Joseph’s interpretation of Pharoah’s dreams is the first critical point on which the story of the Hebrews in Egypt pivots. The account of the dreams in Genesis 41:17–24 is straightforward and uncomplicated, but Pharoah’s magicians have no explanation to offer. How likely is that? Why might that be?
There is ample textual evidence of the importance and sophistication of dream interpretation in ancient Egypt. There was a special class of priests known as onen-kheru, who were specifically trained in dream interpretation. There were dream books that date to very early in the second millennium BCE that include instructions on interpretation. One important text, the Papyrus Chester Beatty III, offers interpretations for over 200 specific symbols and dream scenarios.
Pharoah’s dreams involve cows, the Nile, sheaves of grain, and the alternation of cycles of plenty and scarcity. All of those are common subjects in Egyptian life, lore, and dream texts. All of them, as individual symbols or themes, would have been well known to the onen-kheru. And there is nothing particularly challenging about their appearance or roles in the specific dreams of Pharoah. The inability of the “magicians” to interpret the dreams is more than surprising. It suggests that something unusual is at play in this account.
One possibility is that God intervened to block the Egyptian specialists from providing Pharoah the answer to his question in order to bend the story arc in the direction required. The Hebrews needed to get to Cannan. They needed to be oppressed and then liberated. The promise that God made to the patriarchs required some manipulation of the circumstances. That interpretation can be defended. In a sense, the more unlikely the circumstance; that is, the more unlikely it is that the Egyptians failed to interpret the dream; the more likely it is that God intervened. And it does seem unlikely that the Egyptians would fail in this case.
There is another possibility, though, that we might consider. If the dreams were as clear-cut as they appear, Pharoah might have seen in them an opportunity to greatly expand his wealth and power. And it might have worked to his advantage to use a foreigner as his instrument in that effort. Consider this scenario:
Pharoah knows that there will be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Everyone really understands that the dreams suggest that. The question is, what to do about it? What would be to Pharoah’s greatest advantage?
In Gen 41:33 Joseph counsels Pharoah to appoint an economic czar and “set him over the land of Egypt.”
Then, in 41:35 Joseph says, “Let all the food of these good years that are coming be gathered, and let the grain be collected under Pharoah’s authority as food to be stored in the cities.”
What is Joseph suggesting, here? He is suggesting that Pharoah confiscate the surplus of the seven good years. That surplus is not, at that time, Pharoah’s property. Joseph suggests that he take it, on the basis, presumably, of what we would call a national emergency, from those whose lands have produced it. That would give him the power of life and death over the entire population during the lean years.
It is at that point that Pharoah is described as “pleased” and he appoints Jospeh vizier. What is to happen during the lean years is a subject that is not discussed at that time. But both Joseph and Pharoah could certainly see the potential that was presented by entering the lean years in control of all the food in the country. The fact that the plan also pleased “all his (Pharoah’s) courtiers” suggests that they understood that those around the power would also benefit from the power.
So, during the seven years of plenty, Joseph, acting with Pharoah’s power, confiscated all of the surplus of the land. Presumably he left those who produced the surplus with enough to live on and maintain order but little more. Then, when the seven years of famine began, the plan to centralize power and wealth was implemented.
Joseph, on Pharoah’s behalf, controlled all of the food in the land. This is how we are told he used it.
First, in Gen 47:14, in exchange of food for one year “Joseph gathered in all the money that was to be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan.”
Then, when all of the people’s money was gone, in 47:17, “They brought their livestock to Joseph … thus he provided them with bread that year in exchange for all their livestock.”
Then, when all the money and all the livestock were in Pharoah’s hands, in 47:20 “Joseph gained possession of all the farmland for Pharoah.”
Then, in 47:21 “He removed the population town by town, from one end of Egypt’s border to the other.” This separated the (previous) owners of property from that property and the power and influence it once gave them.
Then, in 47:23, “Joseph said to the people, ‘Whereas I have this day acquired you and your land for Pharoah, here is seed for you to sow the land and when the harvest comes you shall give one-fifth to Pharoah ….”
And then in 47:26, “Joseph made it a land law in Egypt, which is still valid, that a fifth should be Pharoah’s.”
So, Pharoah acquired ownership of essentially everything in the country: money, animals, and land. He reduced the prior landowning nobility to the role of tenant sharecroppers. And he used a foreigner, Joseph, as his instrument in achieving that goal.
This 14-year process of confiscation and subjugation must have generated a great deal of hostility. But that probably could not be expressed safely toward Pharoah. The foreigner who was the architect of their impoverishment was the natural target.
This reading of the story, as a masterful and ruthless political maneuver, crafted by Joseph, that allowed Pharoah to take maximum advantage of a difficult situation, fits the facts at least as well as the suggestion of divine intervention.
It also provides a natural source for the Egyptians’ later antipathy towards the Hebrews. It is a far more realistic reason for their later oppression than the idea that the population of Hebrews had grown to the extent that their numbers threatened Egyptian power.
CRL 12/13/2023