Beginning
Pharaoh's dreams
41 Two years later, Pharaoh had a dream. In his dream, he was standing by the River Nile. 2 Seven cows walked up out of the river. They were fat and good to look at. They ate the grass at the side of the river. 3 After those seven fat cows, Pharaoh saw seven other cows that also came up out of the river. Those cows were thin and not good to look at. They stood next to the other cows at the side of the river. 4 The thin cows ate the seven fat cows! Then Pharaoh woke up.
5 Pharaoh went to sleep again and he had another dream. He saw seven groups of grain that were growing on one branch. The grains were fat and good to look at. 6 Then he saw seven other groups of grain that grew after the first seven groups. These grains were thin, because the hot east wind had burned them. 7 Then the groups of thin grains ate the seven groups of grains that were good and fat. Then Pharaoh woke up. He realized that it was a dream.
8 In the morning, Pharaoh had trouble in his mind. So he told all the magicians and the wise men in Egypt to come to him. Pharaoh told them about his dreams. But no one could tell Pharaoh what his dreams meant.
9 Then the king's cupbearer said to Pharaoh, ‘Now I remember that I have done a wrong thing![a] 10 Two years ago, you were angry with me and with your special baker. You put us in prison, in the house of the guards' captain. 11 One night we both had a dream. Each of our dreams had its own meaning. 12 A young Hebrew man was there with us. He was a servant of the guards' captain. We told the Hebrew man about our dreams. Then he told each of us the meaning of our dream. 13 And everything happened as he had told us! You gave me my job as cupbearer again. But you hanged the baker to kill him.’
14 So Pharaoh called Joseph to come to him. They quickly brought Joseph from the prison. Joseph washed himself and he cut his beard from his face. He put on clean clothes. Then he went and he stood in front of Pharaoh. 15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I had a dream, and no one can tell me what it means. But people have told me about you. They say that you can tell the meaning of dreams.’ 16 Joseph replied to Pharaoh, ‘I cannot do this. But God will give you an answer that will make you happy.’
17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘In my dream, I stood at the side of the River Nile. 18 I saw seven cows that came up out of the river. They were fat, and good to look at. They were eating the grass at the side of the river. 19 After them, seven more cows came up out of the river. They were thin and they were not good to look at. I have never seen cows as bad as these in Egypt before. 20 The thin cows ate the seven fat cows that came out of the river first. 21 When they had eaten them, you would not have known it! They still seemed to be as thin as they were before they ate the fat cows. Then I woke up. 22 In another dream, I also saw seven groups of grain that grew on one branch. The grains were fat and good. 23 After those, seven other groups of grain grew. Those grains were thin because the hot east wind had burned them. 24 The thin grains ate the seven groups of fat grains. I told those dreams to my wise men and magicians. But none of them could tell me the meaning of my dreams.’
25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, ‘Your dreams both have the same meaning. God has shown you what he will soon do. 26 The seven fat cows tell us about seven years. And the seven groups of fat grains also mean seven years. Both dreams have the same meaning. 27 The seven thin cows that came out of the river mean seven years. And the seven groups of thin grains mean seven years. Both of these tell us about seven years of famine.
28 This is what your dreams mean. As I said, God has shown Pharaoh what he will do. 29 There will be plenty of food for seven years all over the land of Egypt. 30 But then seven years of famine will follow. People will forget about the seven years when they had plenty of food. The famine will destroy the land of Egypt. 31 No one will remember the seven good years, because the famine will be so bad. 32 God gave you two dreams with the same meaning because these things will certainly happen. God will cause them to happen very soon. 33 Now Pharaoh should look for a clever man. He should look for a man who knows what is right and wrong. Tell him to rule over the land of Egypt.
34-35 This is what you should do: Choose some officers. Give them authority to store food during the good years when there is plenty. They must take a fifth part of all the food that grows everywhere in Egypt. They must store the extra food during the good years that will come soon. Give these officers authority to store and to take care of the food in the cities. 36 Then you will be ready for the seven years of famine that will happen everywhere in Egypt. The people in Egypt will have enough food, and the famine will not destroy the land.’
