literally means the life, is capable of several explanations. Brugsch would refer it to a god of an Eastern nome of the Delta, as we have seen, but Pierret gives the word as used for a title of the Pharaoh; and if this were so at the time in question, the meaning would be very appropriate to Joseph as 'Nourisher of the land of the Pharaoh.' I cannot say that the suggestion of Steindorff1 commends itself to my mind.

The Pharaoh provides for his high minister as a fitting wife a lady of very exalted rank, daughter of the highpriest of On2. M. Naville has very well said: 'I believe that the king did it on purpose to have one of his men connected with the most ancient and the most venerated college of priests. The importance of Heliopolis as a religious centre comes out in many inscriptions, and it is natural that Apophis should attempt to create a link between his government and those priests, who most likely were of pure Egyptian origin. The priests in general must have been very powerful at that time, when we see Joseph respecting all their privileges, while he taxed so heavily the rest of the country 3.'

The name of Joseph's wife лDN (Asenath) is ex

by the name of the Sethroïtic Nome. It is this country, situated near Tanis, where Joseph and the Hebrews lived during the time of their sojourn in Egypt.' It is true that the god Tum is called in inscriptions found by M. Naville at Pithom, Nuter aä ankh, 'the great living god' (Store-city of Pithom, pp. 15, 16; pl. vii. A). Dr. Wiedemann is of opinion that 'the most likely Egyptian etymology is Pa-sent-en-pa-Ãnkh, "the strengthener of life" (cf. Lepsius, Chronol. p. 382)' (Sammlung Altaegyptischer Wörter, &c. p. 21). 1 Zeitschr. f. Aeg. Spr. 1889, p. 41.

2 See Appendix B.

3 Dr. Kurt Sethe has given an account of the worship, holy places, and ministry of Râ during the old empire of Egypt in the Zeitschrift for 1889, pp. 111 et seqq., in which the exact hieroglyphic titles of the priests and pro

plained by Egyptologists as 'belonging to Neith,' the great goddess. Her father is characteristically called 'the gift of Râ,' the sun-god.

To return now to the state of Egypt at the time of Joseph's viceroyalty. The time, as we believe, was drawing towards the close of the domination of the Hyksôs. The reluctant patriots of Egypt kept up and strengthened at Thebes the rival power of native princes, whose most interesting representative, the last of the three kings called Seqenen-Râ, now lies in the flesh in the Egyptian Museum of Gizeh, near Cairo, bearing fearful marks of the wounds by which he died in battle.

There is a celebrated papyrus (sadly mutilated) which tells of the culmination of a long rivalry of religions, the Sutekh-worship of the Hyksôs being put forward in an exclusive way by the last Apepi in an embassy to one of the Seqenen-Râs. It has been debated which of the three successive kings of this name who ruled at Thebes this may have been, but it now seems likely that the third, the 'very valiant,' was the man, and although he is there said to be merely a haq, or subordinate ruler, yet in his time he assumed full Pharaonic titles. It is, however, to be remembered that it was some time later than this that the founder of the XVIIIth Egyptian dynasty, Aahmes, succeeded in driving the foreign lords right out of Egypt, and pursuing them into Southern Palestine. phets of the great sun-god are recorded. That god was worshipped under the symbolism of the obelisk, which had its endowments and hierarchy.

A

CHAPTER VI.

JOSEPH'S ADMINISTRATION.

GES before this the splendour of Egyptian civilization had been fully developed, and the monuments, especially of the great IVth and XIIth dynasties, bear witness to a refinement and elaboration in the arts of social life which is altogether unequalled elsewhere at those early periods of the world's history.

The regal pomp of the court, the perfect order of administration down to the lowest details, the disciplined subordination of all ranks and offices, the magnificence of art, and the high development of agriculture and horticulture, under the genial climate, and with the fertilizing conditions of the Nile-floods and irrigation, concern us here in estimating the material which Joseph had in his hands.

For the days of despotic violence and destruction were long past, and probably the ordered system of government was as well established and worked as smoothly as that of British India in the present day. Especially we must now regard the culture of the black

and fruitful soil of the long green Nile valley, dependent wholly as it is upon the annual rising and overflow of the Nile. The details of farm-work are before our eyes in all their branches.

In our museums we have implements of husbandry, to which Mr. Flinders Petrie has now added most primeval sickles of wood, the cutting edge of which is formed of flint saws. He has also brought home the wooden cornshovel of a date earlier than Joseph, and the wooden hoes and ploughshares fit for the light soil. The grain was sown broadcast from the hand, and trodden by flocks of sheep into the moistened soil. When ripe for harvest it was reaped high up towards the ear, and not with short stubble as by us. The sheaves were bound and laid flat on the ground. The grain was thrashed out by the treading of oxen, and when winnowed was put into sacks, cleverly made to balance on the shoulder, and then poured into the great granaries through openings in the roof.

All these operations were methodically carried out under the eyes of stewards, and bailiffs, and gangers; and registered by scribes with that perfection of method so characteristic of the Egyptians, the actual inventors of red tape.

Although it may appear at first sight in the Book of Genesis that all the produce of the seven rich years was stored, yet the definite proposal in Gen. xli. 34 to 'fifth the land' must guide us in construing the rest; and, as Archdeacon Norris has shown, it is likely enough that, taking into account the extreme productiveness of the seven plentiful years, Joseph had in his granaries enough to sustain the people at the ordinary rate of con

sumption during seven years of absolute barrenness.' But of course the example would be largely followed, and all would not depend on the government stores. It was not till 'all the land of Egypt was famished' that the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.'

M. Naville remarks: How very Egyptian verse 49 of the same chapter; compare line 11 of the great tablet of Abu Simbel: "I will give thee corn in abundance, to enrich Egypt in all times; the wheat is like the sand of the shore; the granaries reach the sky, and the heaps are like mountains."

Dean Milman remarks on the agrarian law of the Hebrews 'The outline of this plan may have been Egyptian. The king of that country, during the administration of Joseph, became proprietor of the whole land, and leased it out on a reserved rent of one-fifth, exactly the two-tenths or tithes paid by the Israelites'' Mr. Finn writes: 'To this day in Palestine the cultivator gives the owner of the land one-fifth, if he has found not only labour, but cattle and seed. If the owner gives cattle and seed as well, the cultivator only gets one-fifth of the produce 2.'

The Arab historians El-Makrizi and Abd-el-Latif, of the eleventh and twelfth Christian centuries, describe fearful famines in Egypt, the former of which lasted seven years. The details of starvation are full of horror, and are partly given by Dean Stanley.

As regards the famine of Joseph's own time, it has

1 History of the Jews, vol. i. p. 231.

2

During Syrian rule the Jews' paid one-third of the produce of all that was sown, and one half of that from fruit-trees' (Edersheim, Jewish Social Life, p. 52). On the division of the land in Egypt, see Revue Egyptologique, 1883, p. IOI..