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He himself went on ahead and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
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This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
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when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds.
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After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank.
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And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.
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He fell asleep again and had a second dream: Seven heads of grain, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk.
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After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted—thin and scorched by the east wind.
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The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up; it had been a dream.
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when out of the river there came up seven cows, fat and sleek, and they grazed among the reeds.
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After them, seven other cows came up—scrawny and very ugly and lean. I had never seen such ugly cows in all the land of Egypt.
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The lean, ugly cows ate up the seven fat cows that came up first.
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“In my dream I saw seven heads of grain, full and good, growing on a single stalk.
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After them, seven other heads sprouted—withered and thin and scorched by the east wind.
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The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads. I told this to the magicians, but none of them could explain it to me.”
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The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream.
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The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.
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Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt,
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but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage the land.
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Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.
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This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.”
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During the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully.
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Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it.
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The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end,
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and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food.
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These were the sons born to Jacob by Bilhah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel—seven in all.
