can lead to serious psychological
damage, dark thoughts, and long term depression, and/or in the case of
anger, it can lead to malice and sleepless nights plotting revenge, or
rehearsing retorts over and over again to counter something someone said
that you didn't like.

Though they weren't ideal, Joseph was at peace with his current
circumstances. Exactly how God brought him to that point isn't stated. But in
chapters ahead, Joseph will inform his brothers that his misfortunes actually
benefited everyone so that Joseph became a savior; not only to Egypt, but
to his own family as well (Gen 45:4-11, Gen 50:20). So then, in the end,
Joseph accepted his plight graciously and held no hard feelings towards
anyone in particular, nor was he blue and sad about being away from home
all those years because he was fully aware it all worked toward the greater
good.

Since Joseph couldn't leave Egypt himself to go home and visit his family,
then one has to wonder why he didn't dispatch a messenger to let his dad
know he was okay. Well; for one thing, to do so would have exposed his
brothers' murderous scheme, and who knows what kind of disharmony that
would have created in Jacob's home. This was one of those cases where it's
better to follow the advice of some Beatles' lyrics; "Words of wisdom: let it
be."

But seriously, I doubt Jacob would have believed it was actually his very own
Joseph in Pharaoh's court but would have automatically assumed it was a
cruel hoax. Later, Joseph is going to be sure that his brothers understand
that they weren't being told second-hand about his prosperity, nor being fed
a rumor; but were hearing about it from their long-lost brother's very own
lips. (Gen 45:12-13)

†. Gen 41:52 . . Joseph named his second son Ephraim, for he said;
God has made me fruitful in this land of my suffering.

Ephraim's name actually means "doubly fruitful" viz: bumper-crop fruitful;
which is obviously in recognition of God's providence in a place where a man
of God would certainly least expect to find it. I still think that Joseph had
given up all hope of prosperity, and of having a family of his own; but as it
turns out, he got both anyway in spite of his unfortunate circumstances.
Maybe he'd rather have married a girl back home, but you know what they
say: Beggars can't be choosers. At least Joseph was no longer a jailed slave
locked up as an accused rapist with no future at all. Asenath and Poti-phera
may not have been Joseph's ideal in-laws, but things could have turned out
a lot worse.

†. Gen 41:53-54 . . At last the seven years of plenty came to an end.
Then the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had predicted.
There were crop failures in all the surrounding countries, too, but in
Egypt there was plenty of grain in the storehouses.

Joseph had made no mention of the misfortunes of Egypt's neighbors to
Pharaoh. But now comes out the reason for Egypt's incredible over
abundance during the good years. It wasn't meant just to sustain their own
selves that God had so blessed the Egyptians, no, all around them countries
were effected, became desperate, and forced to look outside themselves for
relief.

In order for the countries all around Egypt to experience the famine, it would
mean that they too were experiencing severe reductions in annual rainfall.
Though northern Egypt, around the Nile delta, normally receives very little
rain to begin with, it's agriculture prospers because of heavy rainfalls way
down in Africa that feed tributaries flowing into the Nile; e.g. the Blue Nile.
We're talking about a massive watershed encompassing several thousands
of square miles of Africa's countryside. And that, added to the surrounding
countries, really adds up to an incredibly large geographic area effected by
an unbelievable large-scale drought.

†. Gen 41:53-56 . .Throughout the land of Egypt the people began to
starve. They pleaded with Pharaoh for food, and he told them; Go to
Joseph and do whatever he tells you. So with severe famine
everywhere in the land, Joseph opened up the storehouses and sold
grain to the Egyptians.

Advocates of a welfare state might question Joseph's ethical integrity and
want to know why he "sold" grain to his fellow citizens instead of just doling
it out in soup lines. Well, for one thing, quite a few of the Egyptians had
good incomes (Ex 3:20-22, Ex 11:2). They were quite prosperous and could
easily afford to pay-- at least at first. Secondly, Joseph answered to a higher
power than himself. It was his duty to look out for Pharaoh's best interests,
and make sure his boss received adequate taxes even during lean years (cf.
Matt 25:14-30, 1Cor 4:1-2, 1Pet 4:10).

