Genesis 41:17

Gen 41:17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:

Ver. 17. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph.] Here begins Joseph’s rise. Being in prison, be struck not fire, though he had a good brain: but waited till it came down from heaven to him, first in the butler’s dream, and now in Pharaoh’s. Had he ravenously roamed after preferment, and ravished it, as in his mistress’s offer he might have done, it would have shunned him, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gen_41:17-32

Behold there come seven years of great plenty

Joseph as a prophet

In interpreting Pharaohs dream, Joseph shows himself a true prophet of the Lord.

He has all the marks of those who are called to reveal the Divine mind to man.

I. BOLDNESS. The true prophet has no fear of man. He speaks the word which God hath given him, regardless of consequences He is ready to reprove even kings--to utter truths, however unwelcome. It required some courage to enter upon the perilous task of announcing to this Egyptian despot famine of seven years. But Joseph had all the boldness of a man who felt that he was inspired by God.

II. DIRECTNESS. Joseph spoke out at once, without any hesitation. There was no shuffling to gain time; no muttering--no incantations, after the manner of heathen oracles and prophets. This simple and clear directness is the special characteristic of Holy Scriptures; and by which they are distinguished from the literature of the world, which upon the deepest and most concerning questions never reaches a stable conclusion.

III. POSITIVENESS. Josephs interpretation was throughout explicit and clear. There are no signs of doubt or misgiving. This Divine certainty is the common mark of all Gods prophets. (T. H. Leale.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES.—

Gen_41:32. The dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice.] This denotes the certainty and nearness of the event. (1Ki_11:9; Job_33:14; Psa_62:11.)—

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_41:17-32

JOSEPH AS A PROPHET

In interpreting Pharaoh’s dream, Joseph shows himself a true prophet of the Lord. He has all the marks of those who are called to reveal the Divine mind to man.

I. Boldness. The true prophet has no fear of man. He speaks the word which God hath given him, regardless of consequences. He is ready to reprove even kings—to utter truths, however unwelcome. It required some courage to enter upon the perilous task of announcing to this Egyptian despot a famine of seven years. But Joseph had all the boldness of a man who felt that he was inspired by God.

II. Directness. Joseph spoke out at once, without any hesitation. There was no shuffling to gain time; no muttering—no incantations, after the manner of heathen oracles and prophets. This simple and clear directness is the special characteristic of Holy Scriptures; and by which they are distinguished from the literature of the world, which upon the deepest and most concerning questions never reaches a stable conclusion.

III. Positiveness. Joseph’s interpretation was throughout explicit and clear. There are no signs of doubt or misgiving. This Divine certainty is the common mark of all God’s prophets.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Gen_41:17. Here begins Joseph’s rise. Being in prison, he struck not fire, though he had a good brain; but waited till it came down from heaven to him, first in the butler’s dream, and now in Pharaoh’s.—(Trapp.)

It was happy for Pharaoh and for Egypt that the magicians confessed their incapacity to interpret this dream. Had they pretended to give some meaning to it out of the imagination of their own hearts, it is probable that he would have rested satisfied with it, and sought no further. Consequently when the seven years of plenty came, the abundance might have been spent in dissipation, and no provision made against the long and terrible famine. But when he was convinced that the mind of God was not with the magicians, he was forced to seek for light where he could find it.—(Bush.)

Gen_41:18-24. Even to the heathen and to infidels, God sometimes reveals great and secret things, to the end that it may become known how His Divine care and Providence may be traced everywhere within and without the Church.—(Starke.)

Gen_41:25-32. Joseph no doubt felt happy in seizing this opportunity to speak of his own God, the Ruler of the world, to Pharaoh, and particularly to proclaim His providence and foreknowledge. He knew that events would soon confirm his words, and that Pharaoh’s mind was already prepared to receive it.—(Bush).

Important truths are repeated in the Scriptures. God speaks once, yea, twice to man.

Joseph marks his God-consciousness more distinctly before Pharaoh, by saying Ha-Elohim, thus making Elohim concrete by means of the article.—(Lange.)

