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Gen_40:20
Such a day, the birthday of the king, came round at the end of the three days to which Joseph had limited the fulfillment of Pharaoh’s imprisoned officers’ dreams. We are told that, on that day, “Pharaoh made a feast to all his servants;” and the absence then of two so eminent as these, could not fail to be much noticed. Besides, the very nature of the festivities of that day, were well calculated to remind the king of the absence of those whose services had usually contributed much to the enjoyment of them. He determined to inquire at once into their case, and the result was, as Joseph had predicted, the butler was restored to his office, and the baker was put to death.
Some speculation has been founded upon the mode in which this functionary was executed. Joseph, in his interpretation of the dream, says—“Within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.” Sir J. G. Wilkinson infers from this, that hanging was in use among the Egyptians as a capital punishment. But this is a mistake. Everywhere in the Old Testament, except in the book of Esther (the scene of which is in Persia, hanging means the gibbeting of the body, after death has been inflicted by the sword or other means. Of proper hanging—that is, death by suspension—as a punishment, we find no instance but in the case of Haman, and in the Persian decree in Ezra. Note: Ezr_6:11, Est_5:14. The case of Judas in the New Testament was one of suicide. Note: Mat_27:5. The text just quoted suggests decapitation, and the subsequent gibbeting of the body on a tree. The striking incident of the birds eating away the flesh, indicates the nature of the “hanging up” intended. We cannot but feel some surprise, that Sir J. G. Wilkinson infers from the instance before us, not only that hanging was a capital punishment, but that gibbeting was not practised. If the object is merely to deprive of life by hanging, the body does not remain long enough for the flesh to be eaten by birds; and if it be left sufficiently long for that, it is gibbeting, whatever the mode of death may have been. It is clear that the mind of the chief baker was familiar with the idea of bodies thus exposed to be devoured by birds of prey. It was probably in the fear lest their acquaintance with this frightful practice in Egypt should lead the Israelites to adopt it, that they were expressly forbidden by the law to expose bodies in this manner longer than till the sunset of the day of the execution. Deu_21:22-23. This regulation evinces a degree of humanity, and of regard for public decency, unexampled in any ancient code of laws, and which modern civilization, even under Christian influences, has been slow to imitate. Even in this country, which is apt to boast of its distinguished humanity and enlightenment, it is within the memory of man—and of not old men either—that the land was disfigured with these fatal trees, with the bodies of murderers left to corruption upon them. It is not clear, even, that this kind of “hanging,” after death, as mentioned in Scripture, even means suspension by cords. It means simply any kind of suspension; and the only thing of the sort that we can recollect to have seen represented in ancient painting or sculpture, is among the recently discovered Nineveh sculptures, one of which shows three dead men stuck under the ribs upon the sharpened tops of as many poles driven into the ground; their heads and arms hanging down in a manner very painful to behold.
Before quitting the transactions of this day, we may direct attention to what seems a slight, but, is really a very significant, variation in the interpretation, and consequent accomplishment of the dreams. To the butler Joseph says, that Pharaoh shall “lift up thy head;” and to the baker, “shall lift up thy head from off thee.” The first of these phrases occurs also (in the original) in Exo_30:12, and Num_1:49, in the sense of numbering; and in this sense it agrees well with the words used in describing the fulfillment: “he lifted up the head of the chief butler and the chief baker in the midst of his servants.” It might then be translated literally, “shall take thy poll,” that is, in recounting his officers, Pharaoh shall remember thee, and, as it follows, shall restore thee to thy station. Note: See Turner’s Notes to Genesis, p. 340. To the same phrase in the interpretation of the baker’s dream, a different meaning is given by the addition of the words (or rather word, for it is but one in Hebrew) “from off thee”—signifying, shall put thee to death, and that probably, but not certainly, by beheading.
This may suggest that the kings of Egypt revised the lists of their court officers on their birthdays, and that the appointments were nominally annual, though in most cases actually during pleasure. It may still require explanation how such a phrase as “lifting up the head” came to denote an enumeration. We meet with an explanation of Junius Piscator’s in Parker’s Bibliotheca Biblica, which has, at least, the merit of being curious and ingenious. “The ancients in keeping their reckonings, or accounts of time, as days, months, years, and their lists of domestic officers and services, made use of tables with holes bored in them; in which they placed a sort of pegs or nails with broad heads, exhibiting their particulars, whether numbers or names, or whatever it was. These nails or pegs, the Jews called heads; and the sockets of these heads they called bases. The meaning, therefore, of lifting up the head is, that Pharaoh should take up the peg that had the butler’s name on the top of it, read it, and will restore thee, that is, thy peg, into its place, there to stand good.”
On the other hand, there are those who dismiss all these views, and teach that the phrase “to lift up the head” in the chapter before us, is elliptical for the full expression “to lift up thy head out of prison,” such places of confinement being usually under ground. And here we are referred to 2Ki_25:27, where the words occur in reference to the king of Babylon and his captive, the king of Judah, whom he released from a long imprisonment. Here the idea of taking the poll would seem to be inadmissible; and it is most probable that it, therefore, denotes removal from prison, and restoration to liberty. A great authority Note: Gesenius in his Hebrew Lexicon. gives this explanation. But he has overlooked the simple fact, that Egypt being simply the valley of a river, by whose waters the land is periodically inundated, is the very last country in which phrases derived from subterraneous constructions could exist. All is above ground in Egypt, and necessarily so, as any constructions below the ground would be constantly full of water. The Egyptians were too intent upon contrivances for keeping their land above water, to dream of going below ground for any purpose whatever. From this, in a very considerable degree, arises the peculiar character of Egyptian buildings and architecture. Even Babylon, to which the explanation also refers, was in this respect considerably like Egypt. We cannot, therefore, receive this explanation.