1 And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.
2 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favored cows and fat-fleshed; and they fed in a meadow.
3 And, behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the river, ill favored and lean-fleshed; and stood by the other cows upon the brink of the river.
4 And the ill favored and lean-fleshed cows did eat up the seven well favored and fat cows. So Pharaoh awoke.
Cows are vegetarians. They don’t eat each other.
5 And he slept and dreamed the second time: and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
“Corn” is the sixteenth century English word for whatever the major grain of the area is. In the case of Ancient Egypt, evidence from pyramids and tombs and writings tell us the major grain was wheat. Only one “ear” grows on each wheat stock.
6 And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them.
7And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.
Again, heads of wheat don’t eat each other.
8 And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.
Here is another of those dreams that you just know means something.
9 Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, “I do remember my faults this day:
10 “Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in prison in the captain of the guard's house, both me and the chief baker:
11 “And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream.
12 “And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each man according to his dream he did interpret.
13 “And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged.”
The Pharaoh was always spoken about in the third person.
I think God allowed the butler to forget about Joseph in order to make sure he would be where he needed to be to come see Pharaoh at the right time.
14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.
The Egyptians found facial hair vulgar. In fact, at times in Egyptian history they all shaved all their hair off- even the women! It was just too hot and dusty to be comfortable otherwise. They wore wigs when they went out of their houses.
15 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, “I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.”
16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”
Joseph is careful to give credit where it belongs. It’s not something special in him that makes him able to interpret dreams, but God Himself that does the talking.
17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, “In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:
18 “And, behold, there came up out of the river seven cows, fat-fleshed and well favored; and they fed in a meadow:
19 “And, behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ill favored and lean-fleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness:
20 “And the lean and the ill favored cows did eat up the first seven fat cows:
21 “And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill favored, as at the beginning. So I awoke.
22 “And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good:
23 “And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:
24 “And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me.”
25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, “The dream of Pharaoh is one: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do.
26 “The seven good cows are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.
27 “And the seven thin and ill favored cows that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.
28 “This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do He shows unto Pharaoh.
29 “Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:
30 “And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;
31 “And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.
32 “And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.”
The Nile River runs through the center of Egypt. It floods its banks every year which deposits plenty of good, rich soil in their farm lands and leaves behind enough water to grow the entire next year’s crops. Not enough water and the crops die from thirst. But worse are the years when there is too much water. In these years, the flood doesn’t dry up in time for crops to be planted at all. In drought years, you can always haul water in. In flood years, you are, well, “up a creek without a paddle,” so to speak. There simply isn’t anything you can do.
There is a place on the upper Nile where the river was measured every year on a certain day in ancient times. This told the people whether there would be enough water or too much or just right for the year to come. Those measures show, in very ancient times, seven straight years of ideal flood levels. This is followed immediately by seven years of extreme flood. This would have produced so much water that there would have been no planting at all.
33 “Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.
34 “Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.
35 “And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up [grain] under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.
36 And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.”
Now Joseph gives his advice on how to handle the coming catastrophe. He proposes a 20% tax on all crops. This was an extremely high tax at the time, though nothing compared with what we are used to paying, (though studies say that 20% is the highest you can charge before people begin looking for tax shelters to hide their money in). These crops were to be stored up for the bad times.
This is great advise to us today; store up in the good times for the inevitable bad times.
37 And the idea was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
38 And Pharaoh said unto his servants, “Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?”
39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, “Since as God hath shown thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou are:
40 “Thou shall be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.”
Same deal Joseph had in Potiphar’s house and in prison, but now it’s over the whole country.
41 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, “See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.”
42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and dressed him in clothes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;
43 And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, “Bow the knee:” and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
There are two candidates for who this pharaoh was, and as a result who Joseph was in Egyptian records.
The first is named Imhotep (called in the records “son of Ptah.” Ptah was the Creator God) under Pharaoh Djoser (which might mean “Joseph’s Pharaoh” though we aren’t really sure since we still have a hard time reading Hieroglyphics).
There are several inscriptions throughout Egypt telling the story of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine under Djoser. Now, since each of these inscriptions were written centuries after they claim the event happened, some of the details are a bit skewed. But they are all remarkably like the biblical account right down to the part where the priesthood was exempted from the tax and the rest of the country was put under the pharaoh’s ownership, all inspired by a dream of pharaoh.
Imhotep was born a commoner who rose to power by solving this problem sometime about midway into Djoser’s reign.
The inscription on the base of the statue of Djoser at the Step Pyramid was inscribed with the names of Djoser and of "Imhotep, Chancellor of the King of Lower Egypt, Chief under the King, Administrator of the Great Palace, Hereditary Lord, High Priest of Heliopolis (On), Imhotep the Builder, the Sculptor, the Maker of Stone Vases...". Joseph and Imhotep both died at 110, and Imhotep’s coffin is empty (Joseph’s bones were carried into Canaan and buried after the Exodus. This isn’t proof in itself since a lot of coffins in Egypt are empty).
