Joseph and the Famine: The Story’s Origins in Egyptian History

The sources for this section are taken from Itamar Singer, “A Political History of Ugarit,” chapter 15 in Handbook of Ugaritic Studies, ed. Wilfred G.E. Watson and Nicolas Wyatt, Handbuch der Orientalistik 39 (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 603–733 [704–731]. For a book length discussion of the Bronze Age collapse and its reasons, see Eric H. Cline, 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014).

Egypt’s Nile originates in Lake Victoria, in Juja Uganda, and flows north. Before this river, known as the White Nile, hits Egypt, it merges in Sudan with what is known as the Blue Nile, which comes from Lake Tana in Ethiopia and supplies the majority of the water in the Egyptian Nile. Thus Egypt’s water source is dependent on entirely different ecosystems than that of the Levant and the Mediterranean.

Singer, “A Political History of Ugarit,” 715.

He was around 70 years old. As the 13^th son of Ramesses II, he probably never expected to ascend the throne; his older brothers all died waiting for their turn to rule that never came.

Singer, “A Political History of Ugarit,” 715.

These shipments are generally sent by sea to Ugarit, on the Syrian coast, and then continue by land to Hatti, but Ugarit was also suffering from famine, and would likely take some of the wheat for themselves. In any event, Egypt sent them grain as well.

Singer, “A Political History of Ugarit,” 716.

The text reads:

The King of Upper and Lower Egypt… Merneptah… The Sole One who steadied the hearts of hundred thousands, breath entered their nostrils at the sight of him. Who destroyed the land of the Tjemeh (Libya) in his lifetime, cast abiding terror in the heart of the Meshwesh (a tribe living in Cyrenaica). He turned back the Libyans who trod Egypt, great is dread of Egypt in their hearts. Their leading troops were left behind, Their legs made no stand except to flee, Their archers abandoned their bows, The hearts of their runners grew weak as they sped, They loosened their water-skins, cast them down, Their packs were untied, thrown away. The vile chief, the Libyan foe, Fled in the deep of night alone, No plume on his head, his feet unshod, His wives were carried off from his presence, His food supplies were snatched away, He had no drinking water to sustain him….When he reached his country he was in mourning, those left in his land were loath to receive him.

The translation is taken from Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume II: The New Kingdom (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), 73–78. The stela is known as the “Israel Stela,” since it mentions Israel in an addendum at the end, but this is not the main point of the stela.

Dafna Langgut, Israel Finkelstein and Thomas Litt, "Climate and Late Bronze Collapse", Tel Aviv 40 (2013): 149–175.

In the time the story is set, standardized sizes for silver were not yet used; instead many peoples used hacksilver kept in bags of various weights. For a discussion of the development of the silver economy in ancient times, see Tzilla Eshel, "How Silver Was Used for Payment," TheTorah (2018).

The text continues:

^מא:מא וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה אֶל יוֹסֵף רְאֵה נָתַתִּי אֹתְךָ עַל כָּל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם. ^מא:מב וַיָּסַר פַּרְעֹה אֶת טַבַּעְתּוֹ מֵעַל יָדוֹ וַיִּתֵּן אֹתָהּ עַל יַד יוֹסֵף וַיַּלְבֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ בִּגְדֵי שֵׁשׁ וַיָּשֶׂם רְבִד הַזָּהָב עַל צַוָּארוֹ. ^מא:מג וַיַּרְכֵּב אֹתוֹ בְּמִרְכֶּבֶת הַמִּשְׁנֶה אֲשֶׁר לוֹ וַיִּקְרְאוּ לְפָנָיו אַבְרֵךְ וְנָתוֹן אֹתוֹ עַל כָּל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם. ^מא:מד וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה אֶל יוֹסֵף אֲנִי פַרְעֹה וּבִלְעָדֶיךָ לֹא יָרִים אִישׁ אֶת יָדוֹ וְאֶת רַגְלוֹ בְּכָל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם.

^41:41 Pharaoh further said to Joseph, "See, I put you in charge of all the land of Egypt." ^41:42 And removing his signet ring from his hand, Pharaoh put it on Joseph's hand; and he had him dressed in robes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck. ^41:43 He had him ride in the chariot of his second-in-command, and they cried before him, "Abrek!" Thus he placed him over all the land of Egypt. ^41:44 Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh; yet without you, no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt."

