in the priesthood, that Pharaoh vainly related his dreams. Most wise truly in this world, yet most foolish;

most learned, yet most ignorant! What a contrast between the hoary lore of Egypt and the poor Hebrew

slave fetched from prison: they professedly claiming, besides their real knowledge, supernatural powers; he

avowedly, and at the outset, disclaiming all power on his part, and appealing to God! A grander scene than

this Scripture itself does not sketch; and what an illustration of what was true then, true in the days of our

Lord, true in those of St. Paul, and to the end of this dispensation: "Where is the wise? where is the scribe?

where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?"

And yet when we hear the interpretation through the lips of Joseph, how simple, nay, how obvious does it

appear, quite commanding Pharaoh's implicit conviction. Clearly, the two dreams are one -the first bearing on

the pastoral, the other on the agricultural life of Egypt. The dreams are about the flocks and the crops. In

both cases there is first sevenfold fatness, and then sevenfold leanness, such as to swallow up the previous

fatness, and yet to leave no trace of it. The second dream illustrates the first; and yet the first bears already

its own interpretation. For the kine were in Egypt reverenced as symbol of Isis, the goddess of earth as the

nourisher; and in the hieroglyphics the cow is taken to mean earth, agriculture, and nourishment. And then

these kine were feeding by the banks of that Nile, on whose inundations it solely depended whether the

year was to be one of fruitfulness or of famine. Equally Egyptian is the description of the stalk with many

ears, which is just one of the kinds of wheat still grown in Egypt. But, we repeat it, obvious as all this now

seems to us, the wise men of Egypt stood speechless before their monarch! And what a testimony, we again

say, for God, when Joseph is "brought hastily out of the dungeon!" To the challenge of Pharaoh: "I have

heard of thee, to wit: Thou hearest a dream to interpret it" - that is, thou only requirest to hear, in order to

interpret a dream, - he answers, simply, emphatically, but believingly: "Ah, not I" ("not to me," "it does not

belong to me"), "God will answer the peace of Pharaoh;"  63 i.e., what is for the peace of the king. Nor can we

omit to notice one more illustration of the accuracy of the whole narrative, when we read that, in preparation

for his appearance before Pharaoh, Joseph "shaved himself." This we know from the monuments was

peculiarly Egyptian under such circumstances; whereas among the Hebrews, for example, shaving was

regarded as a mark of disgrace.

The interpretation, so modestly yet so decidedly given by Joseph, that the dreams pointed to seven years of

unprecedented fruitfulness followed by an equal number of famine, so grievous that the pre vious plenty

should not be known, approved itself immediately to the mind of Pharaoh and "of all his servants." With

this interpretation Joseph had coupled most sagacious advice, for the source of which, in so trying a

moment, we must look far higher than the ingenuity of man.(See Matthew 10:18, 19) He counseled the king

to exact in the years of plenty a tax of one-fifth of the produce of the land, and to have it stored under royal

supervision against the seven years of famine. Viewed as an impost, this was certainly not heavy,

considering that they were years of unexampled plenty; viewed as a fiscal measure, it was most beneficial as

compared with what we may suppose to have been previously a mere arbitrary system of taxation, which in

reality was tyrannical exaction; while at the same time it would preserve the people from absolute

destruction. Lastly, regarded in the light of a higher arrangement, it is very remarkable that this proportion of

giving, on the part of Pharaoh's subjects, afterwards became the basis of that demanded from Israel by

Jehovah, their heavenly King.64 We can scarcely wonder that Pharaoh should have at once appointed such

a council or to superintend the arrangements he had proposed. In point of fact he naturalized him, made him

his grand vizier, and publicly proclaimed him "ruler over all the land." Once more every trait in the

description is purely Egyptian. Pharaoh gives him his signet, which "was of so much importance with the

ancient Egyptian kings, that their names were always enclosed in an oval which represented an elongated

signet." 65 He arrays him "in vestures of byssus,"  66 the noble and also the priestly dress; he puts the chain,

or "the collar of gold"  67 "about his neck," which was always the mode of investiture of high Egyptian

officials; he makes him ride "in the second chariot which he had," and he has it proclaimed before him:

"Avrech," that is, "fall down," "bend the knee," or "do obeisance."  68 To complete all, on his naturalization

Joseph's name is changed to Zaphnath-paaneah, which most probably means "the supporter of life," or else

"the food of the living," although others have rendered it "the savior of the world," and the Rabbis, but

without sufficient reason, "the revealer of secrets." Finally, in order to give him a position among the

highest nobles of the land, Pharaoh "gave him to wife Asenath" (probably "she who is of Neith," the