Signs and Wonders (17 page)

“You speak dire things, Hebrew. Are you certain of what you say?”

“Very certain. God doubled the dream for you to show you that He meant all this to begin at once. This year shall be the first year of plenty. You have seven years of plenty in which to prepare for the famine that will follow.”

“But can I believe you? Or are these vain words and empty boasting?”

“Consult yourself, O Pharaoh,” said Joseph. “It was in your own slumbering imagination that God planted the seeds of these: prophetic visions. Out of your own head came these night pictures. Ask yourself if the meaning I have given your dreams does not echo your inward feelings.”

“Does your god have anything else to tell me?”

“These dreams are warnings. He warns you to guard your people against the great famine. This is what I advise: Select a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt to speak for you and act for you in the matter of provisioning. Let this man of yours appoint officers for different districts to do his bidding. And this is what he must do in your name. He must send men to each farm and take one fifth of each food crop; this food must be put into separate granaries and stored there and not eaten. Thus for the grain. Also a fifth part of every herd and flock of kine and goats and sheep must be separated out and kept in special places and not slaughtered until the years of famine come. Thus, with God’s help, you will be able to put aside enough food during these years of plenty to feed your people during the time of famine, and they will not perish. It is God’s wish that you do this. That is why he sent you the double dream.”

Pharaoh called his wise men and magicians to him and told them how Joseph had interpreted his dreams. And Pharaoh cried: “I will do as he says. I will appoint a chief officer. But where will I find a man discreet and wise to do this great work? A man through whom the spirit of god speaks, uttering words of wisdom.”

There was silence. No one answered. And Pharaoh said: “Behold the man! It is he himself, the man who has spoken the meaning of my dreams after my wise men and magicians failed. He has been sent to do this work himself, and it is him I choose.”

Then he said to Joseph: “Since your god has shown you his intention, I believe he has selected you for me. So I will put you over my house, and my people shall be ruled according to your word. And only I on my throne shall be greater than you are. Joseph, Hebrew, reader of dreams, I put you over all the land of Egypt. Here is my ring. Wear it, and rule.”

Pharaoh took a ring off his finger and put it on Joseph, and put a gold chain about his neck, and ordered the royal tailor to make him garments of fine linen. He gave him a golden chariot, and gave him men to run before him, crying, “Bend the knee!” And Joseph was second only to Pharaoh in Egypt and ruled the land.

Pharaoh esteemed Joseph beyond all men and gave him an Egyptian name, Zaphenathpaneah, meaning “revealer of secret things.” And Joseph took to wife the daughter of the head priest. Her name was Asenath and she was beautiful. He was thirty years old when he began to govern. He went to every corner of the land, instructing the people how to put aside a part of their harvest in the years of plenty and save it against the years of famine. He gathered up all the food that was saved during these seven years and laid it up in granaries near the cities. And he built great storehouses for the enormous quantity of wheat and barley.

During these years, Asenath bore Joseph two sons. He named the firstborn Manasseh, which means “forgetting,” because the Lord’s bounty had made him forget his past suffering. His second son he named Ephraim, meaning “fruitful.” “Because,” said Joseph, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

The seven years ended, the years of plenty, in which Joseph had taken of this plenty and saved grain against the years of famine. Now the time of want began. No rain fell; crops withered in the field. No grass grew, and the cattle starved. But Joseph had laid up grain in the storehouses and food for the cattle, as well. And when famine lay on the land and the people cried out unto Pharaoh for bread, he said: “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.” The people went to Joseph, who opened the storehouses and sold them enough grain to keep off hunger.

The Brothers

Famine lay on all the lands in that part of the world, on the lands bordering the Inner Sea and as far inland as the Chaldees. But there had been no food saved in those lands, and the people were starving. They came to Egypt to buy corn.

There was famine in Canaan, also. People died in the cities and dropped in the fields. Jacob and his sons had great flocks and herds, but the grass had withered on the meadows and there was nothing to feed them. The sheep were dying, and the goats and the cattle. Jacob and his sons killed the beasts for food, but they needed grain for themselves and for the stock. And Jacob said to his sons: “We are in want, but you do nothing. You stand here staring. What do you expect to read in one another’s foolish faces?”