†. Gen 41:57 . . And people from surrounding lands also came to
Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe
throughout the world.

The "world" wasn't the whole planet, nor did the drought effect the whole
planet as the Flood had. The famine was severe throughout the world, but
not everywhere under the whole sky (cf. Gen 7:19); meaning that wherever
the famine was, it was severe; as opposed to severe in some places while
tolerable in others; viz: nobody had it good. Wherever that famine went, if it
went there at all, then it was all bad rather than some bad and some not so
bad.

At this point, Joseph had been away from home for twenty years (cf. Gen
37:2, Gen 41:46, Gen 41:53) and had seen neither his dad nor his brothers
even once in all that time. When he was sold into slavery, Joseph was just a
young teen-ager; now he's in his late thirties. He was just a boy then; now
he's a man.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 42:1-8

-
†. Gen 42:1 . .When Jacob learned that there were rations of grain in
Egypt, he said to his sons; Why do you just keep looking at each
other?

You can just picture what was going on. One brother would turn to another
and ask; What are we going to do for food? And the other would just shrug
and raise his eyebrows. They must have been doing that a lot lately because
apparently it was beginning to grate on their dad.

†. Gen 42:2-4 . . He continued: I have heard that there is grain in
Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and
not die. Then ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain from
Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with the
others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him.

To Jacob's knowledge, Joseph was dead. His mother was certainly dead,
having died giving birth to Benjamin back in chapter 35. So, to Jacob's mind,
all that's left of the love of his life is Benjamin. So that if something were to
happen to him, he would have nothing left to remind him of Rachel, and that
whole side of the family would be gone.

Benjamin, at this time, wasn't a little kid. He was born when the family
moved south from Bethel to Hebron back in chapter 35. And as Joseph was
now about 38, and sold into slavery at 17 while Jacob was at Hebron, then
Benjamin is, at the bare minimum, at least 21.

†. Gen 42:5 . . So Israel's sons were among those who went to buy
grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also.

That must have been an interesting sight. The brothers mingled in with
caravans traveling to (and from) Egypt, and there must have been a lot of
them because the drought had effected the whole land of Palestine, possibly
even clear up into Syria and Lebanon. Traveling in a caravan had its
benefits. With food so scarce, grain would be more valuable than money,
and lone travelers would be easy targets for desperate clans; and brigands
too.

†. Gen 42:6a . . Now Joseph was powerful in the land; the one who
sold grain to all its people.

Apparently, before anybody could obtain grain, they had to first go by the
Minister Of Agriculture's office and purchase a permit in the form of an
official receipt, which was then taken to a designated silo and redeemed for
grain. Apparently, collecting the money, and issuing permits, was a task that
Joseph personally supervised himself rather than delegate to subordinates:
which tells me that Joseph trusted no one. And no surprise.

Those permits were a golden opportunity for graft and/or embezzling. A
dishonest clerk could smuggle some of those permits out of the office and
distribute them to friends and relatives and/or peddle them on the black
market because they were just as valuable as Cap & Trade emission permits
and food stamps. You could probably scalp those grain coupons for at least
double what somebody paid for them.

†. Gen 42:6b-8 . . So when Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed
down to him with their faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw
his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger
and spoke harshly to them. Where do you come from? he asked.
From the land of Canaan, they replied, to buy food. Although Joseph
recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.

One can hardly blame Joseph for acting like a stranger. For all he knew, his
brothers were still toxic; and might be inclined to find new ways to mess up
his life yet once more like they did when he lived at home. When people
have been burned by someone they trust; that trust is not easily regained;
nor does it deserve to be. Those men tried to murder Joseph-- his own flesh
and blood kin tried. That's something that's neither easily forgotten, nor
easily forgiven; and shouldn't be. Joseph's reluctance to befriend his
brothers at this point is fully justified. Only a fool would try to kiss a
rattlesnake after one bites him on the nose.

