41
📚And this happened at the end of two full years: Pharaoh was dreaming 📖, and it appeared that he stood by the river. 2 📚And, suddenly, up out of the river came seven cows, sleek and fat, and fed in a meadow. 3 📚And then after them seven other cows came up out of the river, ugly and emaciated, and stood beside the other cows on the bank of the river. 4 📚And the ugly and emaciated cows ate up the seven sleek and fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.5 📚And he slept and dreamed a second time, and saw seven ears of grain 📖 coming up on one stalk, plump and good. 6 📚And then seven ears, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprung up after them. 7 📚And the seven thin ears ate up the seven plump and full ears. And Pharaoh woke up, and, see, it was a dream.
8 📚And in the morning it happened that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for Pharaoh.
41:8 Compare Dan 1:20; 2:2, 27; 4:7. Four centuries after Joseph, magicians were still practicing their arts in Egypt – Ex 7:11, 22; 8:7, 18, 19; 9:11. People often think magicians can do much more than they can actually do. They sometimes mistakenly believe that their tricks are a display of divine power. All types of sorcery are forbidden in God’s Word – Deut 18:10-13.⚜
9 📚Then Pharaoh’s chief butler 📖 spoke up and said, “Today I remember my faults. 10 📚Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, both the chief baker and me. 11 📚And we dreamed dreams in the same night, he and I. Each of us had a dream with its own meaning. 12 📚And a young man was there with us, a Hebrew, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him our dreams and he interpreted them for us, interpreting for each man according to his dream. 13 📚And that’s what happened; it came about just as he interpreted for us. He restored me to my place, and hanged him”.
14 📚Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly from the dungeon 📖. And he shaved himself, changed his clothes, and came in to Pharaoh.
15 📚And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said about you, that you can understand a dream to interpret it”.
16 📚And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me 📖. God will give Pharaoh an answer for his welfare”.
17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream, see, I stood on the bank of the river, 18 📚and suddenly up out of the river came seven cows, fat and sleek, and fed in a meadow. 19 And then up came seven other cows after them, poor, very ugly and emaciated, such as I have never seen for ugliness in all the land of Egypt. 20 And the lean and ugly cows ate up the first seven, the fat cows. 21 📚And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them, for they were still just as ugly as in the beginning. So I woke up. 22 Again I saw in my dream, and there appeared seven ears coming up on one stalk, full and good, 23 📚and then seven ears, withered, thin, and scorched by the east wind, sprung up after them. 24 📚And the thin ears ate up the seven good ears. I told this to the magicians, but no one could explain it to me”.
25 📚And Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do.
26 📚The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years. The dreams are one and the same. 27 📚And the seven thin and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years. And the seven empty ears scorched by the east wind will be seven years of famine.
28 📚“This is the thing that I said to Pharaoh: God is showing Pharaoh what he is about to do. 29 📚See, seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt are coming. 30 📚And after them seven years of famine will come, and all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine 📖 will consume the land. 31 📚And the abundance will be unknown in the land because of that famine which follows, for it will be very severe. 32 📚And as for the dream being twice repeated to Pharaoh, this was because the thing has been decided by God, and God will shortly cause it to happen.
41:32 In other words, God was emphasizing the truth He was revealing. See Gen 37:5-9; Amos 7:1-6, 7-9; 8:1-3. See also note at Dan 7:3-7.⚜
33 📚“Therefore now let Pharaoh look for a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. 34 📚Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officials over the land, and take up the fifth part of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven years of plenty. 35 📚And let them gather all the food of those coming good years, and store up grain under the control of Pharaoh, and let them keep the food in the cities. 36 📚And that food will be as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine that will occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land does not perish because of the famine”.
37 📚And this word was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
41:37 Pharaoh had not asked for advice, but Joseph’s advice (vs 33-36) was so full of good sense that Pharaoh immediately accepted it. It was God alone who gave such wisdom to Joseph (Acts 7:10).⚜
38 📚And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find one such as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?”
Joseph appointed prime minister
39 📚And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, no one is as discreet and wise as you are. 40 📚You shall be over my house, and all my people will be ruled according to your word. Only in the throne will I be greater than you”.
41 📚And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have put you over all the land of Egypt”.
42 📚And Pharaoh took off his ring 📖 from his hand, and put it on Joseph’s hand, and dressed him in fine linen clothes, and put a gold chain around his neck, 43 📚and he caused him to ride in his second chariot, and they shouted ahead of him, “Bow the knee!” And he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
41:43 Compare Esther 6:6-11.⚜
44 📚And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without you no one will lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt”. 45 📚And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-Paneah; and he gave him Asenath the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On as his wife. And Joseph went throughout the whole land of Egypt.
41:45 This new name of Joseph means “revealer of secrets”.⚜
46 📚And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and travelled throughout all the land of Egypt.
41:46 See Gen 37:2. Joseph had been in Egypt thirteen years.⚜
47 📚And in the seven years of plenty the earth produced by handfuls 📖. 48 📚And he gathered all the food of those seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt, and stored up the food in the cities. He stored up the food from the fields which were around each city in the same city. 49 📚And Joseph gathered grain as the sand of the sea, great quantities, until he stopped counting, for it was beyond measure.
50 📚And before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On, bore to him. 51 📚And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, saying “For God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s house”.
41:51 Manasseh probably means “causing to forget”.⚜
52 📚And the name of the second he called Ephraim: “For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction”.
41:52 Ephraim means “twice fruitful” or “much fruitfulness”. In giving both names Joseph was remembering God’s goodness to him in the place of his troubles. If we view matters as he did we will have more joy in the world, this place of our suffering.⚜
53 📚And the seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt ended. 54 📚And the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. And the famine occurred in every land, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. 55 📚And when the whole land of Egypt began to experience the famine, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph. Do what he tells you”.
41:55 Verses 41,44.⚜
56 📚And the famine was over the whole surface of the earth. And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold grain to the Egyptians. And the famine grew very severe in the land of Egypt. 57 📚And all countries 📖 came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine was so severe in every land.