“What would you have us do?” said Judah.

“Get you down to Egypt. Their granaries are full of corn, and they are selling it. I have heard this. Take money and go, all ten of you. I shall keep Benjamin here with me.”

Benjamin was the youngest, the last son of Rachel. And Jacob feared that some terrible thing might happen to this lad, also, if he went down into Egypt.

The sons of Jacob, the ten brothers of Joseph, journeyed southward from Canaan and crossed into Egypt. They came to buy food and they brought gold with them. But when they sought to buy, they were told they would have to see one called Zaphenathpaneah, who was Pharaoh’s governor, and who kept all business in his hands. “Go to see him,” they were told. “He alone can sell you corn.”

Now, Joseph was master of all Egypt and had ruled in Pharaoh’s name for many years. He was looked upon as a savior, for the people knew that it was he who had taught them to put aside grain against the famine. He lived in a great palace, second only to Pharaoh’s, and was attended by servants. Fountains played in the courtyard. The air was cool and scented by flowers.

The weary, travel-worn brothers were awed by such pomp, and were uneasy as they waited for the great man to appear. His word was life or death to them. If he refused to sell to them and they had to return to Canaan without corn, then, they knew, it was only a matter of time before they must starve, they and their families. Trumpets blared. Armed men marched into the courtyard, clanking their weapons, and formed a double row of spears. Through the aisle of spears came a man. He was clad in gorgeous robes. His face was shaved. A ring shaped like a great golden beetle glittered on his finger. On his arms were bands of beaten gold. He walked toward the brothers. And they knew that they were in the presence of the mighty one, the governor of the land of Egypt. They bowed very low before him.

Joseph, walking into the courtyard, saw the ten men bowing before him. Time turned inside out. He was back in his youth, back in that first dream that had offended his brothers. And, lo, the dream had engulfed them. Here they were in Egypt, bowing before him even as their sheaves of wheat had bowed to his. He knew them immediately. But they did not know him. They had last seen him as a boy, and now he was a man, in the flower of his years, clad in power. He wished to hide his knowledge of Hebrew, and spoke through an interpreter. “Where do you come from?”

“From the land of Canaan,” said Reuben. “To buy food.”

Joseph looked at them closely to see if he could name each one. Twenty years had passed, but he knew them as surely as when they had bound him and flung him into the pit. He looked at Simeon and his voice grew very stern. “You are spies,” he said. “You have come into Egypt to spy out the nakedness of the land. And you will return to Canaan and gather men, perchance, and seek to attack us.”

When the brothers heard this, they were stricken with great fear. This man was all-powerful. If he believed them to be spies, he could order them imprisoned, tortured, beheaded, anything he wished.

“No, my lord!” cried Judah. “We are not spies. We are shepherds. We have come to buy corn. For there is hunger in Canaan.”

“It is a simple matter for spies to pass themselves off as shepherds,” said Joseph.

“Please, my lord,” said Judah. “Please hear our tale. We are brothers, the son of one man.”

“That man—your father—is he alive?”

“He lives, my lord.”

“He must be quite old.”

“Very old, master. But vigorous.”

“And he had ten sons?”

“Twelve sons, my lord.”

“I count but ten.”

“Twelve brothers are we,” said Judah. “But one is dead, and the youngest son is at home with his father. And we have come into Egypt to buy food. For our cattle starve today, and our families starve tomorrow.”

“I have heard that tale before,” said Joseph. “And spies have come before, and have not returned to their own lands. For we did not permit it, but made them suffer grievously for their spying.”

“We are your servants,” said Judah. “And you are our master. How can we prove to you that we are not spies?”

“Hear me. You shall not go out of Egypt unless you pledge to bring back your youngest brother and leave him with me as bond for your lives. One of you may go into Canaan to fetch him. The rest of you shall be kept here in prison until your words be proved. And if your youngest brother does not come, then I shall know that you are all spies, and your heads shall be lifted from your bodies.”

