Genesis 41:12

_THEN SPAKE THE CHIEF BUTLER UNTO PHARAOH, SAYING, I DO REMEMBER MY FAULTS THIS DAY:_ Chief butler ... I do remember my faults. This public acknowledgment of the merits of the young Hebrew would, tardy though it was, have reflected credit on the butler, had it not been obviously made to ingratiate himself with his royal master. It is right to confess our faults against God, and against our fellow-men, when that confession is made in the spirit of godly sorrow and penitence. But this man was not much impressed with a sense of the fault he had committed against Joseph; he never thought of God, to whose goodness he was indebted for the prophetic announcement of his release; and in acknowledging his former fault against the king, he was practicing the courtly art of pleasing his master. ME HE RESTORED UNTO MINE OFFICE, AND HIM HE HANGED. A prophet or interpreter of dreams may be said to sav...

9-32 God's time for the enlargement of his people is the fittest time. If the chief butler had got Joseph to be released from prison, it is probable he would have gone back to the land of the Hebrews. Then he had neither been so blessed himself, nor such a blessing to his family, as afterwards he proved. Joseph, when introduced to Pharaoh, gives honour to God. Pharaoh had dreamed that he stood upon the bank of the river Nile, and saw the kine, both the fat ones, and the lean ones, come out of the river. Egypt has no rain, but the plenty of the year depends upon the overflowing of the river Nile. See how many ways Providence has of dispensing its gifts; yet our dependence is still the same upon the First Cause, who makes every creature what it is to us, be it rain or river. See to what changes the comforts of this life are subject. We cannot be sure that to-morrow shall be as this day, o...

- Joseph Was Exalted 1. יאר _y__e__'or_, “river, canal,” mostly applied to the Nile. Some suppose the word to be Coptic. 2. אחוּ _'āchû_, “sedge, reed-grass, marsh-grass.” This word is probably Coptic. 8. חרטמים _charṭumı̂ym_, ἐξηγηταὶ _exēgētai_, ἱερογραμματεῖς _hierogrammateis_, “sacred scribes, hieroglyphs.” חרט _chereṭ_ “stylus,” a graving tool. 43. אברך _'abrēk_ “bend the knee.” In this sense it is put for הברך _habrēk_ imperative hiphil of...

EXPOSITION GENESIS 41:1 AND IT CAME TO PASS AT THE END OF TWO FULL YEARS (literally, _two years of _days, _i.e._ two complete years from the commencement of Joseph's incarceration, or more probably after the butler's liberation), THAT PHARAOH—on the import of the term _vide _Genesis 12:15. Under what particular monarch Joseph came to Egypt is a question of much perplexity, and has been variously resolved by modern Egyptologists in favor of— 1. Osirtasen I; the founder of the twelfth dynasty, a prosperous and successful sore-reign, whose name appears on a granite obelisk at Heliopolis. 2. Assa, or Assis, the fifth king of the fifteenth dynasty of Shepherd

AND [THERE WAS] THERE WITH US A YOUNG MAN,.... Who was in the prison with them, had the care of them, and waited upon them; he was then about twenty eight years of age; for it was two years ago he speaks of, and Joseph was thirty when he stood before Pharaoh, Genesis 41:46: AN HEBREW SERVANT TO THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD; he first describes him by his age, a young man, then by his descent, an Hebrew, and by his state and condition, a servant; neither of them tended much to recommend him to the king: AND WE TOLD HIM; that is, their dreams: AND HE INTERPRETED TO US OUR DREAM, TO EACH MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DREAM DID HE INTERPRET; told them what their dreams presignified, what the events would be they portended; the interpretation was different according to their dreams....

CHAPTER 41 JOSEPH'S EXALTATION _ 1. Pharaoh's dreams (Genesis 41:1)_ 2. Joseph brought from the prison (Genesis 41:8) 3. Joseph's humility (Genesis 41:16) 4. The revealer of secrets (Genesis 41:17) 5. Joseph's wise counsel (Genesis 41:33) 6. Pharaoh's answer (Genesis 41:37) 7. Joseph's exaltation and marriage (Genesis 4

GENESIS 41. JOSEPH INTERPRETS PHARAOH'S DREAMS AND IS MADE VICEROY OF EGYPT. This is mainly from E, Genesis 41:1 apart from Genesis 41:15_ b_, and perhaps Genesis 41:9_ b_ entirely so. But J has been used as well in the later part. It is not worth while to attempt analysis since the two narratives must have been closely parallel. Genesis 41:46_ a_ belongs to P. The two dreams are modelled on the same lines, and mean the same thing (_cf. Genesis 37:5_ and Peter's triple vision,...

Joseph as Interpreter 8. _his spirit was troubled_ Compare the effect of the dreams in Genesis 40:6; Daniel 2:1-3. _all the magicians_ or, as R.V. marg., _sacred scribes_. The Heb. _ḥartummim_used in this chapter and Exodus 7-9 probably designates the priestly class, which was credited with the knowledge of all sacred mysteries, cf. Genesis 41:24; Exodus 7:11, &c. LXX renders by ἐξηγηταί = "interpreters," Lat. _conjectores_. The rendering "magicians" represents "possessors of occult knowledge or magic." The same Heb. word is used in...

2. _Joseph as Prisoner in Egypt_ (Genesis 39:1 to Genesis 41:45). 39 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh'S, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hand of the Ishmaelites, that had brought him down thither. 2 And Jehovah was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. 3 And his master saw that Jehovah was with him, and that Jehovah made all that he did to prosper in his hand. 4 And Joseph found favor in his sight, and he ministered unto him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. 5 And it came to pass from the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that Jehovah blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessi

THE DREAMS OF PHARAOH AND THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOSEPH 1. Pharaoh] It is believed that a dynasty of Asiatic (perhaps Bedouin) conquerors, known as the Hyksôs or Shepherd kings, were now in power in Egypt. Their rule lasted for 500 years, until 1700 or 1600 b.c., when a native Nubian dynasty from Thebes expelled the invaders. The court was at Zoan on the eastern frontier of Egypt. The elevation of Joseph to an almost royal position, and the welcome extended to his kinsmen, were natural at the hands of a dynasty who were Asiatic like himself, but very improbable had a native dynasty who hated foreigners been in power: see on Exodus 1:8....