The Daily Audio Bible

(S: ii) ¹⁷ Pharaoh said to Yosef, “In my dream, I stood at the edge of the river; ¹⁸ and there came up out of the river seven cows, fat and sleek; and they began feeding in the swamp grass. ¹⁹ After them, there came up out of the river seven more cows, poor, miserable-looking and lean — I’ve never seen such bad-looking cows in all the land of Egypt! ²⁰ Then the lean and miserable-looking cows ate up the first seven fat cows. ²¹ But after they had eaten them up, one couldn’t tell that they had eaten them; because they were as miserable-looking as before. At this point I woke up. ²² But I dreamed again and saw seven full, ripe ears of grain growing out of a single stalk. ²³ After them, seven ears, thin and blasted by the east wind, sprang up. ²⁴ And the thin ears swallowed up the seven ripe ears. I told this to the magicians, but none of them could explain it to me.”

²⁵ Yosef said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are the same: God has told Pharaoh what he is about to do. ²⁶ The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears of grain are seven years — the dreams are the same. ²⁷ Likewise the seven lean and miserable-looking cows that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty ears blasted by the east wind — there will be seven years of famine. ²⁸ This is what I told Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. ²⁹ Here it is: there will be seven years of abundance throughout the whole land of Egypt; ³⁰ but afterwards, there will come seven years of famine; and Egypt will forget all the abundance. The famine will consume the land, ³¹ and the abundance will not be known in the land because of the famine that will follow, because it will be truly terrible. ³² Why was the dream doubled for Pharaoh? Because the matter has been fixed by God, and God will shortly cause it to happen.

³³ “Therefore, Pharaoh should look for a man both discreet and wise to put in charge of the land of Egypt. ³⁴ Pharaoh should do this, and he should appoint supervisors over the land to receive a twenty percent tax on the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. ³⁵ They should gather all the food produced during these good years coming up and set aside grain under the supervision of Pharaoh to be used for food in the cities, and they should store it. ³⁶ This will be the land’s food supply for the seven years of famine that will come over the land of Egypt, so that the land will not perish as a result of the famine.”

³⁷ The proposal seemed good both to Pharaoh and to all his officials. ³⁸ Pharaoh said to his officials, “Can we find anyone else like him? The Spirit of God lives in him!”

(iii) ³⁹ So Pharaoh said to Yosef, “Since God has shown you all this — there is no one as discerning and wise as you — ⁴⁰ you will be in charge of my household; all my people will be ruled by what you say. Only when I rule from my throne will I be greater than you.” ⁴¹ Pharaoh said to Yosef, “Here, I place you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” ⁴² Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Yosef’s hand, had him clothed in fine linen with a gold chain around his neck ⁴³ and had him ride in his second best chariot; and they cried before him, “Bow down!” Thus he placed him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. ⁴⁴ Pharaoh said to Yosef, “I, Pharaoh, decree that without your approval no one is to raise his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.” ⁴⁵ Pharaoh called Yosef by the name Tzafnat-Pa‘neach and gave him as his wife Osnat the daughter of Poti-Fera priest of On. Then Yosef went out through all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁶ Yosef was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt; then he left Pharaoh’s presence and traveled through all the land of Egypt. ⁴⁷ During the seven years of abundance, the earth brought forth heaps of produce. ⁴⁸ He collected all the food of these seven years in the land of Egypt and stored it in the cities — the food grown in the fields outside each city he stored in that city. ⁴⁹ Yosef stored grain in quantities like the sand on the seashore, so much that they stopped counting, because it was beyond measure.

⁵⁰ Two sons were born to Yosef before the year of famine came; Osnat the daughter of Poti-Fera priest of On bore them to him. ⁵¹ Yosef called the firstborn M’nasheh [causing to forget], “Because God has caused me to forget all the troubles I suffered at the hands of my family.” ⁵² The second he called Efrayim [fruit], “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my misfortune.”

(iv) ⁵³ The seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt ended; ⁵⁴ and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Yosef had said. There was famine in all lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food. ⁵⁵ When the whole land of Egypt started feeling the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food, and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Yosef, and do what he tells you to do.” ⁵⁶ The famine was over all the earth, but then Yosef opened all the storehouses and sold food to the Egyptians, since the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. ⁵⁷ Moreover all countries came to Egypt to Yosef to buy grain, because the famine was severe throughout the earth.

42 Now Ya‘akov saw that there was grain in Egypt; so Ya‘akov said to his sons, “Why are you staring at each other? ² Look,” he said, “I’ve heard that there’s grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us from there, so that we can stay alive and not die!” ³ Thus Yosef’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt, ⁴ except for Binyamin, Yosef’s brother. Ya‘akov did not send him with his brothers, because he was afraid something might happen to him.

⁵ The sons of Isra’el came to buy along with the others that came, since the famine extended to the land of Kena‘an. ⁶ Yosef was governor over the land; it was he who sold to all the people of the land. Now when Yosef’s brothers came and prostrated themselves before him on the ground, ⁷ Yosef saw his brothers and recognized them; but he acted toward them as if he were a stranger and spoke harshly with them. He asked them, “Where are you from?” They answered, “From the land of Kena‘an to buy food.” ⁸ So Yosef recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him.

⁹ Remembering the dreams he had had about them, Yosef said to them, “You are spies! You’ve come to spot our country’s weaknesses!” ¹⁰ “No, my lord,” they replied, “your servants have come to buy food. ¹¹ We’re all the sons of one man, we’re upright men; your servants aren’t spies.” ¹² “No,” he said to them, “you’ve come to spy out our country’s weaknesses.” ¹³ They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Kena‘an; the youngest stayed with our father, and another one is gone.” ¹⁴ “Just as I said,” replied Yosef, “you’re spies! ¹⁵ Here’s how you can prove you’re not lying: as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave here unless your youngest brother comes here. ¹⁶ Send one of you, and let him bring your brother. Meanwhile, you will be kept in custody. This will prove whether there is any truth in what you say. Otherwise, as Pharaoh lives, you are certainly spies.” ¹⁷ Then he put all of them together in prison for three days.

²⁴ Yeshua put before them another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵ but while people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, then went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads of grain, the weeds also appeared. ²⁷ The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ ²⁸ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Then do you want us to go and pull them up?’ ²⁹ But he said, ‘No, because if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot some of the wheat at the same time. ³⁰ Let them both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest-time I will tell the reapers to collect the weeds first and tie them in bundles to be burned, but to gather the wheat into my barn.’”

³¹ Yeshua put before them another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man takes and sows in his field. ³² It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows up it is larger than any garden plant and becomes a tree, so that the birds flying about come and nest in its branches.”

³³ And he told them yet another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with a bushel of flour, then waited until the whole batch of dough rose.”

³⁴ All these things Yeshua said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without using a parable. ³⁵ This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet,

³⁶ Then he left the crowds and went into the house. His talmidim approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” ³⁷ He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; ³⁸ the field is the world. As for the good seed, these are the people who belong to the Kingdom; and the weeds are the people who belong to the Evil One. ³⁹ The enemy who sows them is the Adversary, the harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. ⁴⁰ Just as the weeds are collected and burned up in the fire, so will it be at the end of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send forth his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all the things that cause people to sin and all the people who are far from Torah; ⁴² and they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where people will wail and grind their teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let him hear!

⁴⁴ “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. A man found it, hid it again, then in great joy went and sold everything he owned, and bought that field.

⁴⁵ “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for fine pearls. ⁴⁶ On finding one very valuable pearl he went away, sold everything he owned and bought it.