JACOB AND JOSEPH
APPEARANCES OF THESE NAMES IN BABYLONIAN AND EGYPTIAN RECORDS. “THE
TALE OF THE TWO BROTHERS”; ITS BEARING ON THE STORY OF JOSEPH IN
GENESIS. LETTERS TO A RULER LIKE JOSEPH. THE SEVEN YEARS OF FAMINE.
INSCRIPTION SHOWING PREPARATION FOR FAMINE.
=1. Jacob.=
Three different men in Babylonia at the time of the Hammurapi dynasty bore
the name Jacob-el. Thus, in the reign of Apil-Sin, the fourth king of the
dynasty (2161 to 2144 B. C.), two witnesses, Shubna-ilu and Yadakh-ilu
gave their father’s name as _Yakub-ilu_, or Jacob-el.[427] In the same
reign a witness to another document, one Lamaz, had a Jacob-el as his
father.[428] In the reign of Sin-muballit, the next king, a witness named
Nur-Shamash was also the son of a Jacob-el.[429] In the reign of the great
Hammurapi, the next king, a witness named Sin-erbiam gave his father’s
name simply as _Yakub_,[430] or Jacob. This last is clearly a shortening
of Jacob-el. These men all lived from 75 to 190 years before the
Babylonian Abraham, whose documents are discussed in Chapter IX.
In connection with these names it should be noted that Thothmes III of
Egypt, who made extensive conquests in Asia between 1478 and 1446 B. C.,
records the name of a city which he captured in Palestine as
_Ya-‘-k-b’-ra_, the Egyptian equivalent of Jacob-el.[431] It does not seem
a rash guess to suppose that in the period when intercourse between
Babylonia and Palestine was frequent and immigration from the former
country to the latter was in progress, some Babylonian bearing this name
migrated to Palestine, settled there and that a city was named after him.
Many parallels to this may be found in the names of places in the United
States and Canada. That this place name in Canaan had some connection with
the name of the Patriarch Jacob is probable, though just what that
connection was it is impossible in the present state of our knowledge to
say.
=2. Joseph.=
A Babylonian business document of the time of the first dynasty of Babylon
has among its witnesses a man named _Yashub-ilu_, or Joseph-el.[432]
In the list of places which Thothmes III of Egypt conquered in Palestine
there is one _Ya-sha-p’-ra_, which many scholars have taken to be
Joseph-el, though Prof. W. Max Müller[433] thinks it rather is equivalent
to Yesheb-el, meaning “where God dwells.” In view of the clear Babylonian
equivalence, however, it seems probable that it is Joseph-el. If so, it
probably became a place-name in Palestine because some important
Babylonian who bore the name settled there, just as we have supposed
Jacob-el did. Some scholars hold that it is connected with the name of the
Patriarch Joseph in some way, but what that connection was, we cannot now
say.
=3. The Tale of the Two Brothers.=[434]
Once there were two brethren, of one mother and one father; Anpu was
the name of the elder, and Bata was the name of the younger. Now, as
for Anpu, he had a house, and he had a wife. But his little brother
was to him, as it were, a son; he it was who made for him his clothes;
he it was who followed behind his oxen to the fields; he it was who
did the plowing; he it was who harvested the corn; he it was who did
for him all the matters which were in the field. Behold his younger
brother grew to be an excellent worker; there was not his equal in the
whole land; behold the spirit of a god was in him.
Now after this the younger brother followed his oxen in the daily
manner; and every evening he turned again to the house, laden with all
the herbs of the field, with milk and with wood, and with all things
of the field. And he put them down before his elder brother who was
sitting with his wife; and he drank and ate, and he lay down in his
stable with the cattle. And at the dawn of day he took bread which he
had baked, and laid it before his elder brother; and he took with him
his bread to the field, and he drave his cattle to pasture in the
fields. And as he walked behind his cattle, they said to him, “Good is
the herbage which is in that place”; and he listened to all that they
said, and he took them to the good place which they desired. And the
cattle which were before him were exceeding excellent, and they
multiplied greatly.
Now at the time of plowing his elder brother said unto him, “Let us
make ready for ourselves a goodly yoke of oxen for plowing, for the
land has come out from the water; it is fit for plowing. Moreover, do
thou come to the field with corn, for we will begin the plowing in the
morrow morning.” Thus said he to him; and his younger brother did all
things as his elder brother had spoken unto him to do them.
