Genesis 41:18

_AND, BEHOLD, THERE CAME UP OUT OF THE RIVER SEVEN KINE, FATFLESHED AND WELL FAVOURED; AND THEY FED IN A MEADOW:_ There came up out of the river. Cows, now of the buffalo kind, are seen daily plunging into the Nile; when their huge form is gradually emerging, they seem as if rising "out of the river." FED IN A MEADOW, х_ BAA'AACHUW_ (H260); Septuagint, en too achei] - cf. Job 8:11 - Nile grass, the aquatic plants that grow on the marshy banks of that river, particularly the lotus kind; on which cattle were usually fattened....

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...

Verse Genesis 41:18. _SEVEN KINE, FAT-FLESHED_] Genesis 41:2, Genesis 41:2. And observe farther, that the seven fat and the seven lean kine coming out of the same river plainly show, at once, the _cause_ both of the _plenty_ and the _dearth_. It is well known that there is scarcely any _rain_ in Egypt; and that the country depends for its fertility on the overflowing of the Nile; and that the fertility is in proportion to the _duration_ and _quantity_ of the overflow. We may therefore safely conclude that the seven years of plenty were owing to an _extraordinary overflowing_ of the Nile; and that the seven years of dearth were occasioned by a very partial,...

- 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, BEHOLD, THERE CAME UP OUT OF THE RIVER SEVEN KINE,.... Cows or heifers, Genesis 41:2; the account of them is the same here as there, and of the place where they fed, only the words are transposed....

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...

AND, BEHOLD, THERE CAME, &C.— "Phantasms in dreams," says Bishop Warburton, "were superstitiously thought to be _symbolical:_ God, therefore, when it was his good pleasure to send dreams to Pharaoh, made two well-known symbols the foundation of them; and this, doubtless, in order to engage the dreamer's more serious attention. But then, to confound the AEgyptian _oneirocritics_ or interpreters of dreams, these dreams were so circumstanced with matters foreign to the principles of their art, that there was need of a truly divine interpreter.—Pharaoh had two dreams, one of seven kine, the other of seven ears of corn. Both these phantasms were _symbols_ of AEgypt; the _ears_ denoting its distinguished _fertility_, the _kine_ its great tutelary patroness _Isis._ Pharaoh knew thus much without an interpreter; and hence arose his solicitude and anxiety to understand the rest, as a matter that...