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Jubilees

About this book

Pharaoh’s Dreams and Joseph’s Appointment

Chapter 40

1 And in those days Pharaoh dreamed two dreams in one night concerning a famine which was to be in all the land, and he awoke from his sleep and called all the interpreters of dreams that were in Egypt, and magicians, and told them his two dreams, and they were not able to explain (them). 2 And then the chief cupbearer remembered Joseph and spoke of him to the king, and he brought him out from the prison, and he told his two dreams before him. 3 And he said before Pharaoh that his two dreams were one, and he said to him: 'Seven years shall come (in which there shall be) plenty over all the land of Egypt, and after that seven years of famine, such a famine as has not been in all the land. 4 And now let Pharaoh appoint overseers in all the land of Egypt, and let them store up food in every city throughout the days of the years of plenty, and there will be food for the seven years of famine, and the land will not perish through the famine, for it will be very severe.' 5 And the Lord gave Joseph favor and mercy in the eyes of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said to his servants: 'We shall not find such a wise and discerning man as this man, for the spirit of the Lord is with him.' 6 And he appointed him the second in all his kingdom and gave him authority over all Egypt, and caused him to ride in the second chariot of Pharaoh. 7 And he clothed him with fine linen clothes, and he put a gold chain upon his neck, and (a herald) proclaimed before him ' 'El 'El wa 'Abirer,' and placed a ring on his hand and made him ruler over all his house, and exalted him, and said to him: 'Only on the throne shall I be greater than you.' 8 And Joseph ruled over all the land of Egypt, and all the princes of Pharaoh, and all his servants, and all who did the king's business loved him, for he walked in uprightness, for he was without pride and arrogance, and he showed no favoritism, and did not accept bribes, but he judged in uprightness all the people of the land.⁠ 9 And the land of Egypt was at peace before Pharaoh because of Joseph, for the Lord was with him, and gave him favor and mercy for all his generations before all those who knew him and those who heard concerning him, and Pharaoh's kingdom was well ordered, and there was no Satan and no evil person (in it).⁠ 10 And the king called Joseph's name Sephantiphans, and gave Joseph as wife the daughter of Potiphar, the daughter of the priest of Heliopolis,⁠ the chief cook. 11 And on the day that Joseph stood before Pharaoh he was thirty years old [when he stood before Pharaoh]. 12 And in that year Isaac died. And as Joseph had said in the interpretation of his two dreams, according as he had said it, there were seven years of plenty over all the land of Egypt, and the land of Egypt abundantly produced, one measure (producing) eighteen hundred measures. 13 And Joseph gathered food into every city until they were full of grain until they could no longer count and measure it because there was so much.

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 10:17 and Jubilees 40:8

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

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Summary

Deuteronomy describes God as the perfect judge, showing no partiality and taking no bribe. Jubilees gives those same qualities to Joseph, describing him as a governor of Egypt in the language the Torah uses for God.

Passages

Deuteronomy 10:17

Hebrew Bible
16 Therefore, circumcise your hearts and stop being so stubborn! 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe, 18 who justly treats the orphan and widow, and who loves resident foreigners, giving them food and clothing.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Jubilees 40:8

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
7 And he clothed him with fine linen clothes, and he put a gold chain upon his neck, and (a herald) proclaimed before him ' 'El 'El wa 'Abirer,' and placed a ring on his hand and made him ruler over all his house, and exalted him, and said to him: 'Only on the throne shall I be greater than you.' 8 And Joseph ruled over all the land of Egypt, and all the princes of Pharaoh, and all his servants, and all who did the king's business loved him, for he walked in uprightness, for he was without pride and arrogance, and he showed no favoritism, and did not accept bribes, but he judged in uprightness all the people of the land. 9 And the land of Egypt was at peace before Pharaoh because of Joseph, for the Lord was with him, and gave him favor and mercy for all his generations before all those who knew him and those who heard concerning him, and Pharaoh's kingdom was well ordered, and there was no Satan and no evil person (in it).
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

References

... Besides the parallels Berger and Endres noticed, there are important ones in the descriptions of God himself as righteous judge. The qualities practiced by Joseph as ideal ruler match those exercised by God as he weighs human actions... Abraham described the Lord in similar terms in his testament to Isaac: ‘For he is the living God. He is more holy, faithful, and just than anyone. With him there is no favoritism nor does he accept bribes because he is a just God and one who exercises judgment against all who transgress his commands and despise his covenant’ (21:4...). And the angel tells Moses after the Reuben–Bilhah episode that no one was to act in this way ‘because the Lord our God, who shows no favoritism and takes no bribe, is the judge’ (33:18). It causes little wonder, then, that Joseph proved to be an astonishingly adept governor if he imitated the character and practices of the deity. ...
James C. VanderKam, Jubilees 1: A Commentary on the Book of Jubilees Chapters 1–21 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2018), 1029.
... found at other places: Jubilees 5:16 (‘He is not one who shows favoritism nor one who accepts a bribe, if he says he will execute judgment against each person. If a person gave everything on earth he would not show favoritism nor would he accept (it) from him because he is the righteous judge’); 33:18 (‘because the Lord our God, who shows no favoritism and accepts no bribes, is the judge’). For the same expression, see also Jubilees 40:8 (‘He [Joseph] was not arrogant, proud, or partial, nor did he accept bribes because he was ruling all the people of the land in a just way’). ...
Jacques T. A. G. M. van Ruiten, Abraham in the Book of Jubilees: The Rewriting of Genesis 11:26–25:10 in the Book of Jubilees 11:14–23:8, JSJSup 161 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 294.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Deuteronomy 10:17 and Jubilees 40:8

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