And when the morn was come, they went to the fields with their things;
and their hearts were pleased exceedingly with their task in the
beginning of their work. And it came to pass after this that as they
were in the field they stopped for corn, and he sent his younger
brother, saying, “Haste thou, bring to us corn from the farm.” And the
younger brother found the wife of his elder brother, as she was
sitting tiring her hair. He said to her, “Get up, and give to me corn,
that I may run to the field, for my elder brother hastened me; do not
delay.” She said to him, “Go open the bin, and thou shalt take to
thyself according to thy will, that I may not drop my locks of hair
while I dress them.”
The youth went to the stable; he took a large measure, for he desired
to take much corn; he loaded it with wheat and barley; and he went out
carrying it. She said to him, “How much of the corn that is wanted, is
that which is on thy shoulder?” He said to her, “Three bushels of
barley, and two of wheat, in all five; these are what are upon my
shoulder:” thus said he to her. And she conversed with him, saying,
“There is great strength in thee, for I see thy might every day.” And
her heart knew him with the knowledge of youth. And she arose and came
to him, and conversed with him, saying, “Come stay with me, and it
shall be well for thee, and I will make for thee beautiful garments.”
Then the youth became like a panther of the south with fury at the
evil speech which she had made to him; and she feared greatly. And he
spake unto her, saying, “Behold thou art to me as a mother, thy
husband is to me as a father, for he who is elder than I brought me
up. What is this wickedness that thou hast said to me? Say it not to
me again. For I will not tell it to any man, for I will not let it be
uttered by the mouth of any man.” He lifted up his burden, and he went
to the field and came to his elder brother; and they took up their
work, to labor at their task.
Now afterward, at eventime, his elder brother was returning to his
house; and the younger brother was following after his oxen, and he
loaded himself with all the things of the field; and he brought his
oxen before him, to make them lie down in their stable which was in
the farm. And behold the wife of the elder brother was afraid for the
words which she had said. She took a parcel of fat, she became like
one who is evilly beaten, desiring to say to her husband, “It is thy
younger brother who has done this wrong.” Her husband returned in the
even as was his wont of every day: he came unto his house; he found
his wife ill of violence; she did not give him water upon his hands as
he used to have, she did not make a light before him, his house was in
darkness, and she was lying very sick. Her husband said to her, “Who
has spoken with thee?” Behold she said, “No one has spoken with me
except thy younger brother. When he came to take for thee corn he
found me sitting alone; he said to me, ‘Come, let us stay together,
tie up thy hair’: thus spoke he to me. I did not listen to him, but
thus spake I to him: ‘Behold, am I not thy mother, is not thy elder
brother to thee as a father?’ And he feared, and he beat me to stop me
from making report to thee, and if thou lettest him live I shall die.
Now behold he is coming in the evening; and I complain of these wicked
words, for he would have done this even in daylight.”
And the elder brother became as a panther of the south; he sharpened
his knife; he took it in his hand; he stood behind the door of the
stable to slay his younger brother as he came in the evening to bring
his cattle into the stable.
Now the sun went down, and he loaded himself with herbs in his daily
manner. He came, and his foremost cow entered the stable, and she said
to her keeper, “Behold thy elder brother standing before thee with his
knife to slay thee; flee from before him.” He heard what his first cow
had said; and the next entering, she also said likewise. He looked
beneath the door of the stable; he saw the feet of his elder brother;
he was standing behind the door, and his knife was in his hand. He
cast down his load to the ground, and betook himself to flee swiftly;
and his elder brother pursued after him with his knife. Then the
younger brother cried out unto Rā Harakhti,[435] saying, “My good
lord! thou art he who divides the evil from the good.” And Rā stood
and heard his cry; and Rā made a wide water between him and his elder
brother, and it was full of crocodiles; and the one brother was on one
bank, and the other on the other bank; and the elder brother smote
twice on his hands at not slaying him. Thus did he. And the younger
brother called to the elder brother on the bank, saying, “Stand still
until the dawn of the day; and when Rā ariseth, I shall judge with
thee before him, and he discerneth between the good and the evil. For
I shall not be with thee any more forever; I shall not be in the place
in which thou art; I shall go to the valley of the acacia.”
We need not follow the story further. Those who wish to do so are referred
to Petrie’s _Egyptian Tales_. From this point onward, it contains many
mythological features.
