In this episode of the Sojourn in Egypt, I have been experimenting with midjourney.com to generate AI images describing the people and events in scripture.
In the previous episode of the Sojourn in Egypt, I recounted how the Pharaoh, Amenemhat I, had suffered a nearly successful assassination attempt. Though he survived another ten years, he was permanently disabled. He raised his son, Senusret I, to the throne with him as the high king over all of Egypt. Senusret investigated the assassination attempt, which led to the butler and the baker coming under suspicion and being detained in the prison with Joseph.
Joseph had met the chief butler and baker and interpreted their dreams correctly. However, Joseph continued to languish in prison after the butler was exonerated. About two years later, the younger Pharaoh, Senusret I, had begun to have a recurring dream that greatly disturbed him. According to the Midrash, Joseph had the same recurring dream as the Pharaoh.
Scripture records the nature of the dream:
Then it came to pass, at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh had a dream; and behold, he stood by the river. Suddenly there came up out of the river seven cows, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow.
Then behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the river, ugly and gaunt, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the river. And the ugly and gaunt cows ate up the seven fine looking and fat cows.
So Pharaoh awoke. He slept and dreamed a second time; and suddenly seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, plump and good.
Then behold, seven thin heads, blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them. And the seven thin heads devoured the seven plump and full heads.
(It was a dream, so I interpreted it in a nightmarish way in the clip below.)
Joseph Gets Promoted
So Pharaoh awoke, and indeed, it was a dream. Now 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 its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them for Pharaoh.
Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, saying: “I remember my faults this day. When Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, both me and the chief baker, we each had a dream in one night, he and I. Each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. Now there was a young Hebrew man with us there, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him, and he interpreted our dreams for us; to each man he interpreted according to his own dream. And it came to pass, just as he interpreted for us, so it happened. He restored me to my office, and he hanged him.”
Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; and he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it.”
So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”
We know how the story goes. Joseph interpreted the dream to mean that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of famine. We can gather that both the years of plenty and the years of famine would be caused by the Nile River, because both the fat and the skinny cows came from the river in the Pharaoh’s dream.
The Pharaoh promoted Joseph to his right-hand man and gave him a copy of his signet ring. A copy of the scarab seal of Senusret I has been found, identical to the one that Joseph wore on his finger.
Midjourney is a lot of fun to play with