37 Pharaoh and his officers thought that Joseph's idea was good. 38 Pharaoh said to his officers, ‘This man has the Spirit of God in him. We will never find anyone else like him.’ 39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘God himself has helped you to know all these things. So there is no one who is as wise and clever as you are. 40 I will give you authority in my palace. All my people will do whatever you tell them to do. Only I will be greater than you, because I am the king.’
41 Pharaoh also said to Joseph, ‘I give you authority in the whole land of Egypt.’ 42 Then Pharaoh took his king's ring from his finger and he put it on Joseph's finger. He dressed Joseph in beautiful clothes made of linen. He put a gold chain round Joseph's neck. 43 Pharaoh gave Joseph a chariot to ride in. It showed that Joseph was Pharaoh's most important officer. Only Pharaoh had more authority. As Joseph travelled, his servants shouted to the people, ‘Bend your knees to respect Joseph!’
In this way Pharaoh gave Joseph authority over everything in the land of Egypt. 44 Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I rule Egypt as Pharaoh. But nobody who lives anywhere in Egypt will do anything, unless you tell them to.’ 45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. He also gave Asenath to Joseph to be his wife. She was the daughter of Potiphera, who was a priest in Heliopolis.[b] Everyone knew that Joseph had authority in all the land of Egypt.
46 Joseph was 30 years old when he began to serve Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Joseph then left Pharaoh's palace and he travelled all over Egypt. 47 During the seven good years, lots of food grew in the land. 48 Joseph got all the extra food that grew in the seven good years. He stored it in Egypt's cities, near the fields where it had grown. 49 In this way, Joseph stored a lot of food. The food grains were as many as the sand by the sea! Joseph stopped counting how much food he had stored because there was too much food to measure.
50 Before the years of famine arrived, Joseph became the father of two sons. Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, a priest in Heliopolis, was their mother. 51 Joseph called his firstborn son Manasseh. Joseph said, ‘God has made me forget all the trouble that my family has given to me.’ 52 Joseph called his second son Ephraim. Joseph said, ‘God has given children to me in the land where I have received pain.’
53 The seven good years with plenty of food in Egypt, came to an end. 54 The seven years of famine began, in the same way that Joseph had said would happen. There was a famine in all the other countries too. But in Egypt, the people still had food to eat. 55 When the Egyptian people became hungry, they cried out to Pharaoh for food. When they did that, Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, ‘Go to Joseph. Do whatever he tells you to do.’
56 The famine became very bad everywhere. Joseph opened all the places where he had stored the food. He sold grain to the Egyptians because there was a bad famine in all of Egypt. 57 People from all the other countries came to Egypt to buy food from Joseph. They came because the famine was very bad all over the world.
Joseph's brothers go to Egypt[c]
42 Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt. So he said to his sons, ‘There is no food here, so why are you just sitting there? 2 I have heard that there is food in Egypt. Go there and buy some for us. Then we may continue to live and not die.’
3 So ten of Joseph's brothers went to Egypt to buy food. 4 But Jacob did not send his youngest son, Benjamin, with them. Jacob was afraid that something bad might happen to Benjamin. 5 Jacob's sons went to Egypt, as well as other people who went there to buy food. They all went to Egypt because there was a bad famine in Canaan.
6 Joseph had authority to rule Egypt at that time. He was the man who sold food to all the Egyptians. When Joseph's brothers arrived there, they bent down in front of him, with their faces to the ground.[d]
7 As soon as Joseph saw the men, he knew that they were his brothers. But he spoke to them as if they were strangers. He did not speak to them in a kind way. He asked them, ‘Where do you come from?’ They replied, ‘We come from the land of Canaan. We have come here to buy food.’ 8 Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.[e]
9 Then Joseph remembered the dream that he had dreamed about his brothers. He said to them, ‘You have come here secretly to see how your people can attack our land.’ 10 They replied ‘No, my lord, that is not true! We are your servants and we have come to buy food. 11 We are all the sons of one man. We are honest men. We are not your enemies.’