Since Joseph married the daughter of the Priest of On, it would be very probable for him to inherit that title.
Psalms 105:16-22 tells us that Joseph taught Pharaoh’s men wisdom and he did live more than 60 years after the great famine, so had a lot of time to learn new things.
This Imhotep is known as a great physician and wise man in Egyptian writings. It is believed that a number of wisdom writings from Ancient Egypt (similar to Solomon’s) were actually written by this Imhotep (though other authors signed their names to them at later dates). This would make sense since Joseph received his wisdom from the same place Solomon did.
On the other hand, we have records of a different visor later on, Mentuhotep, who also did great things.
He served under Senusret I (Sesostris I) during a time of great peace, building and prosperity, though there are records of a severe drought at the time.
Mentuhotep was given the title of “overseer of all royal works” which does sound a lot like Joseph’s job, especially since it appears he had the same power as the king. The people were commanded to bow before him and there is even a canal in Egypt built during this time that still has the name “Joseph’s Canal.” This is the time trade with Palestine was initiated, too. And we have paintings of semantic immigrants during his famine.
So which visor was Joseph? The timeline for Egypt is being revised as more and more evidence comes to light, but we can’t rely on it yet. I see three possibilities:
1) Abraham lived at the time of Menes and Joseph is Imhotep. This fits the timing between Abraham and Joseph best. Or
2) Menes and Djoser (Imenhotep’s pharaoh) were contemporaries, with Abraham living at the same time (maybe he was Imenhotep? Actually, Ham is a distinct possibility since Shem certainly lived long enough to fill the role and Ham would have been helping his son rule with the knowledge he brought from before the Flood.) and Joseph was Mentuhotep under Sesostris I. This fits the timing between Joseph and Moses best. Or
3) Djoser and Sesostris I were the same man with two different names (pharaohs tended to have lots of names), making Imenhotep and Mentuhotep the same man. (Their descriptions are remarkably alike.) This would take the biggest rewriting of the timeline and is entirely my own idea born out of the frustration of every article I read having a different opinion and all of the evidence for either option sounding equally plausible. Unfortunately, we have statues of both pharaohs and they don’t look anything alike, but it would solve a lot of problems.
The time between Imhotep’s third dynasty and Mentuhotep’s (and Moses’s)12th still needs a great deal of reworking, deleting redundant kings, returning local governors to their proper place instead of calling them pharaohs, eliminating the 1st intermediate period, (“There was no First Intermediate Period. The dark ages of the first Intermediate Period have been confused with the dark ages of the 2nd Intermediate Period. We are in the dark about them.” – David Down, “Unwrapping the Pharaohs.”) and putting many of the dynasties ruling at the same time instead of one after another. There are many who are working on this right now.
Let’s note that Egypt had chariots here. This means that historians were wrong about the Hyksos introducing them at a later date.
44 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.”
45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.
The name Imhotep means “the voice of Im.” There is no Egyptian god named Im. However, could that have been their name for the Great I Am of Abraham?
The Bible tells us that Pharaoh calls Joseph Zaphnathpaaneah which means “The God lives, The God speaks.” Could Zaphnathpaaneah be the Hebrew version of the name Imhotep?
Mentuhotep means “"The God Montu is Content" which isn’t too far off either.
Asenath means “belonging to the goddess Neith.”
46 And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
So this would have been 2289 (1757BC).
47 And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.
48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.
49 And Joseph gathered grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.
There is found in every major city of Egypt large pits of no apparent use. These often have edges rising well up above ground level.
The ruins of the city surrounding the Step Pyramid has many of these pits all connected by tunnels. Though secular scholars have labeled these as tombs (they tend to label any hole in the ground "tomb"), there is no archeological evidence to prove that they were (no wall decorations, carvings or artifacts). It is much more likely these are storage chambers for tremendous amounts of grain.
50 And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him.
51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: “For God,” said he, “has made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.”
Manasseh means “causing to forget.” Joseph is now a happy man.
52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim: "For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction."
Ephraim means "double ash-heap: I shall be doubly fruitful"
53 And the seven years of plenty, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended.
54 And the seven years of famine began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the famine was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
This famine extended well beyond the borders of Egypt. Possibly the normal weather patterns forced all the normal rainfall to happen at the source of the Nile, causing it to flood more than normal, instead of being spread out over all of Northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Thus, those lands in Egypt would be too wet to plant and all the other lands would be too dry to grow anything. Or maybe the entire region received no rain at all. Either way, no one would have food.
55 And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, “Go unto Joseph; what he says to you, do.”
56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
57 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy grain; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.
History tells us that this is when Egypt became the richest nation on earth.