One famous example is Hatshepsut, daughter of Pharaoh Thutmose I, and wife to her half-brother Thutmose II. When the latter died young, his heir Thutmose III, son of a secondary wife, was too young to rule on his own, and so Hatshepsut, his aunt/stepmother, was made regent. In this case, she made herself Pharaoh and ruled till her death (1479–1458), when Thutmose III was already a young adult. Another famous example was Ay, who was vizier to Tutankhamun (King Tut), who acceded to the thrown at the age of 8 or 9. Like Hatshepsut, Ay was from a powerful family close to the king, and many scholars believe that he was Nefertiti’s father (and thus, perhaps even Tut’s grandfather). After Tut’s untimely death at the age of 19 (1334–1325), Ay acceded to the throne himself.

Certainly, foreigners held high office in Egypt. During the reign of Ramesses II and his son Merneptah, a man from the Bashan region named Ben-Ozen, who took the name Egyptian name Ramesses-em-per-Re, was chief royal herald, fan-bearer on the right of the king, and first royal butler. The word Ozen (“ear”) in his Hebrew name probably refers to a toponym (see, for instance, 1 Chr 7:24), meaning he is from a place called Ozen (“ben” literally means “son of”). An earlier and more powerful figure was a man named ʿpri3r (Aperel), which appears to be the Egyptian spelling for the Hebrew name Abdiel (“Servant of El”). See Alain Zivie, “Pharaoh’s Man Abdiel: The Vizier with a Semitic Name,” Biblical Archaeology Review 44:4 (2018): 22–31,64–66. Aperel/Abdiel hailed from somewhere in the north—Canaan or Syria—who, according to the carvings in his tomb, was vizier during the reigns of Amunhotep III and his son Akhenaten, Tut’s father. (As nothing is known about Aperel/Abdiel outside his tomb, we don’t know how accurate this self-description is.) Unlike Baya, however, Aperel/Abdiel was not the power behind the throne, but just a standard vizier who worked for the Pharaoh. For a brief discussion of these people (and Baya), see Carol A. Remount, “Bitter lives: Israel in and out of Egypt,” in The Oxford History of the Biblical World, ed. Michael D. Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998): 79-121 [75–76].

He writes about himself only “I am from the north.” In one document, he wrote his father’s name but apparently crossed it out, so we do not know what it was.

See discussion in Cyril Aldred, “The Parentage of King Siptah,” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 49.1 (1963): 41–48 [45–46]. Some scholars assume Amenmesse was Seti II’s son, which would have made Siptah his grandson, if the second theory is correct.

For a discussion of Siptah’s mummy, see Bob Brier, Egyptian Mummies: Unravelling the Secrets of an Ancient Art (New York: William Morrow, 1994), 270–274. Brier does not believe the cause was polio. See also the letter to the editor: Francesco M. Galassi, Michael E. Habicht, and Frank J. Rühli “Poliomyelitis in Ancient Egypt?” Neurological Sciences 38 (2017): 375.

For further reading on Siptah and the turbulent end of the 19^th dynasty, see Gae Callender, “The Cripple, the Queen and the Man from the North,” KMT: a modern journal of ancient Egypt 17.1 (2006), 49-64; Aidan Dodson, Poisoned Legacy: The Decline and Fall of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty (Cairo: American University Press, 2010).

Even if Seti II was Siptah’s father or grandfather, it seems relatively certain that Twosret was not his mother or grandmother.

The Siptah inscriptions on the Old Shellal Road and at the entrance to the rock-cut temple at Gebel el-Silsila. As noted above, whether the “father” in question is Seti II or Amenmesse is debated.

Aidan M. Dodson, “Fade to Grey: The Chancellor Bay, Éminence Grise of the Late Nineteenth Dynasty,” Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen, ed. Mark Collier and Steven S. Snape (Bolton: Rutherford Press, 2011), 145–158 [p. 148].

The city was called Heliopolis (the city of the sun god) by the Greeks because it housed an important temple to the Sun god Ra.

More unusual is Maiherpri, a Kushite (Nubian) who served as royal fan-bearer, who was buried in KV36. Some speculate that his title “Child of the Nursery” might imply that he was brought up with the Pharaoh’s children and may even have been the son of a royal concubine, thus explaining how he ended up buried in the Valley of the Kings. 

Twosret’s tomb was reused by Setnakht, who likely took the throne from her in the first place, and who considered both her and Siptah illegitimate rulers.