This story, in the form in which we have it, was written for Seti II
(1209-1205 B. C.) of the nineteenth Egyptian dynasty, while that monarch
was still crown prince. Scholars of all shades of opinion have recognized
in it a striking parallel to the story of Joseph in the house of Potiphar,
in Genesis 39:1-20. Joseph, like the younger brother of this tale, was
trusted with everything about his master’s place; Potiphar’s wife, like
the sister-in-law of the tale, tempted Joseph; Joseph, like the younger
brother, resisted temptation; and Potiphar’s wife, like the sister-in-law,
charged him with the crime which he had been unwilling to commit.
Scholars of the critical school regard this as the original of the story
in Genesis. While they recognize that it is a theme which is not confined
to Egyptians and Hebrews (compare for other parallels Lang, _Myth, Ritual,
and Religion_, II, 303, ff.), the fact that the theme of the Biblical
story is laid in Egypt leads them to think it extremely probable that
there is a connection between the two.
Conservative scholars on the other hand hold that in all probability there
was more than one such scandal in Egypt, and account for the likeness by
the similarity which would naturally present itself in such cases, holding
that the Egyptian tale has no bearing on the credibility of that in
Genesis.
=4. Letters to a Ruler Like Joseph.=
Among the letters in the Babylonian language and script found at El-Amarna
in Egypt in the winter of 1887-1888,[436] many of which were written to
Amenophis III and Amenophis IV, Kings of Egypt, 1411-1357 B. C., by
Egyptian vassals in Palestine and Syria, there are two which were written
to a Semite named Dûdu (David), which show that this Semite held at the
Egyptian court a position analogous to that which Joseph, as ruler of
Egypt, is said to have held (Gen. 41:39, f.; 50:26). These letters are as
follows:
I[437]
1. To Dûdu, my lord, my father,
2. speaks Aziru, thy son, thy servant:
3. at the feet of my father I fall.
4. Unto my father may there be health!
5. O Dûdu, truly I have given (_i. e._, done)
6. the wish of the king, my lord,
7. and whatever is the wish
8. of the king, my lord, let him send
9. and I will give (do) it.
10. Further: see, thou art there,
11. my father, and whatever is the wish
12. of Dûdu, my father, send it
13. and I will indeed give (do) it.
14. Behold, thou art my father and my lord
15. and I am thy son. The lands of the Amorites
16. are thy lands, and my house is thy house,
17. and whatever thy wish is,
18. send, and I
19. shall behold, and verily will give (do) it.
20. And see, thou in the presence of
21. the king, my lord, sittest.
22. ............ enemies
23. words of slander
24. before my father, before
25. the king, my lord, have spoken,
26. but do thou not count them just!
27. And behold thou in the presence
28. of the king, my lord, as a dignitary (?)
29. sittest ....................
30. and the words of slander
31. against me do not count true.
32. Also I am a servant of the king, my lord,
33. and from the words of the king, my lord,
34. and from the words of Dûdu, my father,
35. I shall not depart forever.
36. But when the king, my lord, does not love me,
37. but hates me,
38. then I--what shall I say?
II[438]
1. To Dûdu, my lord, my father,
2. speaks Aziru, thy servant:
3. at the feet of my lord I fall.
4. Khatib has come
5. and has brought the words
6. of the king, my lord, important and good,
7. and I am very, very glad,
8. and my land and my brethren,
9. the servants of the king, my lord,
10. and the servants of Dûdu, my lord,
11. are very, very glad,
12. when there comes
13. the breath of the king, my lord,
14. unto me. From the words
15. of my lord, my god, my sun-god,
16. and from the words of Dûdu,
17. my lord, I shall not depart.
18. My lord, truly Khatib
19. stands with me.
20. I and he will come.
21. My lord, the king of the Hittites
22. has come into Nukhashshi,
23. so that I cannot come.
24. Would that the king of the Hittites would depart!
25. Then truly I would come,
26. I and Khatib.
27. May the king, my lord, my words
28. hear! My lord, I fear
29. on account of the face of the king, my lord,
30. and on account of the face of Dûdu.
31. And now by my gods
32. and my angels verily I have sworn,
33. O Dûdu and nobles
34. of the king, my lord, that truly I will come.
35. And so, Dûdu
36. and the king, my lord, and the nobles,
37. “Truly we will not conceive anything
38. against Aziru that is unfavorable,”--
39. even thus may ye swear
40. by my gods and the god A!
41. And truly I
42. and Khatib are faithful servants of the king.
43. O Dûdu, thou shalt truly know
44. that I will come to thee.
