The moment is cinematic. Pharaoh pulls his signet ring from his own finger and slides it onto Joseph's. He drapes him in fine linen. He fastens a collar of gold around his neck. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 41:42 preserves each gesture with ceremonial care — vestments, collar, ring — because each one carries legal weight.
Three tokens of office
The ring is not jewelry. In Egyptian administrative practice, the signet was the instrument by which royal decrees were authenticated. To wear Pharaoh's ring meant to speak in Pharaoh's voice on parchment. The fine linen, the shesh of priestly dress, marked Joseph as belonging to the governing class that stood closest to sacred authority. The gold collar — the manikha in the Aramaic — was the pharaonic "collar of honor," a decoration Egyptian reliefs routinely show the king bestowing on his highest officials. The Targum, whose final redaction belongs to the Land of Israel around the seventh or eighth century CE, is faithful to the Egyptian context the Torah assumes.
From pit to palace
The rabbinic imagination is alive to the irony. Joseph had been stripped of his coat of many colors by his brothers (Genesis 37:23) and stripped again of his garment by Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39:12). Now he is clothed by a king.
The takeaway
Joseph's rise is measured in garments. Each one he lost was a step down; each one he now wears is the reversal. The God who undresses also clothes.