“Pharaoh sent and summoned Joseph, [and they rushed him from the dungeon. He shaved, changed his garments, and came to Pharaoh]” – to accord deference to royalty.23That is why, although others rushed him, he shaved himself. “Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying: Not by me. God will respond for Pharaoh’s peace” (Genesis 41:16).
“Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying: Not by me. God [will respond]” – He attributed the greatness to its initiator. “And, behold, seven cows, fat fleshed and fair of appearance came up from the Nile, and they grazed in the pasture” (Genesis 41:18). “Seven cows” – Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya, Rabbi Yehuda said: It should have been fourteen years, as that is what Pharaoh saw.24The seven lean cows and seven blighted stalks should have indicated fourteen years.
Rabbi Neḥemya said: They were twenty-eight years, as that is what Pharaoh said to Joseph.25Pharaoh’s very mention of the seven lean cows and blighted stalks to Joseph should have initiated an additional seven years for each. The Rabbis say: It should have been forty-two years, for what Pharaoh saw and said to Joseph, and [for what] Joseph repeated and said to Pharaoh. Rabbi Yosei ben Ḥanina said: The famine lasted two years, as once Jacob our patriarch descended there, the famine ceased.
When did it return? In the days of Ezekiel. That is what is written: “I will render the land of Egypt desolation among desolate lands, and its cities will be desolation among ruined cities for forty years” (Ezekiel 29:12).