And the wife of Joseph bore him two sons, Manassah and Ephraim, and their father taught them diligently the way of truth; they listened to his words and departed not from the paths of pleasantness either to the right hand or to the left.
They grew up bright and intelligent lads, and were honoured among the people as were the children of the King.
But the seven years of plenty drew to an end, and the fields became barren and the trees gave forth no fruit, and the famine which Joseph had predicted threw its gloomy shadow and threatening presence over the once fruitful land.
And when the people opened their storehouses, they found to their sorrow that moth and mould had taken advantage of their neglect. And they cried aloud to Pharaoh, “Give us food; let us not die of hunger before thee, we and our children; give to us, we pray thee, from the plenty of thy storehouses.”[[93]]
And Pharaoh answered, “Why cry ye unto me, O careless people? did Joseph not tell ye of the famine which has come upon us? Why did ye not hearken to his voice, and obey his commands to be frugal and painstaking?”
“By thy life, our lord,” replied the people, “as Joseph spoke, so did we, and gathered in our corn during the years of plenty, but lo, when the pangs of hunger and the barrenness of the land bid us open our granaries, the moth had destroyed the provisions which we had garnered.”
The King became alarmed lest all their precaution should prove unavailing against the famine’s blight, and he bade the people to go to Joseph. “Obey his commands and rebel not against his words.”
And the people repeated to Joseph the cry for food they had addressed to Pharaoh.
When Joseph heard the words of the people and learned the result of their want of care, he opened the storehouses of the King and sold food unto the hungry people.
And the famine grew sore in the land of Egypt and spread through Canaan and the land of the Philistines, and to the other side of the Jordan. And when the inhabitants of these countries heard that corn could be obtained in Egypt, they came all of them into that country to buy, so that Joseph was obliged to appoint many officers to sell corn to the large multitude of people.