Genesis 37-41

Patchwork Dreams of Brotherly Betrayal

 Jacob Blesses Joseph by Owen Jones, 1869 CE

Genesis 37 begins the story of Joseph, youngest son of Jacob and master of dreams.  Joseph is greatly favored by Jacob (Israel) over his older sons, and therefore is greatly disliked by his brothers (37:2-4).  As a sign of his favor, Jacob bestows on him a fancy coat with sleeves (or of many colors, which is apparently an outdated translation/interpretation).  Making matters worse, Joseph has absolutely zero social awareness.  He has an aptitude for interpreting dreams, include his own which when interpreted as prophecy obviously point to him ruling over the rest of his family (37:5-11).  Despite already being disliked, Joseph lords these dreams over his family, further goading their ire.  The kid is kind of a dick.

His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.
- Genesis 37:8

When presented with an opportunity to dispose of Joseph, his brothers seize on it (37:12-18).  On its surface, this story is once again somewhat disjointed, as characters display odd behaviors based on the information they seem to have, and the wrong group of people sell Joseph in Egypt.  This is once again explained by viewing the narrative as a patchwork.  Similar stories from J and E have been stitched together to produce a stilted overall narrative.  In both stories, the brothers plot to kill Joseph, but one of the brothers disagrees and intercedes (or attempts to) on Joseph's behalf.  In the E narrative, Reuben convinces his brothers not to kill Joseph directly, but to throw him into a pit, in the hopes that he could rescue him later.  The Yahwist, who was writing in the southern kingdom and therefore favored its patriarch, has Judah suggest that they sell Joseph to passing Ishmaelites.  In the original E narrative, passing Midianites pull Joseph from the pit while the brothers are occupied, and therefore Reuben is beside himself when he returns to the pit to find Joseph missing.  To make this clearer, compare what we have in the final redacted form of Genesis 37 to what scholars have hypothesized the original source texts to contain:

E Version: (Genesis 37:18, 21-22, 24-25a, 28a, 29-30, 36)

    They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father.  And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.  Then they sat down to eat.
    When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes. He returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy is gone; and I, where can I turn?”  Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
 
J Version: (Genesis 37:19-20, 23, 25b-27, 28b, 31-35)

    They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore.
    And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed.  And they sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
    Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood. They had the long robe with sleeves taken to their father, and they said, “This we have found; see now whether it is your son’s robe or not.” He recognized it, and said, “It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.” Then Jacob tore his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father bewailed him.

Joseph's Bloody Coat Brought to Jacob by Diego Rodríguez da Silva y Velázquez, 1630 CE

We can conclude that a proto-version of this story existed in Israelite culture prior to the authors of J and E putting pen to paper (quill to papyrus?).  As with many of the stories in the Torah, differing versions built on a common skeleton mutated and evolved in different parts of the region.  J and E agree that Joseph was hated by his brothers, who plotted to kill him.  They agree that one of the brothers managed to convince the others not to kill Joseph.  They agree that Joseph is spared the pit and eventually sold into slavery in Egypt.  But the who and how of the stories differ.

One curious idea that struck me while reading this story was the potential relationship between "the pit" Joseph is thrown into and Sheol - the Israelite conception of the underworld.  Sheol is often referred to as either "the pit" or "the grave".   Jacob laments that he will "go down to Sheol in mourning" at the end of the story, and pits are present in both the J and E traditions.  To me it seems that the author(s) intended the pit Joseph is thrown in to symbolize death and Sheol, but I could be entirely wrong.  I am after all just a layman and I'm probably conducting shoddy exegesis.  Still though, it's an interesting idea.

The Dream Master Imprisoned

We continue Joseph's story in Egypt in chapter 39.  We will return to chapter 38 at the end of this entry.  Joseph now serves Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, who buys him from the Ishmaelites (39:1), despite having already purchased him from the Midianites earlier (37:36), because chapter 39 is from J, who knows nothing of Midianites in their version of the story.  Yahweh makes Joseph extremely successful in service to his master, earning him dominion of Potiphar's entire household (39:2-6).  But his success and good looks earn him the unfortunate attention of Potiphar's wife, who repeatedly attempts to seduce him.  After refusing her advances on pious grounds, Joseph finds himself imprisoned after the scorned lady of the house falsely accuses Joseph of attempting to rape her (39:7-19).  As a result, Joseph winds up imprisoned, which would be unfortunate for most people, but because Yahweh blesses all that he does, this inmate quickly winds up running the asylum as well (39:20-23).

While Joseph is imprisoned, two of Pharaoh's servants who have somehow incurred the wrath of their master fall under his care (40:1-4).  While imprisoned these two, the drink-steward and the baker, each dream vividly then reveal their dreams to Joseph.  He interprets the dreams for them, revealing that Pharaoh will lift up the drink-steward's head and restore him to his office.  Joseph asks that he remember him when he is returned to his station.  But as for the baker...

And Joseph answered, "This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days; within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head - from you! - and hang you on a pole; and the birds will eat the flesh from you."
- Genesis 40:18-19

Of course these exact events come to pass.  But the restored drink-steward does not remember Joseph and so he continues to languish in the dungeons (40:20-23).

