Day 13: Genesis 40-42
Joseph Interprets Dreams, Rises to Power, & Faces His Brothers Again
Genesis 40
1 After these things, the king of Egypt’s cupbearer and his baker offended their lord, the king of Egypt.
2 Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker.
3 He put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
4 The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he took care of them. They stayed in custody for a while.
5 They both dreamed a dream, each man his dream, in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were bound in the prison.
6 Joseph came in to them in the morning, and saw them, and saw that they were sad.
7 He asked Pharaoh’s officers who were in custody with him in his master’s house, saying, “Why do you look so sad today?”
8 They 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.”
9 The chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “In my dream, behold, a vine was in front of me,
10 and on the vine were three branches. It was as though it budded, and its blossoms came out, and its clusters produced ripe grapes.
11 Pharaoh’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.”
12 Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days.
13 Within 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 cupbearer.
14 But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me, and mention me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.
15 For 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.”
16 When 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.
17 In the basket on top there were all kinds of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head.”
18 Joseph answered, “This is its interpretation. The three baskets are three days.
19 Within 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.”
20 It happened the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants. He lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.
21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his position again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand;
22 but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.
23 Yet the chief cupbearer didn’t remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Genesis 41
1 At the end of two full years, Pharaoh dreamed that he stood by the river.
2 Behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, sleek and fat, and they fed in the reed-grass.
3 Behold, seven other cattle came up after them out of the river, ugly and thin, and stood by the other cattle on the river bank.
4 The ugly and thin cattle ate up the seven sleek and fat cattle. Then Pharaoh awoke.
5 He slept and dreamed a second time. Behold, seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, healthy and good.
6 Behold, seven heads of grain, thin and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them.
7 The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy and full heads. Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream.
8 In 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.
9 Then the chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh, saying, “I remember my faults today.
10 Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, me and the chief baker.
11 We dreamed a dream in one night, I and he. We dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream.
12 There 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.
13 It happened, as he interpreted to us, so it was. He restored me to my office, and he hanged him.”
14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon. He shaved himself, changed his clothing, and came in to Pharaoh.
15 Pharaoh 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.”
16 Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It isn’t in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”
17 Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, “In my dream, behold, I stood on the brink of the river.
18 Behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, fat and sleek. They fed in the reed-grass.
19 Behold, seven other cattle came up after them, poor, very ugly and thin, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for ugliness.
20 The thin and ugly cattle ate up the first seven fat cattle,
21 and when they had eaten them up, you wouldn’t have known that they had eaten them, but they were still ugly, as at the beginning. Then I awoke.
22 I saw in my dream, and behold, seven heads came up on one stalk, full and good.
23 Behold, seven heads, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them.
24 The thin heads swallowed up the seven good heads. I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”
25 Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one. What God is about to do he has declared to Pharaoh.
26 The seven good cattle are seven years; and the seven good heads of grain are seven years. The dreams are one.
27 The seven thin and ugly cattle that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty heads blasted with the east wind will be seven years of famine.
28 That is the thing which I spoke to Pharaoh. What God is about to do he has shown to Pharaoh.
29 Behold, there are seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt.
30 There will arise after them seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land,
31 and the plenty will not be known in the land by reason of the famine that follows; for it will be very grievous.
32 Since the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice, it is 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.
34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the land, and take up a fifth part of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiful years.
35 Let them gather all the food of these good years that come, and lay up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it.
36 The food will be for a store to the land against the seven years of famine, which will be in the land of Egypt, that the land not perish through the famine.”
37 The thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
38 Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”
39 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has shown you all of this, there is no one so discreet and wise as you.
40 You shall be over my house, and according to your word shall all my people be ruled. Only in the throne will I be greater than you.”
41 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”
42 Pharaoh 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,
43 and he 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.
44 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without your word no man shall lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.”
45 Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-Paneah. He gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, as his wife. Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.
46 Joseph 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.
47 In the seven plentiful years the earth produced abundantly.
48 He 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 laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded every city.
49 Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he stopped counting, for it was without number.
50 Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore to him.
51 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for, he said, “God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.”
52 The name of the second he called Ephraim, for, he said, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
53 The seven years of plenty that was in the land of Egypt came to an end.
54 The seven years of famine began to come, according to Joseph’s words. The famine was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
55 When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do.”
56 The famine was over all the surface of the earth. Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the Egyptians. The famine was severe in the land of Egypt.
57 All countries came into Egypt, to Joseph, to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all the earth.
Genesis 42
1 Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”
2 He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, that we may live, and not die.”
3 Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
4 But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.”
5 The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
6 Joseph was the governor over the land. He was the one 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.
7 Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them, and spoke roughly to them. He said to them, “Where did you come from?”
They said, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.”
8 Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him.
9 Joseph 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!”
10 They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.
11 We are all one man’s sons. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.”
12 He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land!”
13 They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. Behold, the youngest is today with our father, and one is no more.”
14 Joseph said to them, “It is like I told you, saying, ‘You are spies.’
15 By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go out from here unless your youngest brother comes here.
16 Send 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.”
17 He put them all together into custody for three days.
18 Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this, and live, for I fear God.
19 If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.
20 Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won’t die.”
They did so.
21 They said one to 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 on us.”
22 Reuben 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.”
23 They didn’t know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them.
24 He turned himself away from them, and wept, then returned to them, and spoke to them, and took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes.
25 Then Joseph commanded to fill their bags with grain, and to restore every man’s money into his sack, and to give them food for the way. So it was done to them.
26 They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there.
27 As 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.
28 He said to his brothers, “My money is restored! Behold, it is in my sack!”
Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”
29 They 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.
31 We said to him, ‘We are honest men. We have never been spies.
32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Canaan.’
33 The 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.
34 Bring your youngest brother to me, and 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.’”
35 As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid.
36 Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me.”
37 Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons if I don’t bring him back to you. Entrust him into my hand, and I will bring him back to you.”
38 He 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.”
Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.