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

41:17-24 Pharaoh recounted his dreams and testified that no human wisdom could interpret them.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Here, I. Pharaoh relates his dream. He dreamt that he stood upon the bank of the river Nile, and saw the kine, both the fat ones and the lean ones, come out of the river. For the kingdom of Egypt had no rain, as appears, Zac 14:18, but the plenty of the year depended upon the overflowing of the river, and it was about one certain time of the year that it overflowed. If it rose to fifteen or sixteen cubits, there was plenty; if to twelve or thirteen only, or under, there was scarcity. See how many ways Providence has of dispensing its gifts; yet, whatever the second causes are, our dependence is still the same upon the first Cause, who makes every creature that to us that it is, be it rain or river.

II. Joseph interprets his dream, and tells him that it signified seven years of plenty now immediately to ensue, which should be succeeded by as many years of famine. Observe, 1. The two dreams signified the same thing, but the repetition was to denote the certainty, the nearness, and the importance, of the event, Gen 41:32. Thus God has often shown the immutability of his counsel by two immutable things, Heb 6:17, Heb 6:18. The covenant is sealed with two sacraments; and in the one of them there are both bread and wine, wherein the dream is one, and yet it is doubled, for the thing is certain. 2. Yet the two dreams had a distinct reference to the two things wherein we most experience plenty and scarcity, namely, grass and corn. The plenty and scarcity of grass for the cattle were signified by the fat kine and the lean ones; the plenty and scarcity of herb for the service of man by the full ears and the thin ones. 3. See what changes the comforts of this life are subject to. After great plenty may come great scarcity; how strong soever we may think our mountain stands, if God speak the word, it will soon be moved. We cannot be sure that tomorrow shall be as this day, next year as this, and much more abundant, Isa 56:12. We must learn how to want, as well as how to abound. 4. See the goodness of God in sending the seven years of plenty before those of famine, that provision might be made accordingly. Thus he sets the one over-against the other, Ecc 7:14. With what wonderful wisdom has Providence, that great housekeeper, ordered the affairs of this numerous family from the beginning hitherto! Great variety of seasons there have been, and the product of the earth is sometimes more and sometimes less; yet, take one time with another, what was miraculous concerning the manna is ordinarily verified in the common course of Providence, He that gathers much has nothing over, and he that gathers little has no lack, Exo 16:18. 5. See the perishing nature of our worldly enjoyments. The great increase of the years of plenty was quite lost and swallowed up in the years of famine; and the overplus of it, which seemed very much, yet did but just serve to keep men alive, Gen 41:29-31. Meat for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them, Co1 6:13. There is bread which endures to everlasting life, which shall not be forgotten, and which it is worth while to labour for, Joh 6:27. Those that make the things of this world their good things will find but little pleasure in remembering that they have received them, Luk 16:25. 6. Observe, God revealed this beforehand to Pharaoh, who, as king of Egypt, was to be the father of his country, and to make prudent provision for them. Magistrates are called shepherds, whose care it must be, not only to rule, but to feed.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Pharaoh said, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river--The dreams were purely Egyptian, founded on the productions of that country and the experience of a native. The fertility of Egypt being wholly dependent on the Nile, the scene is laid on the banks of that river; and oxen being in the ancient hieroglyphics symbolical of the earth and of food, animals of that species were introduced in the first dream.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