12 But Joseph said, ‘No! You have come here to see if our country is weak so that you can attack us.’ 13 Joseph's brothers replied, ‘We belong to a family of 12 brothers. We are the sons of one man who lives in Canaan. Our youngest brother stayed at home with our father. One other brother is not with us any more.’ 14 Joseph said to them, ‘It is as I told you. You are our enemies! 15 I will see if what you say is true. This is what I will do. I promise by the life of Pharaoh himself, I will not let you leave this place.[f] You must first bring your youngest brother here. I will only let you go after that. 16 One of you must go to bring your brother here. I will keep you others in prison. In that way I will know if what you said is true. If your youngest brother does not come, then I will certainly know that you are enemies!’
17 Then Joseph put his brothers in prison for three days.
18 On the third day Joseph said to them, ‘Do what I say. Then you will stay alive, because I respect God.[g] 19 If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison. The other brothers can go back to Canaan. You may take food back with you, because your families are hungry. 20 But you must return to Egypt and you must bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that what you have said is true. Then you will not die.’ Joseph's brothers agreed to do what he told them.
21 The brothers said to each other, ‘This punishment is happening to us because of what we did to Joseph. We saw how upset he was when he asked us not to kill him. But we refused to be kind to him. That is why we have all this trouble.’ 22 Reuben said, ‘I told you not to do anything bad to the boy. But you would not agree! We killed him and now we must receive the punishment.’ 23 While they said all this, they did not know that Joseph could understand them. Joseph had been speaking in the Egyptian language and someone else told the brothers his message in Hebrew.[h]
24 Joseph went away from his brothers and he began to weep. But then he returned to speak to them again. While they watched, Joseph told his men to tie Simeon's hands and take him away. 25 Then Joseph told his servants to fill the brothers' bags with food. He also told them to put each man's money back into his bag.[i] He told them to give the brothers enough food for their journey. The servants did what Joseph told them. 26 Then the brothers put the bags of food on to their donkeys. Then they left.
27 They travelled until they reached a place to sleep that night. One of the brothers opened his bag to get food for his donkey. Then he saw his money inside his bag, at the top. 28 He said to his brothers, ‘They have given back my money! Here it is in my bag!’ All the brothers were upset and frightened. They asked each other, ‘What has God done to us?’
29 After some time they arrived back in Canaan. They went to their father, Jacob. They told him everything that had happened to them. 30 They said, ‘We met the man who is lord over Egypt. He spoke strong words to us. He thought that we were enemies who had come to find a way to attack Egypt. 31 But we said to him, “We are honest men. We are not your enemies. 32 We belong to a family of 12 brothers, all the sons of one father. One brother is not with us any more, and the youngest brother is at home with our father in Canaan.” 33 Then the man who is lord over Egypt said, “I want to know if you are honest men. This is what I will do. You must leave one of your brothers here, with me. Then take food for your hungry families and leave Egypt. 34 But then you must bring your youngest brother here to me. If you do that, I will know that you are really honest men. I will know that you are not our enemies. Then I will give your brother back to you. You will be able to stay in Egypt and you can buy and sell things here.” ’
35 The brothers started to take the food out of their bags. And in their bags, they found each man's money! When the brothers and their father saw the money, they were frightened. 36 Their father Jacob said to them, ‘You are taking my children away from me! Joseph is not here any more. Simeon also is not here. Now you want to take Benjamin away from me. Everything that happens is hurting me!’
37 Then Reuben said to his father, Jacob, ‘I will bring Benjamin back to you. If I do not, then you can kill both of my sons. Trust me to take care of him. I will bring him back.’ 38 But Jacob said, ‘My son will not go with you. His brother is already dead. Benjamin is the only one left. Something bad may happen to him on your journey. I am already an old man. If I lose Benjamin, I would be so sad that I would die.’[j]
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