Kamines of long duration, due to the Nile failing to overflow, are not nnknow-n in Egypt : not only is one attested by El-Makrizi, the Arabic historian, for A.D. 1064-1071, §§ but the sepulchral inscription of one Baba, found at El-Kab in Upper Egypt, represents the deceased, in an enumeration
• Ebere, Dm 1797 : cf. Petrie, Hitt. IL 90, 172, 198 ; Bnigsch, Uitl. 321, and Mjtploiogit (18U1X 84, £07, Ptohmoses 'into whose hand the land was ^ven, and on whose fist was the king's seal'; Tomkins, 47.
t Km\an, p. 118 f., with the Illustrations on pp. 120 (E/ being decorated by Anicnflphis iv.), 2118 ; cf. 108; Wilk.-B. ill. 370 1., with the Plate (inve»liture of a governor with chain of oflice by Setl I.); Vigouroux. 11. 128 (a similar scene from a stele in the Louvre): Ebere, XDild. 1877, p. 462f. The ooUare were often of massive and cohlly worknuinship.
1 lirugsch, Ui»t. p. 114 f. (another example, p. 103 t.); or Petrie. llitl. II. 21-23.
; Cf. Emian, 111, 448 ; Petrie, 7alsf, L 12S ; Herod. U. S7 (for priesu). SI ; Elk 27'.
I Ennan. 62. 2u0, 2ia
I Ennan. 40li f. (I'nder the isth, and e»p. the 19th, dynasty, many Semitic words found their wav int.. Eg%-ptlan ; ib. 6161.; Bnigwh, Wsf., SIR! (I.: Petrie. Ilitt. il. 14» 150.)
•• Knnan. 06 (an Illustration).
tl Some locality In llashan, according to W. Max MoUsr, Asim und Kurvpa norA aJI>uj^j>t. /Vni-Tn.i/em, 27S.
II Entuin, lOfl, M7 f-, 618 n. ('manv suiiiUr examples').
it See Smith. OB. f r. KAMlItl. T)ic ternl.le effects of a one
fear's famine (t.D. Ill») are desrritwd at length by AMoItatU ed. White, 180U, p. ilulT. : sitracU is BtaalsT, Jsscisk CkunK. . 79f. ; Vigouroux, 174 0.)
774
JOSEi'lI
JOSEPH
of his virtues, as saying, ' I collected corn, as a friend of the harvest goJ. I was watchful at the time of so« iug. And iv/ien a/nmine arvse, lasting mani) years, I distrihuted com to tlie city each year of famine." The age of Baba (end of the 17th uvn.) would coincide approximately with that of Joseph ; and it has even been supposed that the famine referred to may be the same. Ameni (or Amony), governor of the ' nome of the Gazelle,' under L sertesen II. (12 dyn.), tells us that he made provision for his people, very much as Joseph did : ' In uiy time there were no poor, and none were hungry. When the years of famine came, I ploughed all the fields of the nome, I kept the inhabitants alive, and gave them food, so that not one was hungry.' t
42*. The charge of being spies was a natural one : Egypt was e.xposed on its E. side, and liable to be invaded by Asiatics ; under the 12th dyn. fortresses had been erected along the Isthmus of Suez, and under the 19th dyn. officers were stationed there to take the names of all passing in either direction. J The oath ' by the life of Pharaoh ' (42") is known from Egyptian monu- ments : in an account of criminal proceedings (20th dyn.), a thief has administered to him an oath by tlie king's life, to prevent him speaking falsely : § in a similar document, published by Chabas, the expression ' il fit un Vie da Seigneur royal ' occurs more than once.ll
43". The expression ' steward of his house ' (OT3 Sp ■l:^l^) is explained above, on 39*. Every great man in Egypt had such an overseer for his establishment. On Egyptian feasts, cf. the Plates in Erman, opposite pp. 250, 255, or Wilk.-B. i. 431 : the guests did not sit round a table, as with ns, but on rows of chairs, facing a sideboard ; the ^ands, interspersed with rich floral decora- tions, were arranged ou this, and carried round to the guests by servants. On Egyptian houses, which were often on a large scale, Erman, 174 if. In explanation of v.*^"", see Abomination, No. 1 ; and cf. (Ebers) how it is said, after Pianchi's con- quest of Egypt (B.C. 766), that the defeated kings ' did not enter the king's house, because they were unclean (i.e. uncircumcised), and they ate fish, which is an abomination to the king (Brugsch, p. 404, 1. 150 f.).
43-' ' in full weight ' (lit. in its weight). Egyptian money consisted of rings of gold (probalily un- stamped), which were weighed by scribes who made this their business (Erman, 109, 464 ; Wilk.- B. i. 285, 286). However, the practice of 'weigh- ing' money was also usual among the Hebrews, even to a late date (Jer 32' >», Zee 11" etc.).
45« • a father ('aJ) to Pharaoh,' v.» (cf. 42«>- ") ' lord i'adon) of all Egypt.' Brugsch has pointed out that both 'ab and adon were official titles in Egyptian.
Ab (or at>u) doea not meui • father ' In ^jp., bnt denotes primarily the overteer of a kitchen, wine-cellar, bakery, etc.; then In the 19th dyn. the afrit of the king becomea an im-
• Brugsch, Bitt. ed. 8, L 8M ; ed. 1891, p. 121. Called BeM In Mas|)ero, Struggle, 86.
t /6. p. 61 : or Erman, p. 94. The eeven-yeara' famine under king Toser (?) o( the 3rd dyn. (e. 4400 b.c.) is known only from the late and doubtful testimony of an inscription forged by some pricsta of the 3rd cent. b.c. to support their claim to an ancient tithe : Brugsch, Steininschri/t u. Bibtlicort (1891) 88-97 ; Savce, HCM 217 f. Brugsch thinks that this is the famine, of which a tradition had reached the Biblical writer, bat that he connected it incorrectly with Joseph.