But at the same time, this presents a dilemma for Joseph. No doubt he's
anxious for an update of his father Jacob's health and welfare, and also of
his one full brother Benjamin; against whom Joseph harbored no bad
feelings whatsoever. I sincerely believe that if it wasn't for Joseph's concern
for his father and kid brother back home, that he never, ever would have
told his brothers anything about himself. They would have come and gone
with no consciousness at all that they'd ever passed his way.

It's not surprising that Joseph's older brothers didn't recognize him. He was
just a shiny-faced, 17 year-old teen-ager the last they saw him. They
haven't seen their kid brother for the past 21 years. In that time his face
and his voice had aged to that of a matured 38 year-old man. Plus he's
cultured far different than any of Palestine's sheep herders. He has an
Egyptian hair cut, an Egyptian beard, speaks the Egyptian language, wears
the expensive clothing of Egyptian aristocrats; and he's a top-of-the-heap
Egyptian government official; a position in which they would never in a
million years expect to find their sheep-herding kid brother.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 42:9-14

-
†. Gen 42:9a . .Then he remembered his dreams about them

When Joseph had those dreams back in chapter 37, he probably had no clue
as to how they would be fulfilled. He was only aware, from his father Jacob's
interpretations, that he would be lord over his whole family, including his
parents. Now it's becoming clear to him just exactly how those dreams were
to play out in real life.

†. Gen 42:9b . . and said to them: You are spies! You have come to
see where our land is unprotected.

That was a reasonable suspicion. Incursions into Egypt by Asians coming via
the Way of Horus-- a military highway from Canaan that led through Gaza to
El-'Arish --were a recurrent problem. So it would be only natural to assume
that if Egypt was raided from the northeast during normal years, it could be
expected to be raided even more often, and with greater boldness, during a
food-related crisis that was effecting a huge part of the world of that day.

Foreign invaders would of course be encouraged to think that maybe the
Egyptians were so distracted by just trying to survive that they'd let their
guard down and have no heart for fighting. A nation in crises is a plausible
target of opportunity for any ambitious conqueror. It of course fell to
Joseph's responsibility to carefully screen foreigners to be certain of their
true purposes for entering Egypt. Were they looking for food; or were they
looking for weak points in Egypt's defenses?

Joseph really had no good reason at all to trust his own brothers. Not only
had they been so callous as to plot their own kid brother's murder, and sell
him to slave traders, but he no doubt remembered how two of them
viciously hacked to death the entire number of men in the town of Shechem
back in chapter 34. So far as he was concerned, they were capable of
anything, even of pillaging a vulnerable Egypt under the guise of ordinary
people just looking for something to eat like everybody else.

†. Gen 42:10-11 . . But they said to him: No, my lord! Truly, your
servants have come to procure food. We are all of us sons of the
same man; we are honest men; your servants have never been
spies!

Ten men all together is too obvious. I think that professional spies would
split up and not travel together nor even enter Egypt on the very same day.
Perhaps they hoped that by divulging details about their family, it would help
convince their inquisitor that they weren't entering Egypt for military
purposes. But even that story could be perceived as a cover to an official in
Joseph's position.

†. Gen 42:12 . . And he said to them: No, you have come to see the
land in its nakedness!

A word like "nakedness" can imply any number of things. One is that the
once majestic, and superior, land of Egypt was debased and embarrassed by
it's severely reduced agricultural production. It was world famous for
abundance, and proud of its independence. Egypt needed help from no one,
and asked for none. On the contrary, Egypt was everyone else's ace in the
hole in times of trouble. However, during this particular famine, the once
proud nation's agriculture was in ruins just like everybody else's and would
have been destitute just like everybody else too except for one thing: Joseph
and his federally-funded grain silos.

†. Gen 42:13 . . But they replied: Your servants were twelve
brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan. The
youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.