2 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favored cows and fat-fleshed; and they fed in a meadow.
3 And, behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the river, ill favored and lean-fleshed; and stood by the other cows upon the brink of the river.
4 And the ill favored and lean-fleshed cows did eat up the seven well favored and fat cows. So Pharaoh awoke.
Cows are vegetarians. They don’t eat each other.
5 And he slept and dreamed the second time: and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
“Corn” is the sixteenth century English word for whatever the major grain of the area is. In the case of Ancient Egypt, evidence from pyramids and tombs and writings tell us the major grain was wheat. Only one “ear” grows on each wheat stock.
6 And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them.
7And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.
Again, heads of wheat don’t eat each other.
8 And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.
Here is another of those dreams that you just know means something.
9 Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, “I do remember my faults this day:
10 “Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in prison in the captain of the guard's house, both me and the chief baker:
11 “And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream.
12 “And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each man according to his dream he did interpret.
13 “And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged.”
The Pharaoh was always spoken about in the third person.
I think God allowed the butler to forget about Joseph in order to make sure he would be where he needed to be to come see Pharaoh at the right time.
14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh.
The Egyptians found facial hair vulgar. In fact, at times in Egyptian history they all shaved all their hair off- even the women! It was just too hot and dusty to be comfortable otherwise. They wore wigs when they went out of their houses.
15 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, “I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.”
16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”
Joseph is careful to give credit where it belongs. It’s not something special in him that makes him able to interpret dreams, but God Himself that does the talking.
17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, “In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:
18 “And, behold, there came up out of the river seven cows, fat-fleshed and well favored; and they fed in a meadow:
19 “And, behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ill favored and lean-fleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness:
20 “And the lean and the ill favored cows did eat up the first seven fat cows:
21 “And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill favored, as at the beginning. So I awoke.
22 “And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good:
23 “And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:
24 “And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me.”
25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, “The dream of Pharaoh is one: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do.
26 “The seven good cows are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.
27 “And the seven thin and ill favored cows that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.
28 “This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do He shows unto Pharaoh.
29 “Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:
30 “And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;
31 “And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.
32 “And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.”
The Nile River runs through the center of Egypt. It floods its banks every year which deposits plenty of good, rich soil in their farm lands and leaves behind enough water to grow the entire next year’s crops. Not enough water and the crops die from thirst. But worse are the years when there is too much water. In these years, the flood doesn’t dry up in time for crops to be planted at all. In drought years, you can always haul water in. In flood years, you are, well, “up a creek without a paddle,” so to speak. There simply isn’t anything you can do.
There is a place on the upper Nile where the river was measured every year on a certain day in ancient times. This told the people whether there would be enough water or too much or just right for the year to come. Those measures show, in very ancient times, seven straight years of ideal flood levels. This is followed immediately by seven years of extreme flood. This would have produced so much water that there would have been no planting at all.
33 “Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.
34 “Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.
35 “And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up [grain] under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.
36 And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.”
Now Joseph gives his advice on how to handle the coming catastrophe. He proposes a 20% tax on all crops. This was an extremely high tax at the time, though nothing compared with what we are used to paying, (though studies say that 20% is the highest you can charge before people begin looking for tax shelters to hide their money in). These crops were to be stored up for the bad times.
This is great advise to us today; store up in the good times for the inevitable bad times.
37 And the idea was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
38 And Pharaoh said unto his servants, “Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?”
39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, “Since as God hath shown thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou are:
40 “Thou shall be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.”
Same deal Joseph had in Potiphar’s house and in prison, but now it’s over the whole country.
41 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, “See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.”
42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and dressed him in clothes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;
43 And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, “Bow the knee:” and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
There are two candidates for who this pharaoh was, and as a result who Joseph was in Egyptian records.
The first is named Imhotep (called in the records “son of Ptah.” Ptah was the Creator God) under Pharaoh Djoser (which might mean “Joseph’s Pharaoh” though we aren’t really sure since we still have a hard time reading Hieroglyphics).
There are several inscriptions throughout Egypt telling the story of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine under Djoser. Now, since each of these inscriptions were written centuries after they claim the event happened, some of the details are a bit skewed. But they are all remarkably like the biblical account right down to the part where the priesthood was exempted from the tax and the rest of the country was put under the pharaoh’s ownership, all inspired by a dream of pharaoh.
Imhotep was born a commoner who rose to power by solving this problem sometime about midway into Djoser’s reign.
The inscription on the base of the statue of Djoser at the Step Pyramid was inscribed with the names of Djoser and of "Imhotep, Chancellor of the King of Lower Egypt, Chief under the King, Administrator of the Great Palace, Hereditary Lord, High Priest of Heliopolis (On), Imhotep the Builder, the Sculptor, the Maker of Stone Vases...". Joseph and Imhotep both died at 110, and Imhotep’s coffin is empty (Joseph’s bones were carried into Canaan and buried after the Exodus. This isn’t proof in itself since a lot of coffins in Egypt are empty).
