Genesis 41:37-57 (Contemporary English Version)

Joseph Is Made Governor over Egypt

 ³⁷The king ^[a] and his officials liked this plan. ³⁸So the king said to them, "No one could possibly handle this better than Joseph, since the Spirit of God is with him." ³⁹The king told Joseph, "God is the one who has shown you these things. No one else is as wise as you are or knows as much as you do. ⁴⁰I'm putting you in charge of my palace, and everybody will have to obey you. No one will be over you except me. ⁴¹You are now governor of all Egypt!"

    ⁴²Then the king took off his royal ring and put it on Joseph's finger. He gave him fine clothes to wear and placed a gold chain around his neck. ⁴³He also let him ride in the chariot next to his own, and people shouted, "Make way for Joseph!" So Joseph was governor of Egypt.

    ⁴⁴The king told Joseph, "Although I'm king, no one in Egypt is to do anything without your permission." ⁴⁵He gave Joseph the Egyptian name Zaphenath Paneah. And he let him marry Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, a priest in the city of Heliopolis. ^[b] Joseph traveled all over Egypt. ⁴⁶Joseph was thirty when the king made him governor, and he went everywhere for the king. ⁴⁷For seven years there were big harvests of grain. ⁴⁸Joseph collected and stored up the extra grain in the cities of Egypt near the fields where it was harvested. ⁴⁹In fact, there was so much grain that they stopped keeping record, because it was like counting the grains of sand along the beach.

    ⁵⁰Joseph and his wife had two sons before the famine began. ⁵¹Their first son was named Manasseh, which means, "God has let me forget all my troubles and my family back home." ⁵²His second son was named Ephraim, which means "God has made me a success ^[c] in the land where I suffered." ^{[d] 53}Egypt's seven years of plenty came to an end, ⁵⁴and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was not enough food in other countries, but all over Egypt there was plenty. ⁵⁵When the famine finally struck Egypt, the people asked the king for food, but he said, "Go to Joseph and do what he tells you to do."

    ⁵⁶The famine became bad everywhere in Egypt, so Joseph opened the storehouses and sold the grain to the Egyptians. ⁵⁷People from all over the world came to Egypt, because the famine was severe in their countries.