For the second time they volunteer personal information about themselves;
and probably for the same reason as the first. However, it was music to
Joseph's ears because no doubt when he didn't see his kid brother Benjamin
traveling with his eldest brothers, he began to be concerned that they had
done to him what they had previously wrought upon himself. Although they
lied about the "one" who is no more (lying about Joseph was by now
probably a reflexive habit) they certainly weren't lying about the youngest
because there was no reason to. If Benjamin were dead, then they simply
would have said "two" are no more.

†. Gen 42:14 . . Joseph said to them: It is just as I told you: You are
spies!

With Joseph's intelligence, and from his day after day experience with an
endless stream of truly desperate people, he would have known by now
(especially with that incredible intuition of his) that the ten weak-knees guys
standing before him certainly weren't professional soldiers. He's being
deliberately obtuse, and it's becoming obvious now (at least to us Bible
students who know Joseph's true identity) that he's feeling his brothers out
to ascertain whether or not they're the very same unrepentant,
unremorseful, cold-blooded, steely-eyed, dirty rotten scoundrels they were
in the past. Until he's certain they can be trusted, Joseph isn't going to
afford them the even tiniest hint of who he really is.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 42:15-24

-
†. Gen 42:15-17 . . By this you shall be put to the test: unless your
youngest brother comes here, by Pharaoh, you shall not depart from
this place! Let one of you go and bring your brother, while the rest of
you remain confined, that your words may be put to the test
whether there is truth in you. Else, by Pharaoh, you are nothing but
spies! And he confined them in the guardhouse for three days.

During those three days the brothers must have felt like they were in a
purgatory as they endured unbearable anxiety while conferring amongst
themselves about their current state of affairs. They were no doubt positive
that Jacob would never allow his favorite little boy to be taken down to
Egypt where this obtuse Egyptian big shot just might lock him up with the
others so that in the end, all surviving eleven of Jacob's sons would never be
seen again.

†. Gen 42:18-20a . . On the third day Joseph said to them: Do this
and you shall live, for I am a God-fearing man. If you are honest
men, let one of your brothers be held in your place of detention,
while the rest of you go and take home rations for your starving
households; but you must bring me your youngest brother, that your
words may be verified and that you may not die.

This reversal of terms couldn't have done anything other than to reinforce
the brothers' fears that not only was this Egyptian big shot obtuse, but also
unpredictable.

Turning loose nine of the ten men would be dumb because, militarily,
sacrificing one to save nine is an acceptable loss. Joseph's excuse for this
obvious military blunder is that he's a "God-fearing" man; viz: just in case
their story is true, he didn't want to be responsible for the starvation of
innocent families.

Joseph had the advantage of knowing far more about their family than they
dreamed. As it turned out, Jacob would have gladly sacrificed the brother
who will be chosen to remain behind in order to protect Benjamin, except
that to not return, meant certain starvation; and no doubt Joseph easily
foresaw Jacob's dilemma in that matter. He really had them in a catch-22.

†. Gen 42:20b . . And they did accordingly.

The men agreed to Joseph's terms, but not without going around the room
about it first. These guys are dumber than a stack of bricks. They discussed
their current predicament, and their consciences, all within Joseph's hearing.
(Never assume foreigners don't know your language just because they aren't
speaking it.)

†. Gen 42:21-23 . .They said to one another: Alas, we are being
punished on account of our brother, because we looked on at his
anguish, yet paid no heed as he pleaded with us. That is why this
distress has come upon us. Then Reuben spoke up and said to them:
Did I not tell you, do no wrong to the boy? But you paid no heed.
Now comes the reckoning for his blood. They did not know that
Joseph understood, for there was an interpreter between him and
them.

Apparently the interpreter had been either dismissed and/or sent on an
errand and left Joseph guarding the men by himself while they deliberated
amongst themselves.

Isn't it interesting that those men carried the guilt of their treatment of
Joseph all those 21 years that he was away from home? This probably
wasn't the first time they blamed their bad luck on Joseph. Probably every
time one of them hit his thumb with a hammer, or bumped his head on a
shelf, he thought of Joseph. Those men's minds hadn't enjoyed a moments
peace since the day the slave traders carted their kid brother off to the big
unknown in Egypt. At night, when the demons come, their minds would once
and again, for the Nth time, rehearse his awful wailing and begging down in
that hole, and see the pain on his face, a pain that was burned into their
memories like a rancher's cattle brand. No doubt those poor guys all
suffered from recurring nightmares about the incident too.