Since Joseph married the daughter of the Priest of On, it would be very probable for him to inherit that title.
Psalms 105:16-22 tells us that Joseph taught Pharaoh’s men wisdom and he did live more than 60 years after the great famine, so had a lot of time to learn new things.
This Imhotep is known as a great physician and wise man in Egyptian writings. It is believed that a number of wisdom writings from Ancient Egypt (similar to Solomon’s) were actually written by this Imhotep (though other authors signed their names to them at later dates). This would make sense since Joseph received his wisdom from the same place Solomon did.
On the other hand, we have records of a different visor later on, Mentuhotep, who also did great things.
He served under Senusret I (Sesostris I) during a time of great peace, building and prosperity, though there are records of a severe drought at the time.
Mentuhotep was given the title of “overseer of all royal works” which does sound a lot like Joseph’s job, especially since it appears he had the same power as the king. The people were commanded to bow before him and there is even a canal in Egypt built during this time that still has the name “Joseph’s Canal.” This is the time trade with Palestine was initiated, too. And we have paintings of semantic immigrants during his famine.
So which visor was Joseph? The timeline for Egypt is being revised as more and more evidence comes to light, but we can’t rely on it yet. I see three possibilities:
1) Abraham lived at the time of Menes and Joseph is Imhotep. This fits the timing between Abraham and Joseph best. Or
2) Menes and Djoser (Imenhotep’s pharaoh) were contemporaries, with Abraham living at the same time (maybe he was Imenhotep? Actually, Ham is a distinct possibility since Shem certainly lived long enough to fill the role and Ham would have been helping his son rule with the knowledge he brought from before the Flood.) and Joseph was Mentuhotep under Sesostris I. This fits the timing between Joseph and Moses best. Or
3) Djoser and Sesostris I were the same man with two different names (pharaohs tended to have lots of names), making Imenhotep and Mentuhotep the same man. (Their descriptions are remarkably alike.) This would take the biggest rewriting of the timeline and is entirely my own idea born out of the frustration of every article I read having a different opinion and all of the evidence for either option sounding equally plausible. Unfortunately, we have statues of both pharaohs and they don’t look anything alike, but it would solve a lot of problems.
The time between Imhotep’s third dynasty and Mentuhotep’s (and Moses’s)12th still needs a great deal of reworking, deleting redundant kings, returning local governors to their proper place instead of calling them pharaohs, eliminating the 1st intermediate period, (“There was no First Intermediate Period. The dark ages of the first Intermediate Period have been confused with the dark ages of the 2nd Intermediate Period. We are in the dark about them.” – David Down, “Unwrapping the Pharaohs.”) and putting many of the dynasties ruling at the same time instead of one after another. There are many who are working on this right now.
Let’s note that Egypt had chariots here. This means that historians were wrong about the Hyksos introducing them at a later date.
44 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.”
45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.
The name Imhotep means “the voice of Im.” There is no Egyptian god named Im. However, could that have been their name for the Great I Am of Abraham?
The Bible tells us that Pharaoh calls Joseph Zaphnathpaaneah which means “The God lives, The God speaks.” Could Zaphnathpaaneah be the Hebrew version of the name Imhotep?
Mentuhotep means “"The God Montu is Content" which isn’t too far off either.
Asenath means “belonging to the goddess Neith.”
46 And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
So this would have been 2289 (1757BC).
47 And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.
48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.
49 And Joseph gathered grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.
There is found in every major city of Egypt large pits of no apparent use. These often have edges rising well up above ground level.
The ruins of the city surrounding the Step Pyramid has many of these pits all connected by tunnels. Though secular scholars have labeled these as tombs (they tend to label any hole in the ground "tomb"), there is no archeological evidence to prove that they were (no wall decorations, carvings or artifacts). It is much more likely these are storage chambers for tremendous amounts of grain.
50 And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him.
51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: “For God,” said he, “has made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.”
Manasseh means “causing to forget.” Joseph is now a happy man.
52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim: "For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction."
Ephraim means "double ash-heap: I shall be doubly fruitful"
53 And the seven years of plenty, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended.
54 And the seven years of famine began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the famine was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
This famine extended well beyond the borders of Egypt. Possibly the normal weather patterns forced all the normal rainfall to happen at the source of the Nile, causing it to flood more than normal, instead of being spread out over all of Northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Thus, those lands in Egypt would be too wet to plant and all the other lands would be too dry to grow anything. Or maybe the entire region received no rain at all. Either way, no one would have food.
55 And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, “Go unto Joseph; what he says to you, do.”
56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
57 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy grain; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.
History tells us that this is when Egypt became the richest nation on earth.