1At the end of two full years, Pharaoh had a dream. He was standing by the river.
2Look, out of the river came seven cows, fine looking and fat, and they fed in the meadow grass.
3Then look, seven other cows came up out of the river after them, ugly and thin. They stood beside the other cows on the bank of the river.
4And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven fine, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.
5He slept and dreamed a second time. Look, seven ears of corn came up on one stalk, thick and good.
6Then look, seven thin ears, dried up by the east wind, sprang up after them.
7And the seven thin ears swallowed up the seven thick, full ears. Then Pharaoh woke up, and it had been a dream.
8In the morning his spirit was troubled. So he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dream, but no one could explain it to him.
9Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, and said, "Today I remember my faults."
10"Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and he put me under guard in the house of the captain of the guard, both me and the chief baker."
11"We each had a dream in one night, he and I. Each dream had its own meaning."
12"There was a young man there with us, a Hebrew, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he explained them to us. He told each man what his own dream meant."
13"And it turned out just as he had told us. I was put back in my place, and the other man was hanged."
14Then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon. He shaved himself and changed his clothes and came in to Pharaoh.
15Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I have had a dream, and no one can explain it. I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream and explain it."
18"Look, out of the river came seven cows, fat and fine looking, and they fed in the meadow grass."
19"Then look, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin. I have never seen any so bad in all the land of Egypt."
20"And the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows."
21"But when they had eaten them, no one could tell that they had eaten them. They looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up."
22"I also saw in my dream seven ears coming up on one stalk, full and good."
23"Then look, seven ears, withered, thin, and dried up by the east wind, sprang up after them."
24"And the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. I told this to the magicians, but no one could tell me what it meant."
25Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, "Pharaoh's dream is one dream. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do."
26"The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years. It is one dream."
27"The seven thin, ugly cows that came up after them are seven years. And the seven empty ears dried up by the east wind will be seven years of famine."
28"This is what I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do."
29"Look, seven years of great plenty are coming throughout all the land of Egypt."
30"After them will come seven years of famine. All the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine will eat up the land."
31"The plenty will not be remembered in the land, because of the famine that follows, for it will be very terrible."
32"The dream came to Pharaoh twice because the thing is fixed by God, and God will soon make it happen."
34"Let Pharaoh do this: let him appoint officers over the land, and take a fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven years of plenty."
35"Let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming, and store up corn under Pharaoh's hand, and let them keep the food in the cities."
36"That food will be a store for the land for the seven years of famine that will come on the land of Egypt, so that the land does not die in the famine."
37This seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants.
38Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find such a man as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?"
39Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has shown you all this, there is no one as careful and wise as you are."
40"You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled by your word. Only on the throne will I be greater than you."
42Pharaoh took his ring off his hand and put it on Joseph's hand. He dressed him in clothes of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck.
43He had him ride in the second chariot that he had, and they called out before him, "Bow the knee." So he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
44Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, and without you no one shall lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt."
45Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphnathpaaneah, and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.
46Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence and travelled through all the land of Egypt.
47In the seven years of plenty the earth produced crops by handfuls.
48He gathered up all the food of the seven years that were in the land of Egypt, and stored the food in the cities. In each city he stored the food from the fields around it.
49Joseph gathered corn like the sand of the sea, so much that he stopped counting it, for it could not be counted.
50Two sons were born to Joseph before the years of famine came. Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah priest of On, bore them to him.
51Joseph called the firstborn Manasseh. "For God," he said, "has made me forget all my hard work, and all my father's house."
52He called the second one Ephraim. "For God has made me fruitful in the land where I suffered."
53The seven years of plenty in the land of Egypt came to an end.
54Then the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
55When all the land of Egypt was starving, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph. Do whatever he says to you."