All those 21 years, Jacob hadn't stopped grieving for Joseph; so that every
morning, those guys were treated to the sight of their father all blue and
depressed at the loss of his favorite boy. Those poor guys. It was impossible
to forget Joseph with their dad moping around all the time in a sorrowful
state to remind them.

†. Gen 42:24a . . He turned away from them and wept.

Genesis offers no explanation whatsoever for Joseph's weeping; and I half
suspect it's because unless somebody has actually themselves lived through
an experience similar to his, then there is just no way even the brightest of
Bible students can fully relate to what Joseph was feeling at that moment no
matter how skillfully the best writers on earth tried to explain it. His weeping
wasn't a matter of the mind; no, it was a matter of the heart; and
oftentimes those kinds of matters can't be put into words by the very people
themselves who are awash with those kinds of emotions.

Joseph certainly had no good reason to feel any particular bonding with his
brothers. If anything, he should be feeling totally disconnected from them.
They were never his friends, and not once did anything good by him; the
rather, he was disowned in his own home by the very people who by all
rights should have loved and supported him the most.

Although Joseph grew up around his big brothers, he didn't grow up with
them, if you know what I mean. His only trusty companions at home were
his dad Jacob, and his kid brother Benjamin; and it seems clear to me that
it's for their sakes alone that he's tolerating these ten felons for even
another minute. It must have taken a Herculean effort on Joseph's part to
restrain his natural impulses to order their bodies immediately gibbeted and
set out for the vultures.

†. Gen 42:24b . . Returning, he talked some more with them. He then
chose Simeon from among them and had him shackled in their sight.

Simeon was next in the line of seniority of the ten brothers (Gen 29:31-33).
Since Rueben had shown some good colors back at the pit in chapter 37, the
lot fell to Simeon; and it was a good choice since he and his brother Levi had
so far shown themselves to be the cruelest among the brothers in the matter
of Dinah back in chapter 34. Let's just give Simeon a taste of mortal fear for
a change and see how he likes it.

Later, at home, neither Jacob nor the others will seem overly concerned that
Simeon was selected to be detained, and the total focus will be upon
Benjamin's safety rather than upon Simeon's rescue; in fact, Jacob will write
him off as dead. Apparently, Simeon wasn't all that appreciated by his own
family: and no wonder with that savage nature of his.

They were probably all, including Jacob, relieved to be rid of his company.
Joseph's own lack of popularity among his elder brothers was a natural
friction stemming from old fashioned sibling rivalry. But Simeon was just
plain mean; while Joseph was likely a pleasant sort of guy and easy to get
along with. Difficult people shouldn't be surprised when others around them
spit on their graves.

=====================================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 42:25-35

-
†. Gen 42:25-26 . . Joseph then ordered his servants to fill the men's
sacks with grain, but he also gave secret instructions to return each
brother's payment at the top of his sack. He also gave them
provisions for their journey. So they loaded up their donkeys with
the grain and started for home.

Returning his family's money was something that Joseph did for himself.
How could he possibly make his own desperate kin pay for food under his
control? He couldn't. In his position, Joseph could easily provide for all of
them at no cost to themselves whatsoever.

"But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house,
he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." (1Tim 5:8)

Joseph was a man of honor. No doubt he made up for their payment out of
his own pocket so that no one could accuse him of abusing his privileges and
giving Pharaoh's grain away for nothing to people who had demonstrated
that they had the wherewithal to pay for it. A man's reputation, after all, is
his singular most valuable asset.

"Choose a good reputation over great riches; for being held in high esteem
is better than having silver or gold." (Pro 22:1)

Giving them free provisions for the trip would have included food and water
not only for themselves, but also their beasts. That was a diplomatic
gesture, and would go a long ways towards making the family feel welcome
down in Egypt, and encourage them to return since they had certainly been
given a degree of fair treatment way beyond what they had any right to
expect from a foreign dignitary.

