Theologische Nuggets IV (Genesis 34 - 44:26)

Genesis 43:32

Und man trug ihm besonders auf und jenen auch besonders und den Ägyptern, die mit ihm aßen, auch besonders. Denn die Ägypter dürfen nicht essen mit den Hebräern; denn es ist ein Gräuel für sie.

Jeder soll an diesem Festmahl aufnehmen und es scheint als hätten wir hier drei verschiedene Tischsegmente. Einmal haben wir Josef der als Gastgeber wahrscheinlich sitzt, dann die Brüder Josefs an einer Tafel und dann die Ägypter von Rang, die auch an einer Tafel sitzen. 

Damit diese Ägypter sich überwinden können ihre Gepflogenheit zu überwinden und kein Grund haben sich zu beschweren über die Situation, werden sie genau so reich serviert wie die Brüder Josefs. 

Joseph eats alone because he is a member of the political elite. The other Egyptians eat apart from Joseph's brothers because of a cultural sense of racial superiority. Egyptian art often portrays Semites and other foreigners as inferior. Egyptian artifacts—such as footrests decorated with foreigners—show that foreigners like Semites were viewed as people who could be treaded upon by Egyptians.

John D. Barry u. a., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Gen 43,32.

This aversion may have come from the fact that Lower and Middle Egypt had once been held in subjective oppression by the Hyksos, a tribe of nomad shepherds. The Hyksos established themselves in Egypt and had a succession of kings. They fought the Egyptians, burned some of their principal cities, committed great cruelties, and were not driven out until they and their descendants had occupied the country for hundreds of years. It's believed they weren't driven out until just before the time of Joseph.The Egyptians also detested what they considered the lawless ways of wandering shepherds who had no fixed home, and moved from place to place with each change of the season in search of food, water, and grazing land.Joseph skillfully used the Egyptians distaste for shepherds to provide his family an area where they and their flocks could flourish and Jacob's people could retain their cultural and spiritual uniqueness. Goshen was a pastoral region of ancient Egypt on the eastern delta of the Nile River, where rich black soil had been deposited by the river. There Joseph's family was isolated from most of the Egyptians, and had little daily contact with them.

James M. Freeman und Harold J. Chadwick, Manners & customs of the Bible (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1998), 84–85.