d wisdom of Joseph;
and asked him by what means he might so dispense the foregoing plentiful
crops in the happy years, as to make the miserable crops more tolerable.
Joseph then added this his advice: To spare the good crops, and not
permit the Egyptians to spend them luxuriously, but to reserve what they
would have spent in luxury beyond their necessity against the time of
want. He also exhorted him to take the corn of the husbandmen, and give
them only so much as will be sufficient for their food. Accordingly
Pharaoh being surprised at Joseph, not only for his interpretation of
the dream, but for the counsel he had given him, intrusted him with
dispensing the corn; with power to do what he thought would be for the
benefit of the people of Egypt, and for the benefit of the king, as
believing that he who first discovered this method of acting, would
prove the best overseer of it. But Joseph having this power given him by
the king, with leave to make use of his seal, and to wear purple, drove
in his chariot through all the land of Egypt, and took the corn of the
husbandmen, [3] allotting as much to every one as would be sufficient
for seed, and for food, but without discovering to any one the reason
why he did so.

CHAPTER 6. How Joseph When He Was Become Famous In Egypt, Had His
Brethren In Subjection.

1. Joseph was now grown up to thirty years of age, and enjoyed great
honors from the king, who called him Psothom Phanech, out of regard to
his prodigious degree of wisdom; for that name denotes the revealer of
secrets. He also married a wife of very high quality; for he married the
daughter of Petephres, [4] one of the priests of Heliopolis; she was
a virgin, and her name was Asenath. By her he had children before
the scarcity came on; Manasseh, the elder, which signifies forgetful,
because his present happiness made him forget his former misfortunes;
and Ephraim, the younger, which signifies restored, because he was
restored to the freedom of his forefathers. Now after Egypt had happily
passed over seven years, according to Joseph's interpretation of the
dreams, the famine came upon them in the eighth year; and because this
misfortune fell upon them when they had no sense of it beforehand, [5]
they were all sorely afflicted by it, and came running to the king's
gates; and he called upon Joseph, who sold the corn to them, being
become confessedly a savior to the whole multitude of the Egyptians. Nor
did he ope