In southern Saudi Arabia, during the nineteenth century, an inscription was discovered which it's examiners indicate was written approximately 1800 years before the birth of Christ - a time corresponding with the biblical account of Joseph in which a seven year famine is described. The inscription was found on a marble tablet in the ruins of a fortress on the shore of Hadramaut (in present day Democratic Yemen). Rendered into Arabic by Prof. Schultens, and later into English by Rev. Charles Forster, the inscription refers to seven years of plenty followed by a years-long famine:
"We dwelt at ease in this castle a long tract of time;
nor had we desire but for the region-lord of the vineyard.
Hundreds of camels returned to us each day at evening,
their eye pleasant to behold in their resting-places.
And twice the number of our camels were our sheep,
in comeliness like white does, also the slow moving kine.
We dwelt in this castle seven years of good life
-how difficult for memory its description!
Then came years barren and burnt up:
when one evil year had passed away,
Then came another to succeed it.
And we became as though we had never seen a glimpse of good.
They died and neither foot nor hoof remained.
Thus fares it with him who renders not thanks to God:
His footsteps fail not to be blotted out from his dwelling."
Genesis, chapter 41, gives a clear picture of Joseph, as chief administrator, being very careful in his management of the grain stores in Egypt before and during the famine. To illustrate how determined he was to maintain adequate stores of grain for the people of Egypt consider the following inscription. Found in the tomb of a rich noblewoman of the time, uncovered by a flood around the year 1850, the stone tablet relates her final words:
"In thy name, O God, the God of Hamyar,
I Tajah, the daughter of Dzu Shefar, sent my steward to Joseph,
And he delaying to return to me, I sent my handmaid
With a measure of silver, to bring me back a measure of flour:
And not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of gold:
And not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of pearls:
And not being able to procure it, I ordered them to be ground:
And finding no profit in them, I am shut up here.
Whosoever may hear of it, let him commiserate me;
And should any woman adorn herself with an ornament
From my ornaments, may she die with no other than my death."
(As reported in Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie, PL. LIX - Translated by Rev. Charles Forster)
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