The Good the Bad and Pharaoh

And, behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the river, ill-favored and lean-fleshed; and they stood by the other cows on the bank of the river.                 Genesis 41:3

          When Pharaoh related his dream to Joseph, he deleted the fact that the lean cows came out of the river, and says simply: “And, behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and ill-favored and lean-fleshed..” [v.19]

          For the ancient idolaters, there were separate gods for good and for evil. Since the Nile was revered by the ancient Egyptians as a good deity; Pharaoh could not bring himself to say that anything bad could come out of the river.. (This inability to speak ill of the Nile seems in contrast to Pharaoh’s seeing himself as being above the river.)