The Garden of Eden 6
VIII
THE SEVEN YEARS OF FAMINE
Two years passed by, and Joseph was still in the prison. Then, one
night, Pharaoh dreamed. And in his dream he stood by the river, and
seven fat cows were feeding on the bank, and seven lean cows came and
ate them up. And he dreamed again, and seven full ears of corn grew upon
one stalk, and seven thin ears ate them up. The next morning, when
Pharaoh told his dreams, nobody could explain them. Then, at last, the
chief butler remembered Joseph. And he said to Pharaoh, “There is a
slave in the prison who can tell the meaning of dreams. One time, when
the chief baker and I were there, he told us what our dreams meant and
it came true.” So Pharaoh sent for Joseph. And Joseph shaved himself and
put on his best clothes, and went out of the prison into the palace.
And Pharaoh told his dreams. And Joseph said, “Behold, there come seven
years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, and they shall
be followed by seven years of famine.” And Joseph said, “The thing to do
is this: Let food be laid up in storehouses during the good years to
feed the people during the bad years.”
Pharaoh said, “You are the man to do it. You shall be in charge of this
business.” And he took off his signet ring and put it on Joseph’s hand,
and dressed him in royal robes, and put a gold chain about his neck, and
set him over the land of Egypt. And Joseph rode through the streets in
the king’s chariot, and everybody bowed down before him.
Then came the seven years of plenty, and everything grew by handfuls.
Joseph made great storehouses, and put into them so much grain that it
could no more be measured than the sand of the sea. Then followed the
seven years of famine, and nothing grew at all, and the people were very
hungry, and they came to Joseph, and he opened the storehouses and sold
them food to eat.
Even in Joseph’s old home, the famine was upon the land, and Joseph’s
brothers came down to Egypt to buy grain. But Benjamin, the youngest
brother, they left with their father. So they appeared before Joseph,
and he knew them, but they did not know him. He sat upon a throne,
ruling the land of Egypt, and the poor farmers never thought of their
brother Joseph. And Joseph punished them for their wickedness.
“You men,” he said, “are spies.” And he had them put in prison.
They said, “We are no spies. We are twelve sons of our father Jacob; one
is with our father, and one is dead; and we have come to buy grain.”
And Joseph said, “Now I will prove you. Let me see your other brother. I
will keep one of you in prison. The rest of you go and carry back your
corn, and bring me down your other brother.”
So they left Simeon behind, and returned home very sad. And when they
opened their sacks of grain, there was a bag of money in the mouth of
each sack, just what they had paid. And they knew not what to think. But
when they told their father what had happened and how the governor of
the land wanted to see Benjamin, Jacob would not let him go. “I have
lost Joseph,” he said, “and now Simeon is gone. I will keep Benjamin.”
But by and by the grain was almost all eaten, and they began to be very
hungry, and there was nothing to do but to go again to Egypt, and they
dared not go without Benjamin. So one day his father kissed the boy,
with tears in his eyes, and let him go, and with him he sent a present
in a basket for the governor, balm and honey, spice and myrrh, pistachio
nuts and almonds.
So they came again to Joseph’s palace, and Joseph’s steward brought
Simeon out of prison, and told them that they were all to come to dinner
that day at noon. So at noon they came, and Joseph met them, dressed in
his splendid garments, and he said, “Is your father well, the old man of
whom you spoke?”
And they said, “He is well.”
“And is this your youngest brother?” and he said, “God be gracious unto
thee, my son.”
And suddenly he turned about and went into another room to hide his
tears. Then he washed his face and came out, and they had dinner. But he
gave Benjamin five times as much to eat as any of the others. So they
had a very pleasant time.
Now Joseph had told his steward that when he filled the sacks, he should
put into Benjamin’s sack a silver cup. And nobody knew it but the
steward. So early the next morning, with Simeon and Benjamin, off they
started very happily for home, singing as they went. And by and by, they
heard a sound of voices following, and there was Joseph’s steward and
some other men.
And the steward said, “Stop, you thieves, and give me my master’s silver
cup which you have stolen.”
And the brothers stopped, and said, “We are no thieves. We have taken
neither gold nor silver from your master’s palace. Search us, and the
man with whom you find the cup shall die.”