†. Gen 42:27-28 . . As one of them was opening his sack to give feed
to his burro at the night encampment, he saw his money right there
at the mouth of his bag. And he said to his brothers: My money has
been returned! It is here in my bag! Their hearts sank; and,
trembling, they turned to one another, saying: What is this that God
has done to us?

Why is it people always tend to blame God for their misfortunes? But in this
case, their perceived misfortune is not that at all. If only they hadn't been so
infected with guilt they would have easily seen that the Egyptian big shot
was demonstrating that he meant only the best by them. But no; instead,
they go off the deep end and interpret their host's graciousness as an ill
omen rather than a token of good will. Some people are so suspicious of
anything nice that people do for them-- always looking for an ulterior
motive.

†. Gen 42:29a . .When they came to their father Jacob in the land of
Canaan

If Jacob was still living in Hebron, the distance the men traveled to get back
home was roughly 250 miles if Joseph's headquarters was possibly either in,
or near to, the city of Memphis, which is about ten miles south of today's
Cairo.

NOTE: In the millennia prior to mechanized conveyances, the greatest
obstacle to travel was distance. Today the average American zips around in
a vehicle that can easily travel 55 miles in just one hour. That same distance
would take eleven hours at a burro's pace. In other words; in the time it
takes a burro to walk 55 miles, an automobile at 55 miles an hour can travel
605.

†. Gen 42:29b-34 . . they told him all that had befallen them, saying;
The man who is lord of the land spoke harshly to us and accused us
of spying on the land. We said to him: We are honest men; we have
never been spies! There were twelve of us brothers, sons by the
same father; but one is no more, and the youngest is now with our
father in the land of Canaan.

. . . But the man who is lord of the land said to us; By this I shall
know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me,
and take something for your starving households and be off. And
bring your youngest brother to me, that I may know that you are not
spies but honest men. I will then restore your brother to you, and
you shall be at liberty to move about in the land.

When they got home, they proceeded to report to their father Jacob the
details of their experience. In spite of his age, which was near 130, Jacob
was still the dominant figure in the family; and apparently well respected
since no one seems to feel inclined to question his authority.

†. Gen 42:35 . . As they were emptying their sacks, there, in each
one's sack, was his money-bag! When they and their father saw
their money-bags, they were alarmed.

It must have seemed to Jacob that his sons stole the grain, or why else
would they still have their money? To the men, it must have seemed like the
obtuse Egyptian big shot was toying with them; to set them up for a charge
of theft. As these thoughts raced through every man's head, Jacob became
paranoid; which Webster's defines as: a psychosis characterized by
delusions of persecution.

=============================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 42:36-38

-
†. Gen 42:36a . .Their father Jacob said to them: You have deprived
me of my children.

Jacob held his eldest sons responsible for Joseph's demise. But he is even
more complicit. Jacob should have known better than to send his young
teen-age son all by himself to find the others a good many miles from home
in a mostly wilderness area. That was irresponsible.

†. Gen 42:36b . . Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now
you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!

Poor ol' Jacob. Little did he know that the night gets darkest before the
dawn. Mr. Israel had little to celebrate at this point; but morning was right
around the corner.

They all, including Jacob, should have thought the whole situation through
for a minute. The big shot accused the brothers of spying. So now why
would he trump up a charge of theft against them? Which is worse, spying
or theft? Spying, of course, is much worse than theft. And how ever could
thievery prove the big shot's much more serious charge of spying against
them? It couldn't. No proficient spy is going to do something dumb that is
sure to draw attention to himself. When Joshua's spies entered Jericho (Josh
2) did they begin shop-lifting, or taking things off of people's clothes lines?
No. They were discreet. Jericho's authorities still caught on to them anyway,
but at least it wasn't for something stupid.