17. In my dream. This whole narration does not need to be explained, for Pharaoh only repeats what we have before considered, with the addition, that the lean cows, having devoured the fat ones, were rendered nothing better. Whereby God designed to testify, that the dearth would be so great, that the people, instead of being nourished by the abundance of food gathered together, would be famished, and drag on a miserable existence. Joseph, in answering that the two dreams were one, simply means, that one and the same thing was showed unto Pharaoh by two figures. But before he introduces his interpretation, he maintains that this is not a merely vanishing dream, but a divine oracle: for unless the vision had proceeded from God, it would have been foolish to inquire anxiously what it portended. Pharaoh, therefore, does not here labor in vain in inquiring into the counsel of God. The form of speaking, however, requires to be noticed; because Joseph does not barely say that God will declare beforehand what may happen from some other quarter, but what he himself is about to do. We hence infer, that God does not indolently contemplate the fortuitous issue of things, as most philosophers vainly talk; but that he determines, at his own will, what shall happen. Wherefore, in predicting events, he does not give a response from the tables of fate, as the poets feign concerning their Apollo, whom they regard as a prophet of events which are not in his own power, but declares that whatever shall happen will be his own work. So Isaiah, that he may ascribe to God alone the glory due to him, attributes to him, both the revealing of things future, and the government of ail his events, by his own authority. (Isaiah 45:7.) For he cries aloud that God is neither deceived, nor deceives, like the idols; and he declares that God alone is the author of good and evil; understanding by evil, adversity. Wherefore, unless we would cast God down from his throne, we must leave to him his power of action, as well as his foreknowledge. And this passage is the more worthy of observation; because, in all ages, many foolish persons have endeavored to rob God of half his glory, and now (as I have said) the same figment pleases many philosophers; because they think it absurd to ascribe to God whatever is done in the world: as if truly the Scripture had in vain declared, that his “judgments are a great deep.” (Psalm 36:7.) But while they would subject the works of God to the judgment of their own brain, having rejected his word, they prefer giving credit to Plato respecting celestial mysteries. “That God,” they say, “has foreknowledge of all things, does not involve the necessity of their occurrence:” as if, indeed, we asserted, that bare prescience was the cause of things, instead of maintaining the connection established by Moses, that God foreknows things that are future, because he had determined to do them; but they ignorantly and perversely separate the providence of God from his eternal counsel, and his continual operation. Above all things, it is right to be fully persuaded that, whenever the earth is barren, whether frost, or drought, or hail, or any other thing, may be the cause of it, the whole result is directed by the counsel of God.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,.... Relating both his dreams in a more ample manner, though to the same purpose, than before related:

in my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river; the river Nile, where he could have a full sight of what were after presented to his view.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Vers. 17-21. Pharaoh then relates his dreams in substantially the same terms as those in which they have already been recited, only adding concerning the lean kine that they were (ver. 19) such as I never saw (literally, I never saw such as these) in all the land of Egypt for badness: and that (ver. 21) when they had eaten them (i.e. the good kine) up, it could not be known they had eaten them; literally, and they (i.e. the good kine) went into the interior parts, i.e. the stomach (of the bad kine), and it was not known that they had gone into the interior partsbut they (the bad kine) were still ill-favored, as at the beginning literally, and their appearance was bad as in the beginning, i.e. previously; and concerning the thin and blasted ears, that they were also (ver. 23) withered twOmnux, from to be hard, meaning either barren (Gesenius), dry (Furst), or sapless (Kalisch) a word which the LXX and the Vulgate both omit. Onkelos explains by trk, flowering, but not fruiting; and Dathius renders by jejunae. After which he (i.e. Pharaoh) informs Joseph that the professional interpreters attached to the Court (the chartummim, or masters of the occult sciences) could give him no idea of its meaning.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

behold, I stood

Pharaoh uses the word "behold" to make Joseph pay attention to surprising information.

bank of the Nile

This is the higher ground along the edge of the Nile River. See how you translated a similar phrase in Genesis 41:3. AT: "beside the Nile"

Behold, seven cows

Pharaoh uses the word "Behold" to make Joseph pay attention to surprising information.

fat and desirable

"well-fed and healthy." See how you translated this phrase in Genesis 41:2.

grazed among the reeds

"were eating the grass along the side of the river." See how you translated a similar phrase in Genesis 41:2.

translationWords

Pharaoh

Joseph (OT)

dream

Nile River

cow

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

וידבר, we have already written that when someone repeats something he has said previously he is apt to either add something to the previous version, or he is apt to omit something he had mentioned in the previous version. The speaker, generally, is concerned only with conveying the same meaning as he had conveyed the first time he said the same thing. The same is thing is true of someone relating a dream he had more than once.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.