Machir and Manabseh). *Born upon Joseph's knees,* i,e. recoenized by him as his descendants ; cf. 30^, Odi/88. xix. 401. • On 4161 ffid 19 naturally not to be taken au pied de la lettre. It is an old difficulty that Joseph did not, immediately after his elevation, take st«ps to info-m his father of his welfare ; but perhaps separations of this kind were taken in those days more M a matter of course than they would be by us ; and certainly, If Joseph had done this, both the interest and the moral of the narrative would have been greatly impaired.
into a state of dependency and indebtedness to it al the same time. Moreover, the Egyptian /c//<«/i lacks inherently the spirit of independence, and, even to the present day, is content to enrich others by his labour rather than himself. Of course such considerations as these do not justify in the abstract the oppressions to which Egyjit has habitually been exposed at the hands of Oriental viceroys and pashas ; but they tend to '•how that Joseph did not do more than was consistent with the condition of the countrj", with the agfe in which he lived, and with the position in wliich he found himself placed at the time.* Nevertheless, as Oelitzsch observes, the remark of Niebuhr remains true : ' the histoiy of Joseph is a dangerous precedent for designing ministers.
.loscpli was the reputed ancestor of the two tribes Manasseh and Ephraiin, the latter being the most powerful and important in Northern Israel. In the blessings of Jacob (Gn 49*'"'*) and Moses' (Dt 33'^""), 'Joseph' manifestly represents these two tribes, though no doubt in each the poet is thinking more particularly of Ephraim ; in each he descants upon the blessings of soil and climate, of populousness and military strength, enjoyed by the tribe ; and in each Joseph bears the title vnx i-ij ' the separate (or crowned) one of his brethren,' i.e. the tribe distinguished from the others by the possession, in a pre-eminent degree, of such distinctions as wealth, and influence, and political and military power. The terms of these blessings, and the enthusiasm which in each the poet displays for 'Joseph,' show that both spring from the period durmg which Ephraim was the leading tribe in Israel.t The two tribes are also grouped together elsewhere under the same common designation: not only in the expression 'children of Jo.seph,' Jos 16' 17'*- '» (J), Nu l'"- '", Jos 14' 18" al. (P), but also in house of Joseph,' Jos 17" 18', Jg 122-+23-+M 2 S 19»: 1 K 1128, and (like Ephraim in Hos) A pctiori of Northern Israel generally, Am 5", Ob I" (II ' house of Jacob '), Zee 10', and in 'Joseph' alone (sometimes representing N. Israel generally), Dt 27'" 33i»- '», Am 5'° 6'', Ezk 37"'- '» 47'^ 48'-, Ps77" ('the sons of Jacob and Joseph') 78" 80' (II 'Israel'), 81".
On Joseph-el, as the name of a place in Palestine in the 15th cent. B.C., see p. 526.
Date of Joseph. — The period of Egyptian history at Avhich the events or Joseph's life are to be placed, cannot be determined except inferentially. As in the Book of Exodus, the name of the Pharaoh is not mentioned ; and in view of the general fixity of Egyptian institutions, the allu- sions to Egyptian manners and customs, as Dilhn. remarks, are not sufficiently distinctive to (institute a clue to the age in which he lived.f The biblical dates, both of the Exodus and of the patriarchal age (which is dependent upon it, Ex 12*'), are too uncertain to form a secure basis for further chronological calculations (see CHRON- OLOGY, vol. i. p. 398). There are, however, strong reasons for supposing Ramses II. of the 19tn dynasty (B.C. 1275-1208, Petrie) to be the Pharaoh of the oppression (Ex 1*") ; and arguing back from this datum, it is probable that Joseph's
* Cf. the remarks and quotations illustrative of the economic condition of E^A-pt in the work of Vigouroux, cited below (p. "72 n.'), ii. 183-189; also Ebers, Qosen, 486-^ (ed. 2, 498 f.).
t In 2 S 19" («) LiX (niDJ for -nip, • I am also the firitbom more than thou,' the men of Israel claim the birthright — DO doubt on account of the prestige enjoyed by Ephraiin ; cf. 1 Oh 61- a : Ew. i. 422.
t Including here Benjamin(\n 2 3 19^ Shlmei, a Benjaminlte, speaks). Cf. Stade. Gesch. i. 160 £f.
§ Sayce'8 statement (ELIH 90, cf. 83), that the Egypt which the narrative brings before ub is that of the Hyksoe age, Is not warranted by the facta : not one of the illustrations quota' by him is dUtinctive of the Hyksos age, and the great majorit; art not drawn from that period at all.
JOSO'II
JOSEPH
n
elevation in E^'pt is to be placed ander one of the later Hyksos kings.* Tlie Hyksoa (i.e. Hyk- sha.su, 'prince of the Sbasu,' or 'spoilers,' i.e. desert-hordes, or Bedawis) were a race of Asiatic invaders, who (according to Manetho) held posses- Bion of Egypt for 511 years (n.c. 2098- 15S7, Petrie), at first devastating and destroying, but afterwards eettling doAvn, and assimilating much of the cul- ture of the conquered Egyptians (cf. vol. i. p. 659 f. ; Maspero, Struggle of yntions, 50 ff., 72 If.). Zoan (Tanis), in the N.E. of the Delta.t (as excava- tions have shown) was one of their chief cities. George the Sj'ncellus speaks of a general consensus of chronograi)liers to the effect that the Pharaoh of Joseph was Aphophis,^ i.e. Apepa (II.), the last important Hyk.sos King.§ As it happens, if we place the E.\odus at about B.C. 1204 (Petrie), this would agree with the data given in Ex 12" (12044-430= 16:W B.C.).