Genesis 41:56-57 - Exposition

And the famine was over all the face of the earth ( vide supra, Genesis 41:54 ): And Joseph opened all the storehouses ,—literally, all wherein was, i.e. all the magazines that had grain in them. The granaries of Egypt are represented on the monuments. "In the tomb of Amenemha at Beni-hassan there is the painting of a great storehouse, before whose door lies a great heap of grain already winnowed. Near by stands the bushel with which it is measured, and the registrar who takes the account"— and sold unto the Egyptians (cf. Proverbs 2:1-22 :26);— and the famine waxed sore (literally, became strong ) in the land of Egypt. A remarkable inscription from the tomb at Eileythia of Barn, which Brugsch assigns to the latter part of the seventeenth dynasty, mentions a dearth of several years in Egypt (" A famine having broken out during many years, I gave corn to the town during each famine"), which that distinguished Egyptologer identifies with the famine of Joseph under Apophis, the shepherd king ( vide ' Encyclopedia Britannica,' ninth edition, art. Egypt); but, this, according to Bunsen ('Egypt's Place, 3:334), is rather to be detected in a dearth of several years which occurred in the time of Osirtasen I ; and which is mentioned in an inscription at Beni-hassan, recording the fact that during its prevalence food was supplied by Amenee, the governor of a district of Upper Egypt (Smith's' Dict.,' art. Joseph). The character of Chnumhotep (a near relative and favorite of Osirtasen I ; and his immediate successor), and the recorded events of his government, as described in the Beni-hassan monuments, also remind one of Joseph:—"he ( i.e. Chnumhotep) injured no little child; he oppressed no widow; he detained for his own purpose no fisherman; took from his work no shepherd; no overseer's men were taken. There was no beggar in his days; no one starved in his time. When years of famine occurred he ploughed all the lands of the district, producing abundant food; no one starved in it; he treated the widow as a woman with a husband to protect her". And all countries ( i.e. people from all the adjoining lands) came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because the famine was so sore in all lands.