So the men must have reasoned that the big shot was hedging his bets. If
he couldn't get them on a charge of spying, then he would get them for the
lesser charge of theft. But they should have asked themselves: Why would
the obtuse big shot be so anxious to nail them at all? Is that how he amused
himself; by framing people and throwing them in jail for something they
didn't do? That's not an unusual police activity. In our own day, Iraqi
authorities, under the auspices of Saddam Hussein, used to do that all the
time.

For some reason, it just never occurred to the men that maybe the big shot
down in Egypt simply pitied them. He had, after all, professed to fear God;
and by doing so, implied that just in case their story were true, he didn't
want to be responsible for causing their families any undue hardship; but no,
they assume the worst instead.

†. Gen 42:37 . .Then Reuben said to his father: You may put both of
my sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Entrust him to my
care, and I will bring him back.

It would have been interesting to ask Reuben's boys how they felt about
their dad's rash offer to trade their lives for Benjamin's. That is the very
same stupid kind of deal that Lot offered the Sodomites back in chapter 19,
only Lot's was dumber because he offered to trade his wife's babies for two
perfect strangers' lives. What did men in those days think their offspring
were? Cattle? Commodities? God pity kids that grow up in a home with
parents that think so little of them.

And did Reuben really think that slaying Jacob's own grandchildren would
somehow make him feel any better about losing Benjamin? That's like
burning my house, and then stealing my car to make me feel all better
about the loss of my home. Reuben either had a very low IQ, or must have
been out of his cotton-picking mind! Sometimes I think Joseph rather pitied
his elder brothers for being such imbeciles. Small wonder God chose Joseph
to go down to Egypt. The rest of them had no more intelligence than a bar of
soap.

†. Gen 42:38 . . But he said: My son must not go down with you, for
his brother is dead and he alone is left. If he meets with disaster on
the journey you are taking, you will send my white head down to
sheol in grief.

Some translations render sheol as the grave; a place to inter a corpse. But
though sheol can include one's grave; it's not the whole picture. The specific
Hebrew word for grave is qibrah (kib-raw') e.g. Gen 23:4.

Qibrah is the equivalent of the New Testament Greek word mnemeion
(mnay-mi'-on) which means a remembrance, i.e. cenotaph (place of
interment); viz: grave, sepulchre, tomb (e.g. Matt 27:60). So then, while
qibrah indicates a corpse's disposal site; sheol indicates not only its grave,
but includes a separate place for interring the spirit of the person who at one
time occupied their body before it passed away. (cf. Jonah 2:1-6)

=============================

 

[WebersHome]

Gen 43:1-18b

-
†. Gen 43:1-7 . . But the famine in the land was severe. And when
they had eaten up the rations which they had brought from Egypt,
their father said to them: Go again and procure some food for us.

. . . But Judah said to him: The man warned us "Do not let me see
your faces unless your brother is with you". If you will let our
brother go with us, we will go down and procure food for you; but if
you will not let him go, we will not go down, for the man said to us
"Do not let me see your faces unless your brother is with you".

. . . And Israel said: Why did you serve me so ill as to tell the man
that you had another brother? They replied: But the man kept asking
about us and our family, saying "Is your father still living? Have you
another brother?" And we answered him accordingly. How were we
to know that he would say bring your brother here?

Judah is direct, and right to the point. If Jacob doesn't let the brothers take
Benjamin with them on the next trip, then the family is certain to go without
food. It's just that simple, and there's no use in sugar coating it.

†. Gen 43:8-10 . . Then Judah said to his father Israel: Send the boy
in my care, and let us be on our way, that we may live and not die--
you and we and our children. I myself will be surety for him; you
may hold me responsible; if I do not bring him back to you and set
him before you, I shall stand guilty before you forever. For we could
have been there and back twice if we had not dawdled.

At this point, the number of kin for whom Jacob was directly responsible to
provide numbered well over 70, upwards of 100, because the list in chapter
46 doesn't include his sons' wives, nor any of the wives of his grandsons.
Truly, if Jacob wasn't careful, he would cause the loss of his entire clan in
the interest of saving just one. Since the whole clan was now in mortal
danger, they really had nothing to lose by risking Benjamin's life. He would
die anyway from hunger; so why not have him die trying to obtain some
additional grain from Egypt? It was an acceptable risk given the
circumstances.

