1 After two years had passed, the king had a dream. In his dream he was standing beside a big river in his country, called the Nile River, 2 and he saw seven cows come up out of the river. They were good, fat ones. They came up on to the riverbank and began to eat the grass. 3 Then seven more cows came up, but they were thin and bony. They came up on to the bank and stood there with the other cows. 4 And the thin cows ate the fat ones. Then the king woke up.

5 He went to sleep again and had another dream. In his dream he saw some heads of corn. He saw seven all on one stem, and they were fat and ripe. 6 Then seven more heads of corn began to grow, but they were thin and small because the east wind had dried them up. 7 And the thin ones swallowed the fat ones. The king woke up and realized that he had been dreaming.

8 In the morning the king was worried about his dreams and he called all the wise men who lived in Egypt to come to him. He told them about his dreams, but no one could explain them to him.

9 Then the king's servant who looked after his drink said to him, “Oh dear! I have forgotten something. 10 You were angry with me and with your cook and you put us in jail. We stayed in the house of the officer who was in charge of the soldiers who looked after your palace. 11-12 We were with a young Hebrew man who was working for the officer. We both had a dream on the same night, but our dreams were different. We told our dreams to the man and he explained them to us.

13 “Afterwards everything happened as the man had said. You let me out of jail and brought me into your house to work for you as I had done before. But you put your other servant to death.”

14 Then the king sent some men to the jail and they brought Joseph out straight away. He shaved and changed his clothes and went to see the king.

15 The king said to him, “I have had a dream, and no one can explain it to me. But my servant told me that you know how to explain people's dreams to them.”

16 Joseph answered, “I can't explain it. But God will explain it to you and you will be happy.”

17 The king said, “In my dream I was standing beside the Nile River. 18 I saw seven cows come up out of the water. They were good, fat cows. They came up on to the riverbank and began to eat the grass. 19 Then seven more cows came up out of the water, but they were very thin. I have never seen such thin cows in the whole of Egypt. 20 The thin cows ate the fat ones, 21 but they didn't get fat from eating them. They stayed just as thin as before. And then I woke up.

22 “I had another dream,” the king went on. “I saw some corn. I saw seven heads on one stem and they were fat and ripe. 23 Then seven more heads began to grow, but they were thin because the east wind had dried them. 24 But those thin ones swallowed the fat ones. I told my wise men, but none of them could explain my two dreams for me.”

25 Joseph said to the king, “Those two dreams of yours are the same. God has told you what he is going to do.

26 “The seven fat cows are like seven years. And the seven fat heads of corn are like seven years too. The two dreams mean the same thing. 27 The seven thin cows which came up out of the water last and also the seven thin heads of corn that dried up when the east wind blew are like seven years. In those seven years there will be no rain and so no food will grow.”

28 Then Joseph said, “It is just as I told you, God has shown you in a dream what he is going to do later. 29 First seven good years are coming. There will be plenty of food in all the land of Egypt. 30-31 After that there will be seven bad years. There will be no rain and no food will grow and these people will forget about all the good food in the land, because the country will look so bad.

32 “You have dreamed twice because God has decided and in a little while he will make it happen.”

33 Then Joseph said to the king, “Now you should choose a wise man and put him in charge of Egypt. 34-36 And you should get some workers to help him. In the seven good years there will be plenty of food in Egypt, so they should put some of the food in storehouses. If there are five bags of food, people can eat four and put one in the storehouse. You should tell the workers to store up plenty of food in the towns. And you should tell them to guard the food so that no one can take it. It must be kept safe for later. Then when the seven bad years come in Egypt the food will still be there for everyone to eat, so that they will live and not starve to death.”

37 The king and his officers liked what Joseph said. 38 So the king said to his officers, “We will never find a man as good as Joseph, because he has God's spirit in him.”

39 Then he said to Joseph, “God has shown you all this. So I know that there is no one as wise as you are. 40 I will put you in charge of my country, and all my people will obey your orders. I am the king and I hold all Egypt. But you will be next to me so that everyone will obey you too. 41 Today I am making you governor over all Egypt.”

42 Then the king took from his finger the ring that had his name on it and put it on Joseph's finger. And he put a beautiful coat on him and a gold chain around his neck. 43 He also gave him a carriage pulled by horses for him to ride in. It was a very good one just like the king's.

The king spoke again to Joseph and said, “When you ride in the carriage, my servants will go along the road ahead of you and call out, ‘Move out of the way! Move back for the governor!’

44 “I am the king, so everyone in Egypt must obey me. I have said to them, ‘You must all obey Joseph's orders. You must go to him and ask his permission before you do anything.’ ”

45-47 Then the king gave Joseph an Egyptian name, Zaphenath Paneah. And he gave him a wife called Asenath. She was the daughter of Potiphera, who was a priest for the Egyptian people in a city called Heliopolis.

Joseph was thirty years old when he began the work that the king gave him. For seven years plenty of food grew, just as Joseph had told the king. And Joseph left the king's palace and went everywhere all over Egypt. 48 He went to the cities and told the people what to do. In each city the people collected the food they had grown in the different places nearby and they stored it all in a big storehouse there in their city. 49 There was so much food that Joseph couldn't measure it any more, because it was like the grains of sand on the beach.

50-52 Then while there was still plenty of food in Egypt, Asenath and Joseph had a son. Joseph said, “God has helped me and I have forgotten all my suffering and all my father's family.” So he named his first son Manasseh, because Manasseh means “I have forgotten.”

Later while there was still plenty of food, Asenath and Joseph had another son. Joseph said, “God has given me children in this land where I have had so much trouble.” So he called the child Ephraim, because Ephraim means “he has given me children.”

53 The seven good years in Egypt ended. 54 Then seven bad years came, just as Joseph had said. The food didn't grow any more and people in every other country were hungry, except in Egypt where there was food in the storehouses.

55-56 Those years got worse all over Egypt and the Egyptians began to be hungry and they went to the king. They begged him for food, but the king said to them, “Go to Joseph and do what he tells you.” So they all went to Joseph and he opened the storehouses and sold food to them. 57 Then many people came to Egypt from other countries to buy food because they were bad years everywhere.