NOTES for Gen 41:25-57
Joseph not only interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams; he also devised a way to use the emerging situation to strengthen the Egyptian state. Here one must bear in mind that Joseph’s very appearance in Egypt, followed by that of all his tribesmen, would have been impossible had Egypt not been seriously weakened at that time. A weak Egypt could not resist the nomadic Semitic tribes that invaded the country from the east, from the Sinai desert. In history, this invasion of Egypt by Semitic tribes is known as the invasion of the Hyksos.
They not only founded their settlement in the Nile Delta; they even occupied the Egyptian throne, the ancient throne of the pharaohs. The first dynasty of the New Kingdom, whose history begins with the Hyksos invasion, was Semitic in origin. Only under the pharaohs of the first New Kingdom dynasty, a Semitic dynasty, could Joseph have made the career at court that he did, and only under those same pharaohs could his tribesmen have moved peacefully and safely to Egypt.
Egypt had become weak largely because by the end of the preceding era, the Middle Kingdom, the country’s traditional problem of regional separatism had once again intensified. From the outset, Egypt had been formed from many regions, each originally independent. The inhabitants of the Egyptian regions long remembered their former independence, occasionally reminding the central government of it as well.
Regional separatism was fueled in no small measure by large landowners, not all of them, of course, but those who lived on their estates without holding office. Joseph’s plan was directed precisely against them. It was impossible simply to confiscate their estates; that would have been unlawful, and Egypt was a law-governed and law-abiding state. Confiscating them for debt was another matter: there was no room for argument, since debts had to be repaid one way or another. And debts would inevitably arise: the overwhelming majority of farms produced for the market, and crop failure meant first losses and then ruin.
One year of drought and crop failure could still be survived by borrowing seed grain against the next year’s harvest. But after a second failed harvest, the estate itself would have to be mortgaged, with seven dry and therefore barren years still ahead. The estates would inevitably pass to the treasury for debt, increasing the state land fund.
In this way Joseph strengthened the state to which his tribesmen were destined to migrate, only for their descendants, several centuries later, to have to flee from this strengthened state where there was no longer any place for them. For the time being, God had placed Joseph where he could save his tribesmen from famine. Thus He leads His people and His nation through the winding course of history.