During all this discussion, the Egyptian big shot is only referred to as "the
man" which means Joseph didn't tell the brothers his official Egyptian name
Zaphenath-paneah; and they couldn't have gotten it off their grain permits
because Joseph signed all government documents with that signet gadget
given to him by Pharaoh back in chapter 41.

†. Gen 43:11-14 . .Then their father Israel said to them: If it must be
so do this: take some of the strength of the land in your baggage,
and carry them down as a gift for the man-- some balm and some
honey, labdanum, pistachio nuts, and almonds. And take with you
double the silver, carrying back with you the silver that was replaced
in the mouths of your bags; perhaps it was a mistake. Take your
brother too; and go back at once to the man. And may El Shaddai
dispose the man to mercy toward you, that he may release to you
your other brother, as well as Benjamin. As for me, if I am to be
bereaved, I shall be bereaved.

The "choice" fruits would have to be limited to produce that doesn't spoil
easily since it was probably three weeks travel time via burro.

Balm was a good gift, since it was a trade item (Gen 37:25) and a valuable
first aid treatment.

Labdanum is a soft dark fragrant bitter oleoresin derived from various
rockroses (genus Cistus) and used in making perfumes. Another trade item.

Before the advent of processed sugar and artificial sweeteners, honey was a
lot more popular than it is now. There is no Hebrew word for sugar in the
entire Old Testament. A little-known fact about natural honey is its medicinal
value. Honey fights bacteria in wounds in several ways, including the steady
production of hydrogen peroxide, an antiseptic. One type of honey-- Manuka
--is especially effective.

Honey was valued in the old world; as evidenced by it being one of the
nouns to describe the qualities of the promised land (Ex 3:8). The Hebrew
word for honey-- debash (deb-ash') --is a bit ambiguous. It can mean the
kind of organic goo produced in nature by bees and/or can indicate a thick,
intensely sweet syrup produced from dates and grape juice; which Arabs call
dibs. In this story, either one would have been as good as the other since
neither were easy to obtain.

I would think that honey-bee honey would be the more prized since there's
been found no evidence of scientific agriculture in the Palestine of that day.
Any honey gathered would have to be found by first searching for it in the
wild, and then braving its angry owners in order to collect it. (cf. 1Sam
14:24-27)

The almonds, honey, and pistachios were just treats; but the other items,
given by a man, to a man, were about the equivalent of giving a girl jewelry.
They weren't cheap. And considering the austere conditions in the land
caused by the intense drought, anything edible would certainly be
appreciated far more than normal.

Jacob knew God as Yhvh as well as by His name El Shaddai (Gen 27:20, Gen
28:13) but in this instance he depends upon God as El Shaddai; the God of
Abraham's covenant (Gen 17:1-2, Gen 35:10-12) the god powerful enough
to control nature and make the impossible happen. (cf. Eph 3:20)

NOTE: I'm not sure just how well-informed the ancients were about the
nutritional benefits of almonds; but they are an excellent source of natural
riboflavin (B2).

†. Gen 43:15-18a . . So the men took that gift, and they took with
them double the money; as well as Benjamin. They made their way
down to Egypt, where they reported to Joseph.

. . .When Joseph saw Benjamin with them; he said to his house
steward: Take the men into the house; slaughter and prepare an
animal, for the men will dine with me at noon. The man did as
Joseph said, and he brought the men into Joseph's house.

It's highly unlikely Joseph recognized Benjamin since he was just a little boy
when big brother went off to Egypt. At this point, Benjamin is much older--
over 21 --and likely much older than that since, at this point, Joseph had
already been in Egypt for at least that long. Later, Joseph will interrogate his
elder brothers to make sure they actually brought him.

†. Gen 43:18b . . But the men were frightened at being brought into
Joseph's house.

They had good reason to be frightened. It was common for Egyptian big
shots to have dungeons under their homes where they kept their own
private little penal colony.

=============================