Again, to quote Dodson,

While only a minority of those buried there were actually kings, royal parents, spouses, children and official also being interred there, major tombs, with multiple decorated galleries and chambers, were the sole preserve of monarchs…. there is but one exception. This is KV 13, which penetrates some 60 metres into the hillside, and was once to be extensively decorated…. The owner was none other than Bay…. While small tombs had been provided for such individuals as (e.g.) the Vizier Amenemopet (KV 48) and Yuya and Tjuiu (KV 46) during the Eighteenth Dynasty, these were small, undecorated, and in no way comparable with the royal-sized KV 13.

Dodson, “Fade to Grey,” 150–151. 

See, e.g., Siptah inscriptions on the Old Shellal Road and at the entrance to the rock-cut temple at Gebel el-Silsila. An alternative spelling, found on an ostracon (CG  25766) was 𓃀 𓅯 𓇌 𓀀, namely the letter b, the syllable pa (pꜣ), the letter y and the determinative for man.

See Daniel Arnaud, “Lettre de Beia, chef des gardes du corps du pharaon, au roi ‘Ammurapi d’Ugarit,” in Syrie, Mémoire et Civilisation, Catalogue d’exposition, Institut du Monde Arab, ed. S. Cluzan, E. Delpont, et J. Mouliérac (Paris: Flammarion, 1993), 348–349.

Israel Knohl, “Psalm 68: Structure, Composition and Geography,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 12.15 (2012); idem, “Pharaoh’s War with the Israelites: The Untold Story,” Azure 41 (2010): 72–95.

Gedaliahu Allon, “בשם” [Bashem], Tarbiz 21 (1949): 30–39.

See my "Jacob-el in the Land of Esau and the Roots of Biblical Religion", Vetus Testamentum 67 (2017): 481-484.

I have suggested that, considering the name Josephya found in Ezra 8:10, that his name could have been Joseph-Beyah, and he used only the latter half officially. Alternatively, perhaps Beyah was the Yahwistic part of Joseph’s name (Beyoseph).

Pierre Grandet, “L'execution du chancelier Bay O. IFAO 1864,” Bulletin de l'institut français d'archéologie orientale 100 (2000): 339–345.

Siptah’s independence would not last long, however. Instead, he died only a year or so later, and upon his early death, Twosret, assumed the throne for two or three years, (ca. 1190–1188 B.C.E.). Upon her death, the dynasty came to an end, and a new pharaoh named Setnakhte, who was not part of the previous royal family, took the throne, establishing the 20^th dynasty.

^{בראשית מא:מה} וַיִּקְרָא פַרְעֹה שֵׁם יוֹסֵף צָפְנַת פַּעְנֵחַ וַיִּתֶּן לוֹ אֶת אָסְנַת בַּת פּוֹטִי פֶרַע כֹּהֵן אֹן לְאִשָּׁה וַיֵּצֵא יוֹסֵף עַל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם.

^{Gen 41:45} Pharaoh then gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him for a wife Asenath daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On. Thus Joseph emerged in charge of the land of Egypt.

Joseph is a standard Yahwistic name: Yoseph/Yehoseph, meaning “YHWH will increase.”

I will note one further point: When Setnakht takes over from Twosret, he describes how he battles against an enemy he calls Irsu (Egyptian for “self-made man”). As I argue in my  "Exodus: The History Behind the Story," (TheTorah 2019), the story of Irsu is reminiscent of the story of Moses and the exodus. Although this would leave only a few years between Joseph and Moses, the overall chronology works with that of the Bible. Egyptologists long speculated that Irsu and Baya might be the same person, but the record of Baya’s execution put an end to that speculation.

Jan Joosten, “The linguistic dating of the Joseph Story,” Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 8 (2019): 24-43. See also, Erhard Bloom and Kristin Weingart, “The Joseph Story: Diaspora Novella or North-Israelite Narrative?” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 129 (2017): 501-521.

It is tempting to interpret this term as the missing full form of the name, Beyahoseph. Nevertheless, this is belied by the parallel verse in Psalms 78:

^{תהלים עח:ה} וַיָּקֶם עֵדוּת בְּיַעֲקֹב וְתוֹרָה שָׂם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל.

^{Ps 78:5} He established a decree in Jacob, ordained a teaching in Israel.

Thus, it seems clear that in both cases, the bet is the preposition “in” and not part of the divine name.