The Aziru of these letters was the chieftain or petty king of the
Amorites, who were living at the time to the eastward of Phœnicia, between
the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains. The way in which he addresses Dûdu
is significant. Dûdu is classed continually with the king. Aziru fears to
offend Dûdu as he fears to offend the king; the words of Dûdu are of equal
importance with those of the king. Dûdu clearly occupied a position of
power with the king of Egypt similar to that ascribed to Joseph in Genesis
41. Moreover, Dûdu is a Semitic name; vocalized a little differently, it
becomes David.
The king to whom this letter was written was Amenophis III or Amenophis
IV, in whose reigns Semitic influence was especially strong in Egypt.
Amenophis III took as his favorite wife a woman named Tiy, daughter of
Yuaa and Tuau, whose mummies, discovered a few years ago, show, some
think, that they were Semitic. Queen Tiy was very influential during the
reign of her son, Amenophis IV, and was in part the cause of the
remarkable religious reform which he undertook (Part I, Chapter I, § 6
(vii)). It is not, accordingly, strange to find that the chief minister of
one of these kings was a Semite. Of course, Dûdu cannot be identified with
Joseph, but his career shows that such careers as that of Joseph were not
impossible at this period of Egyptian history.
=5. The Seven Years of Famine.=
The following inscription was found cut on a rock between the island of
Elephantine and the First Cataract, and was first published by Brugsch in
1891. It is written in hieroglyphic characters, and was apparently
inscribed in the reign of Ptolemy X, 117-89 B. C. It relates how King
Zoser, of the third dynasty, who began to reign about 2980 B. C., nearly
2,800 years before the inscription was written, appealed to Khnum, the god
of Elephantine, because of a famine. The part of the text which interests
us is as follows:[439]
“I am very anxious on account of those who are in the palace. My heart
is in great anxiety on account of misfortune, for in my time the Nile
has not overflowed for a period of seven years. There is scarcely any
produce of the field; herbage fails; eatables are wanting. Every man
robs his neighbor. Men move (?) with nowhere to go. The children cry,
the young people creep along (?). The aged heart is bowed down; their
limbs are crippled; they sit (?) on the earth. Their arms are ........
The people of the court are at their wits’ end. The store-houses (?)
were built, but .......... and all that was in them has been
consumed.”
As Brugsch[440] saw, this inscription gives a graphic account of the
suffering caused by seven such years of famine as are said to have
occurred in the time of Joseph (Gen. 41:30, 54, ff.). It cannot be the
same seven-year famine as that referred to in Genesis, as it is placed
several centuries too early to coincide with the time of Joseph. As the
inscription is about 2,800 years later than the event it describes, its
historical accuracy might be questioned, but it is probable that it was a
renewal of an earlier inscription. But even if its historical accuracy be
impugned, it witnesses to a native Egyptian tradition that such famines
were possible.
=6. Inscription Showing Preparation for Famine.=
Inscription of Baba of El-Kab[441]
“The chief at the table of the sovereign, Baba, the risen again,
speaks thus: I loved my father; I honored my mother; my brothers and
sisters loved me. I went out of the door of my house with a benevolent
heart; I stood there with refreshing hand; splendid were my
preparations of what I collected for the festal day. Mild was (my)
heart, free from violent anger. The gods bestowed upon me abundant
prosperity upon earth. The city wished me health and a life of full
enjoyment. I punished the evil-doers. The children who stood before me
in the town during the days which I fulfilled were--great and
small--60; just as many beds were provided for them, just as many
chairs (?), just as many tables (?). They all consumed 120 ephahs of
durra, the milk of 3 cows, 52 goats, and 9 she-asses, a hin of balsam,
and 2 jars of oil.
“My words may seem a jest to the gainsayer, but I call the god Mut to
witness that what I say is true. I had all this prepared in my house;
in addition I put cream in the store-chamber and beer in the cellar in
a more than sufficient number of hin-measures.
“I collected corn as a friend of the harvest-god. I was watchful in
time of sowing. And when a famine arose, lasting many years, I
distributed corn to the city each year of famine.”
The Baba who wrote this inscription lived under the eighteenth Egyptian
dynasty, about 1500 B. C., or a little before. Brugsch pointed out many
years ago that Baba’s concluding statement forms an interesting parallel
to the conduct of Joseph as told in Gen. 41:47-57. Baba claims to have
done for his city, El-Kab, what Joseph is said to have done for all Egypt.
His statement affords striking evidence of the historical reality of
famines in Egypt, and of such economic preparation for them.