“Very well,” he said, “the man with whom the cup is found shall be my
slave.” So he searched the sacks, beginning with the oldest brother and
ending with the youngest, and in Benjamin’s sack, there was the cup!
And they all cried out in great grief, and tore their clothes, for that
was the custom, and back they went to Joseph’s palace. And Judah, one of
the brothers, spoke to Joseph. “My lord,” he said, “you asked to see our
little brother, and we brought him down. And our father said as we came
away, ‘If mischief befall him, you shall bring down my gray hairs with
sorrow to the grave,’ and now if we go back without our brother, our
father will die. Let me take his place. I will be your slave; and let
him go.”
And Joseph sent everybody out of the room, except his brothers. And he
said, “I am Joseph. Come near to me, I pray you. I am Joseph your
brother, whom you sold into Egypt. And God has made me ruler of all
Egypt.” And as they were amazed, he said, “Do you not see that I am
indeed your brother? Go back now and bring my father, and all your
flocks and herds, and your wives and children, and come and live with
me.” And he kissed his brothers. And the next day he gave them wagons
for his father and their wives and children, and sent them away.
So Jacob saw his son Joseph, for whom he had mourned as dead. And all
the family moved down to Egypt, and Pharaoh gave them pastures for their
sheep.
IX
THE BURNING BUSH
Joseph and his brothers had many sons and daughters, and they in their
turn had many sons and daughters; and even after they were grown up they
were all called the Children of Israel; for Israel, you remember, was
the new name of their father Jacob.
And years passed, and years passed, and Pharaoh died, and another
Pharaoh reigned in his stead. And the Egyptians forgot how Joseph had
saved their fathers from starving in the seven years of famine. And they
made the Children of Israel their slaves, and sent them into their
fields to work, and set taskmasters over them with whips. And the new
Pharaoh said to his princes, “The Children of Israel are more and
mightier than we. We must keep them from increasing.” So they made a law
that all the boy babies of the Children of Israel should be put to death
as soon as they were born.
Now there was a man and his wife who had two children, a girl of eight
or ten, named Miriam, and a boy of three, named Aaron. And just at the
time of this law, there came a little new boy baby. And his mother hid
him, so that the Egyptians should not take him away and kill him. But it
is very hard to hide a baby. So after three months his mother made a
basket of bulrushes, and put pitch on the inside to keep the water out,
and laid the baby in the basket, and set the basket in the river, near
the bank among the reeds. And she told little Miriam to stay near, and
see what would happen. So Miriam hid herself in the bushes and watched
and waited, and by and by who should come down to the water but the
princess herself, the daughter of Pharaoh. And the princess saw the
basket and sent her maid to fetch it. And when she opened it, there was
the baby. And the baby began to cry.
And the princess said, “This is one of the babies of the Children of
Israel.” And she was very sorry.
Then Miriam came and said, “Princess, if you want a good nurse to take
care of the baby for you, I think I can find one.”
And the princess said, “Go, find her, and bring her to me.”
So Miriam went and brought the baby’s mother. And the princess said,
“Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay you.”
So the mother nursed her baby in peace, and when he became a big boy,
she took him to the king’s palace, and he lived there with the princess
as if he had been a prince himself. And his name was Moses.
So years passed, and the boy became a man. The princess had sent him to
school, and he had learned all that the best teachers could tell him. He
was very wise. But he never forgot that he was one of the Children of
Israel. When he saw his people working in the fields, and the
task-masters urging them with whips, he was sad and troubled. One day,
as he passed by, and saw an Egyptian beating one of the Children of
Israel, he could restrain himself no longer. He saved the man and killed
the Egyptian. Then he found that the thing was known, and that Pharaoh
had discovered that he was really on the side of the Children of Israel.
And he had to run away to save his life.
Now the land which was next to Egypt was called Arabia, and to Arabia
went Moses, and there he found a well. And flocks of sheep were feeding
by it, some of them tended by men and some by women. But the men were
very unkind to the women and kept them from drawing water for their
sheep. And as Moses sat by the well, there came seven sisters with a
flock of sheep, and the shepherds would not let them get any water. But
Moses stood up and drove away the shepherds, and drew water for the
seven sisters, and watered their flocks himself.
So the sisters went home to their father, and he said, “How is it that
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