Genesis 40–42

1After these things, the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord, the king of Egypt.

2Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cup bearer and the chief baker.

3He put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.

4The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he took care of them. They stayed in prison many days.

5They both dreamed a dream, each man his dream, in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the cup bearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were bound in the prison.

6Joseph came in to them in the morning, and saw them, and saw that they were sad.

7He asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house, saying, “Why do you look so sad today?”

8They said to him, “We have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it.” Joseph said to them, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Please tell it to me.”

9The chief cup bearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “In my dream, behold, a vine was in front of me,

10and in the vine were three branches. It was as though it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters produced ripe grapes.

11Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.”

12Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days.

13Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head, and restore you to your office. You will give Pharaoh’s cup into his hand, the way you did when you were his cup bearer.

14But remember me when it is well with you. Please show kindness to me, and make mention of me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.

15For indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.”

16When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, “I also was in my dream, and behold, three baskets of white bread were on my head.

17In the uppermost basket there were all kinds of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head.”

18Joseph answered, “This is its interpretation. The three baskets are three days.

19Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from off you, and will hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from off you.”

20On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief cup bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.

21He restored the chief cup bearer to his position again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand;

22but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.

23Yet the chief cup bearer didn’t remember Joseph, but forgot him.

1At the end of two full years, Pharaoh dreamed, and behold, he stood by the river.

2Behold, seven cattle came up out of the river. They were sleek and fat, and they fed in the marsh grass.

3Behold, seven other cattle came up after them out of the river, ugly and thin, and stood by the other cattle on the brink of the river.

4The ugly and thin cattle ate up the seven sleek and fat cattle. So Pharaoh awoke.

5He slept and dreamed a second time; and behold, seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, healthy and good.

6Behold, seven heads of grain, thin and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them.

7The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy and full ears. Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream.

8In the morning, his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all of Egypt’s magicians and wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh.

9Then the chief cup bearer spoke to Pharaoh, saying, “I remember my faults today.

10Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, with the chief baker.

11We dreamed a dream in one night, he and I. Each man dreamed according to the interpretation of his dream.

12There was with us there a young man, a Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard, and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams. He interpreted to each man according to his dream.

13As he interpreted to us, so it was. He restored me to my office, and he hanged him.”

14Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon. He shaved himself, changed his clothing, and came in to Pharaoh.

15Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”

16Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It isn’t in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”

17Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, “In my dream, behold, I stood on the brink of the river;

18and behold, seven fat and sleek cattle came up out of the river. They fed in the marsh grass;

19and behold, seven other cattle came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for ugliness.

20The thin and ugly cattle ate up the first seven fat cattle;

21and when they had eaten them up, it couldn’t be known that they had eaten them, but they were still ugly, as at the beginning. So I awoke.

22I saw in my dream, and behold, seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, full and good;

23and behold, seven heads of grain, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them.

24The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads of grain. I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”

25Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dream of Pharaoh is one. What God is about to do he has declared to Pharaoh.

26The seven good cattle are seven years; and the seven good heads of grain are seven years. The dream is one.

27The seven thin and ugly cattle that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty heads of grain blasted with the east wind; they will be seven years of famine.

28That is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do.

29Behold, seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt are coming.

30Seven years of famine will arise after them, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land,

31and the plenty will not be known in the land by reason of that famine which follows; for it will be very grievous.

32The dream was doubled to Pharaoh, because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

33“Now therefore let Pharaoh look for a discreet and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt.

34Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt’s produce in the seven plenteous years.

35Let them gather all the food of these good years that come, and store grain under the hand of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it.

36The food will be to supply the land against the seven years of famine, which will be in the land of Egypt; so that the land will not perish through the famine.”

37The thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.

38Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”

39Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has shown you all of this, there is no one so discreet and wise as you.

40You shall be over my house. All my people will be ruled according to your word. Only in the throne I will be greater than you.”

41Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”

42Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in robes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck.

43He made him ride in the second chariot which he had. They cried before him, “Bow the knee!” He set him over all the land of Egypt.

44Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh. Without you, no man shall lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.”

45Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-Paneah. He gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On as a wife. Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.

46Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.

47In the seven plenteous years the earth produced abundantly.

48He 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 stored food in each city from the fields around that city.

49Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he stopped counting, for it was without number.

50To Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore to him.

51Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, “For”, he said, “God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.”

52The name of the second, he called Ephraim: “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

53The seven years of plenty, that were in the land of Egypt, came to an end.

54The seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.

55When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do.”

56The famine was over all the surface of the earth. Joseph opened all the store houses, and sold to the Egyptians. The famine was severe in the land of Egypt.

57All countries came into Egypt, to Joseph, to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all the earth.

1Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”

2He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.”

3Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

4But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.”

5The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

6Joseph was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth.

7Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them, and spoke roughly with them. He said to them, “Where did you come from?” They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”

8Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him.

9Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land.”

10They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.

11We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies.”

12He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land!”

13They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is today with our father, and one is no more.”

14Joseph said to them, “It is like I told you, saying, ‘You are spies!’

15By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go out from here, unless your youngest brother comes here.

16Send one of you, and let him get your brother, and you shall be bound, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies.”

17He put them all together into custody for three days.

18Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this, and live, for I fear God.

19If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.

20Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won’t die.” They did so.

21They said to one another, “We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.”

22Reuben answered them, saying, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘Don’t sin against the child,’ and you wouldn’t listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required.”

23They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them.

24He turned himself away from them, and wept. Then he returned to them, and spoke to them, and took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes.

25Then Joseph gave a command to fill their bags with grain, and to restore each man’s money into his sack, and to give them food for the way. So it was done to them.

26They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there.

27As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack.

28He said to his brothers, “My money is restored! Behold, it is in my sack!” Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”

29They came to Jacob their father, to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying,

30“The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly with us, and took us for spies of the country.

31We said to him, ‘We are honest men. We are no spies.

32We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Canaan.’

33The man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your houses, and go your way.

34Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. So I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’”

35As they emptied their sacks, behold, each man’s bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid.

36Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.”

37Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons, if I don’t bring him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again.”

38He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”