Interpreting the Obvious for the Oblivious

Part of the fun of mystery in fiction is being given enough subtle clues to the solution, but then being impressed when the crack detective solves the case through creativity or masterful attention to detail.  Mysteries aren't any fun when the solution is obvious.  Sherlock Holmes isn't nearly as impressive if he's solving cases a seven-year-old could tackle.  Which is why Joseph's "amazing" dream interpretations in chapter 41 are anything but.  Pharaoh has two strikingly similar and straightforward dreams, but somehow he and his court of magicians and advisors are left utterly perplexed (41:1-8).  Fortunately for Joseph (and Pharaoh) these events jog the memory of the cupbearer.  Finally remembering the young Hebrew who accurately interpreted his dream in prison years prior, the drink-steward has Pharaoh send for Joseph (41:9-14).

Joseph expliquant les rêves du pharaon by Jean-Adrien Guignet, ca. 19th C. CE

Joseph unsurprisingly interprets the dreams correctly, predicting seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine (41:25-32).  Joseph suggests Pharaoh appoint a discerning and wise man to manage Egypt's food stores over the seven years of abundance, and what do you know? Pharaoh appoints Joseph to that very task (41:33-45).  Joseph is given a new name (Zaphenath-paneah and a bride in the daughter of the priest Potiphera (strikingly similar to Potiphar?) with which he sires two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.  (Joseph!  What are you doing, marrying outside the family?!  The shame!)  We are of course provided narrative-appropriate tribe name etymologies for both sons (41:50-52).  Blessed as he is by Yahweh, Joseph is wildly successful in his duties during these first seven years, and when the famine comes, Egypt alone among the nations has food (41:53-57).

Honestly I find the writing here fairly unimpressive.  If the author's intent was to portray Joseph as possessing the wisdom of Yahweh shouldn't we witness him masterfully untangling obscure threads of dream-woven prophecy?  But that isn't what we get - instead he appears to be the only man in Egypt with a functional brain.  I'm left not with the impression that Joseph is a skilled dream interpreter, but instead that Pharaoh and his advisors are an incompetent pack of blundering idiots.

Side Story: Marriage Contract Weirdness 

In biblical law, women are basically property, and chapter 38 is all about some of the downright weird consequences of this perspective.  Chapter 38, courtesy of J, has absolutely nothing to do with the Joseph narrative of the surrounding chapters, but concerns his brother Judah.  I would guess it's inserted here as J just featured Judah interceding on Joseph's behalf in the prior episode.

Judah has three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah (38:1-5).  The eldest, Er (whose name is a play on the word "evil") is killed by Yahweh for being "wicked in his sight" before he can impregnate his wife Tamar (38:6-7).  (Maybe don't name your kid "evil" next time?)  Apparently women are not simply the property of their husbands, but their husband's family, as Judah then tells his second son Onan (whose name sounds like "sorrow, trouble, or wickedness") to "go into" his sister-in-law to give his brother a son by some manner of bass-ackwards logic (38:8).  Onan wants no part of this since the child won't be "his" but his dead brother's, so he employs the "pull-out method" (side-note: not an effective form of birth control) and ejaculates on the ground (38:9).

What he did was displeasing in the sight of Yahweh, and he put him to death also.
- Genesis 38:10

Down two sons, Judah gets the idea in his head that Tamar must be cursed, so instead of marrying his final son Shelah (which means "something requested") to her, he sends her back to her father's house (38:11).  Ostensibly this is done to wait for Shelah to come of age, but in reality Judah plans to forget her.

 

Judah and Tamar by James Jacques Joseph Tissot - ca. 1896-1902 CE 

Some years pass and Shelah comes of age, and Tamar deduces that she has been put aside (38:12-14).  So in a crafty maneuver she disguises herself as a prostitute and manages to trick her now widower father-in-law Judah into impregnating her, while acquiring his staff, cord, and signet (38:15-23).  One way or another Tamar is going to have a baby from this family!  When Judah finds out Tamar is pregnant he of course demands that she is burned alive for playing the whore (38:24).  Hosea would be thrilled.  Never mind that he no longer wanted anything to do with her - she belongs to him and her playing the whore of course brings him great shame.  Of course, the hypocrite isn't ashamed ofr the fact that he slept with a "prostitute" as soon as he finished grieving for his dead wife.  Chalk up a few more points to biblical morality.

Just when Tamar and her unborn child appear doomed to die victims of bronze age justice, the sly devil produces Judah's belongings:

As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, "It was the owner of these who made me pregnant." And she said, "Take note, please, whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff." Then Judah acknowledged them and said, "She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah." And he did not lie with her again.
- Genesis 38:25-26

Vindicated, Tamar goes on to birth twin boys, and so Judah gains two new sons for himself to replace those Yahweh had struck down earlier (38:27-30).  All's well that ends well, right?

Psalm 23

This psalm is a short one, but is one of the most famous.  The psalmist likens Yahweh to a dutiful and protective shepherd, attending to his flock's every need.  The King James Version of this psalm provided english with that classic phrase "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death".  It's a nice psalm.

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