Pharaoh’s Dreams

41 Then it came to pass, at the end of two full years, that ^(A)Pharaoh had a dream; and behold, he stood by the river. ² Suddenly there came up out of the river seven cows, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow. ³ Then behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the river, ugly and gaunt, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the river. ⁴ And the ugly and gaunt cows ate up the seven fine looking and fat cows. So Pharaoh awoke. ⁵ He slept and dreamed a second time; and suddenly seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, plump and good. ⁶ Then behold, seven thin heads, blighted by the ^(B)east wind, sprang up after them. ⁷ And the seven thin heads devoured the seven plump and full heads. So Pharaoh awoke, and indeed, it was a dream. ⁸ Now it came to pass in the morning ^(C)that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all ^(D)the magicians of Egypt and all its ^(E)wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them for Pharaoh.

⁹ Then the ^(F)chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, saying: “I remember my faults this day. ¹⁰ When Pharaoh was ^(G)angry with his servants, ^(H)and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, both me and the chief baker, ^11 (I)we each had a dream in one night, he and I. Each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. ¹² Now there was a young ^(J)Hebrew man with us there, a ^(K)servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him, and he ^(L)interpreted our dreams for us; to each man he interpreted according to his own dream. ¹³ And it came to pass, just ^(M)as he interpreted for us, so it happened. He restored me to my office, and he hanged him.”

^14 (N)Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they ^(O)brought him quickly ^(P)out of the dungeon; and he shaved, ^(Q)changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh. ¹⁵ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. ^(R)But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it.”

¹⁶ So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, ^(S)“It is not in me; ^(T)God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”

¹⁷ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph: “Behold, ^(U)in my dream I stood on the bank of the river. ¹⁸ Suddenly seven cows came up out of the river, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow. ¹⁹ Then behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and gaunt, such ugliness as I have never seen in all the land of Egypt. ²⁰ And the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven, the fat cows. ²¹ When they had eaten them up, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were just as ugly as at the beginning. So I awoke. ²² Also I saw in my dream, and suddenly seven ^[a]heads came up on one stalk, full and good. ²³ Then behold, seven heads, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them. ²⁴ And the thin heads devoured the seven good heads. So ^(V)I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”

²⁵ Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; ^(W)God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do: ²⁶ The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ^[b]heads are seven years; the dreams are one. ²⁷ And the seven thin and ugly cows which came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind are ^(X)seven years of famine. ^28 (Y)This is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do. ²⁹ Indeed ^(Z)seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt; ³⁰ but after them seven years of famine will ^(AA)arise, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine ^(AB)will deplete the land. ³¹ So the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine following, for it will be very severe. ³² And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the ^(AC)thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

³³ “Now therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. ³⁴ Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint ^[c]officers over the land, ^(AD)to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiful years. ³⁵ And ^(AE)let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming, and store up grain under the ^[d]authority of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. ³⁶ Then that food shall be as a ^[e]reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt, that the land ^(AF)may not ^[f]perish during the famine.”

Joseph’s Rise to Power

³⁷ So ^(AG)the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants. ³⁸ And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man ^(AH)in whom is the Spirit of God?”

³⁹ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. ^40 (AI)You shall be ^[g]over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.” ⁴¹ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have ^(AJ)set you over all the land of Egypt.”

⁴² Then Pharaoh ^(AK)took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand; and he ^(AL)clothed him in garments of fine linen ^(AM)and put a gold chain around his neck. ⁴³ And he had him ride in the second ^(AN)chariot which he had; ^(AO)and they cried out before him, “Bow the knee!” So he set him ^(AP)over all the land of Egypt. ⁴⁴ Pharaoh also said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” ⁴⁵ And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name ^[h]Zaphnath-Paaneah. And he gave him as a wife ^(AQ)Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On. So Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁶ Joseph was thirty years old when he ^(AR)stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. ⁴⁷ Now in the seven plentiful years the ground brought forth ^[i]abundantly. ⁴⁸ So he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; he laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them. ⁴⁹ Joseph gathered very much grain, ^(AS)as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable.

^50 (AT)And to Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him. ⁵¹ Joseph called the name of the firstborn ^[j]Manasseh: “For God has made me forget all my toil and all my ^(AU)father’s house.” ⁵² And the name of the second he called ^[k]Ephraim: “For God has caused me to be ^(AV)fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

⁵³ Then the seven years of plenty which were in the land of Egypt ended, ^54 (AW)and the seven years of famine began to come, ^(AX)as Joseph had said. The famine was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. ⁵⁵ So when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Then Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; ^(AY)whatever he says to you, do.” ⁵⁶ The famine was over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened ^[l]all the storehouses and ^(AZ)sold to the Egyptians. And the famine became severe in the land of Egypt. ^57 (BA)So all countries came to Joseph in Egypt to ^(BB)buy grain, because the famine was severe in all lands.

Joseph’s Brothers Go to Egypt

42 When ^(BC)Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” ² And he said, “Indeed I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may ^(BD)live and not die.”

³ So Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. ⁴ But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, ^(BE)“Lest some calamity befall him.” ⁵ And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was ^(BF)in the land of Canaan.

