In a passage that is difficult to reconcile with modern ideas of government and economics, but at home within the worldview of the Ancient Near East, Joseph utilizes the store of grain during the years of famine to vastly increase the power and authority of Pharaoh over Egypt. However these ideas seem to us, they would have been considered to be shrewd and effective in that original context.
The narrative ends with a reminder that God provided for Israel while in Egypt, they prospered in spite of the famine.
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