Why would a head of state so trust a man in prison that he would place him second in command of the entire nation? Why would Pharaoh place such a man in so great an office? Granted, Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream in a manner that gave the king peace of mind, but why would the king’s trust be placed in what, for all intents and purposes, should be considered a criminal. First of all, we don’t know, if Pharaoh knew Joseph’s history, but it is possible that he did know why Joseph was placed in prison, because Potiphar was Pharaoh’s captain of the guard (Genesis 39:1). Moreover, the term king’s prisoners (Genesis 39:20) seems to indicate the prison wasn’t a guardhouse of ordinary criminals but a hold for political prisoners. History shows us that many political prisoners had gone on to enjoy great political power in the very state that once imprisoned them. Therefore, political prisoners are often treated differently than common criminals.
When Joseph appeared before Pharaoh, he was thirty years old. He was sold into slavery when he was seventeen (Genesis 37:2, 26-28, 36), so the time between the two is 13 years. Therefore, Joseph was in prison for at least 3 years (Genesis 41:1), and a slave in Potiphar’s house for about 10 years. So, Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and toured the land of Egypt in order to discover the sites, where the storehouses should be kept, and how large they should be in any given area of the country (Genesis 41:46).
Therefore, during the seven years of plenty, Joseph laid up in store the excess of the food needed for the living of Egypt’s citizens, and for Pharaoh’s business transactions. He took the grain from the fields and stored them in cities that were near the fields. At first, he recorded the quantity that was stored, but he stopped, because it was too tedious considering the plenteous harvests during those first seven years (Genesis 41:47-49).
During these first seven years Joseph had two sons by Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, the priest of On. He named his firstborn Manasseh, because God had caused Joseph to forget, how he was mistreated as a slave in Egypt and, as the son of Jacob in his father’s house. His second son he named Ephraim, because God caused Joseph to prosper in Egypt, the land of his affliction (Genesis 41:50-52).
Then, the seven years of plenty ended, and the great famine began. It spread throughout all the lands of the East, but Egypt had food (Genesis 41:53-54). When the fields of Egypt didn’t produce a harvest, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food, and he sent them to Joseph, telling them to do, whatever Joseph told them to do. Therefore, when the famine had struck Egypt and the whole world, Joseph opened up the storehouses and sold the grain to the Egyptian citizens, but the famine had no end in sight (Genesis 41:55-56). Moreover, when the other lands learned of Egypt’s store of food, they came there to buy grain and were referred to Joseph to obtain what they needed, because the famine had left the fields of the East bare, at least from Egypt to the Land of Canaan, but probably included lands as far east as Mesopotamia (Genesis 41:56-57).
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