⁶ Now Joseph was governor ^(BG)over the land; and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and ^(BH)bowed down before him with their faces to the earth. ⁷ Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as ^(BI)a stranger to them and spoke ^[m]roughly to them. Then he said to them, “Where do you come from?”

And they said, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.”

⁸ So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. ⁹ Then Joseph ^(BJ)remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the ^[n]nakedness of the land!”

¹⁰ And they said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. ¹¹ We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men; your servants are not spies.”

¹² But he said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”

¹³ And they said, “Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and in fact, the youngest is with our father today, and one ^(BK)is no more.”

¹⁴ But Joseph said to them, “It is as I spoke to you, saying, ‘You are spies!’ ¹⁵ In this manner you shall be tested: ^(BL)By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. ¹⁶ Send one of you, and let him bring your brother; and you shall be ^[o]kept in prison, that your words may be tested to see whether there is any truth in you; or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies!” ¹⁷ So he ^[p]put them all together in prison ^(BM)three days.

¹⁸ Then Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this and live, ^(BN)for I fear God: ¹⁹ If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house; but you, go and carry grain for the famine of your houses. ²⁰ And ^(BO)bring your youngest brother to me; so your words will be verified, and you shall not die.”

And they did so. ²¹ Then they said to one another, ^(BP)“We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; ^(BQ)therefore this distress has come upon us.”

²² And Reuben answered them, saying, ^(BR)“Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Therefore behold, his blood is now ^(BS)required of us.” ²³ But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter. ²⁴ And he turned himself away from them and ^(BT)wept. Then he returned to them again, and talked with them. And he took ^(BU)Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.

The Brothers Return to Canaan

²⁵ Then Joseph ^(BV)gave a command to fill their sacks with grain, to ^(BW)restore every man’s money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. ^(BX)Thus he did for them. ²⁶ So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there. ²⁷ But as ^(BY)one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money; and there it was, in the mouth of his sack. ²⁸ So he said to his brothers, “My money has been restored, and there it is, in my sack!” Then their hearts ^[q]failed them and they were afraid, saying to one another, “What is this that God has done to us?”

²⁹ Then they went to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him all that had happened to them, saying: ³⁰ “The man who is lord of the land ^(BZ)spoke ^[r]roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. ³¹ But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies. ³² We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is with our father this day in the land of Canaan.’ ³³ Then the man, the lord of the country, said to us, ^(CA)‘By this I will know that you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me, take food for the famine of your households, and be gone. ³⁴ And bring your ^(CB)youngest brother to me; so I shall know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. I will grant your brother to you, and you may ^(CC)trade in the land.’ ”

³⁵ Then it happened as they emptied their sacks, that surprisingly ^(CD)each man’s bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. ³⁶ And Jacob their father said to them, “You have ^(CE)bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take ^(CF)Benjamin. All these things are against me.”

³⁷ Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.”

³⁸ But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for ^(CG)his brother is dead, and he is left alone. ^(CH)If any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would ^(CI)bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.”

A Samaritan Woman Meets Her Messiah

4 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and ^(A)baptized more disciples than John ² (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), ³ He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. ⁴ But He needed to go through Samaria.

⁵ So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that ^(B)Jacob ^(C)gave to his son Joseph. ⁶ Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ⁸ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

⁹ Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For ^(D)Jews have no dealings with ^(E)Samaritans.

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the ^(F)gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you ^(G)living water.”

¹¹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ¹² Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but ^(H)whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him ^(I)will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

^15 (J)The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

¹⁷ The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

¹⁹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, ^(K)I perceive that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on ^(L)this mountain, and you Jews say that in ^(M)Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming ^(N)when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. ²² You worship ^(O)what you do not know; we know what we worship, for ^(P)salvation is of the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will ^(Q)worship the Father in ^(R)spirit ^(S)and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. ^24 (T)God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

²⁵ The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah ^(U)is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, ^(V)He will tell us all things.”

²⁶ Jesus said to her, ^(W)“I who speak to you am He.”

The Whitened Harvest

²⁷ And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”

²⁸ The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ²⁹ “Come, see a Man ^(X)who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” ³⁰ Then they went out of the city and came to Him.

³¹ In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

³² But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

³³ Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”

³⁴ Jesus said to them, ^(Y)“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to ^(Z)finish His work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes ^(AA)the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, ^(AB)for they are already white for harvest! ^36 (AC)And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that ^(AD)both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. ³⁷ For in this the saying is true: ^(AE)‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; ^(AF)others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

The Savior of the World

³⁹ And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him ^(AG)because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed because of His own ^(AH)word.

⁴² Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for ^(AI)we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed ^[a]the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

Welcome at Galilee

⁴³ Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee. ⁴⁴ For ^(AJ)Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. ⁴⁵ So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, ^(AK)having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; ^(AL)for they also had gone to the feast.

A Nobleman’s Son Healed

⁴⁶ So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee ^(AM)where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain ^[b]nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to him, ^(AN)“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”

⁴⁹ The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!”

⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. ⁵¹ And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!”

⁵² Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” ⁵³ So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and his whole household.

⁵⁴ This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.