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[87]
Hereupon the king wondered at the discretion and 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, 1
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.
2
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