SYNOPSIS: Joseph
is summoned and without hesitation he tells Pharaoh the meaning of both
dreams: seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of
famine. He also advises Pharaoh about what he should do about it. He
must locate a very wise man and put him in charge of all Egypt, and
grain should be stored in all the cities throughout the years of plenty,
to be distributed to the people in the time of hunger which will
follow. Pharaoh is impressed.
41:14 wayyishlax par‛o wayyiqra et yosef
Here begins Joseph's final ascent to power and glory. The first sentence starts with Pharaoh initiating an action whereby Joseph is taken - indeed, rushed (wayritzúhu, causative of r-w-tz 'to run') - from the place where he has been imprisoned, referred to here for the last time as habbor (cf. note on 4:15), shaved, changed, and he walks in (it doesn't even say he was brought: wayyavo, not wayvi'úhu) to Pharaoh. It is the same Joseph as in the last sentence, where the ungrateful cup-bearer is recalling his wisdom and kindness among the prisoners, yet in the blink of an eye, from this point on Joseph will be a hero full of wisdom and dignity, and as we shall see, more generous than ever.
41:18 w'hinne min hay'or ‛olot shéva‛ parot etc.
Pharaoh's relation of his dreams is essentially similar to the narration of his dreams given in the last passage, although there are minor differences in the way they are told each time.
41:34 w'ximmesh et éretz mitzráyim
The assumption that the meaning of w'ximmesh is to take one-fifth (or what CB calls a "double-tithe") goes back as far as LXX (apopemptôsatôsan) and is also supported by the Vulg. (quintam partem fructuum). One objection to this reading is that it seems to contradict the suggestion in the next verse w'yiqb'tzu et kol ókhel etc. 'Let all the food...' (except that this could also be explained as a difference between sources). Speiser suggests a different root x-m-sh and translates it as 'to organise, regiment.'
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