He raised his arm. The soldiers advanced and surrounded the brothers, Joseph spoke, and they were taken off to prison. They were kept in prison three days, and they despaired for their lives. But on the third day Joseph ordered them released.

They were ushered into his presence. They bowed low and waited for his words. “Rise,” he said. “My God has bidden me be merciful. I shall release you, all except one, who will stand bond for the rest. Nine of you shall return to Canaan, and I shall give you grain to feed your families and your flocks. But I require you to return from Canaan with your youngest brother to redeem the brother who has been left here. If you do not return, the life of him you leave in Egypt is forfeit.”

The brothers conferred, and Judah cried out, “This is God’s vengeance! It falls upon us because we sold Joseph into slavery. We heard his cries, we saw his tears, we knew the anguish of his soul when he begged us not to do what we were doing. We sold him for twenty pieces of silver and watched him being marched off under the lash. Therefore we have come to this pass.”

Reuben said: “Did I not warn you? Do not sin against the child, I said. But we did. Now we see that we have incurred blood guilt and must pay.”

They spoke in Hebrew and did not know that Joseph could understand, for he had always addressed them through an interpreter. And when Joseph heard what his brothers were saying, he turned and wept. Then he went back to them with his soldiers, who took Simeon from among the brothers and bound him with thongs.

Simeon did not utter a word, but stood there, head flung back, eyes stony with despair. For the first time in twenty years he felt the blood guilt descend upon him, thick and deadly. He knew that of all the brothers he had sinned most sorely against Joseph. He spoke to his brothers again, saying, “Do not return with Benjamin. Let me be killed for what I have done. Do not return, or he will kill all of you. He hates us, and is the instrument of the Lord’s vengeance.”

Then Simeon was taken to prison, and Joseph bade his men fill the strangers’ sacks with corn, and bade his steward return every man’s payment and put the gold secretly in the sacks with the corn. He spoke no more to the brothers.

They loaded their donkeys with the sacks of grain and departed. They stopped for a meal on the way. Asher opened his sack to get grain for his donkey and saw a pouch of gold in the sack’s mouth. “My money is restored,” he said to his brothers. “It is in the sack.” Each man looked in his sack and found his gold there. And they were again stricken with fear, for they thought they would be accused of stealing back what they had paid and would be pursued by the Egyptians and imprisoned. But no one pursued them. They continued on their way and crossed over into Canaan. They went to the tents of Jacob and told their story.

“Simeon in prison!” he cried. “What manner of brothers are you? You do not preserve one another. Once you departed and returned, and Joseph was not among you. You brought me back only his bloody coat. Now you return without Simeon, the stalwart Simeon, and leave him to rot in an Egyptian dungeon.”

“Do not reproach us,” said Reuben. “We shall return for Simeon and bring him up out of Egypt. It is part of the bargain.”

“What bargain?” said Jacob.

“The governor keeps Simeon only as bond,” said Judah. “He thought we were spies. If we return with Benjamin we can redeem Simeon.”

“You shall not return with Benjamin,” said Jacob. “You shall not give your youngest brother to the Egyptians. You have bereft me of my children. Joseph is gone. Simeon is gone. Now you would take Benjamin. Never!”

Reuben said: “I shall leave my two sons with you. If we do not return with Benjamin, you may slay them. They are my bond.”

“I do not wish to slay your sons,” said Jacob. “And I do not wish to lose my sons. Benjamin shall not go with you. Joseph is gone, and I have no other son of Rachel. If anything happens to Benjamin, then you will finally bring down my gray hairs in sorrow to the grave.”

The brothers saw that their father would not allow Benjamin to depart and said no more. And famine lay on the land and people starved. Soon all the grain that the brothers had brought back from Egypt was eaten up, and Jacob said to them: “Go back to Egypt. Buy more corn.”

Judah took Jacob aside and spoke to him alone. “All grain is in the hands of the governor. And he gave us his solemn word that we would never again go into his presence unless we took Benjamin with us.”

“Why?” cried Jacob. “Why must he have Benjamin?”

“That I do not know,” said Judah. “I have thought about it, and there is no answer. But this I know: We cannot return to Egypt without Benjamin. And if we do not return we must surely starve.”