Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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Joseph Interprets the King's Dreams
1 After two years had passed,
the king of Egypt dreamed
that he was standing by the Nile
River,
2 when seven cows, fat and
sleek, came up out of the river and
began to feed on the grass.
3 Then
seven other cows came up; they
were thin and bony. They came and
stood by the other cows on the riverbank,
4 and the thin cows ate up the
fat cows. Then the king woke up.
5 He fell asleep again and had another
dream. Seven heads of grain,
full and ripe, were growing on one
stalk.
6 Then seven other heads of
grain sprouted, thin and scorched by
the desert wind,
7 and the thin heads
of grain swallowed the full ones. The
king woke up and realized that he
had been dreaming.
8 In the morning
he was worried, so he sent for all the
magicians and wise men of Egypt.
He told them his dreams, but no one
could explain them to him. note
9 Then the wine steward said to
the king, “I must confess today that
I have done wrong.
10 You were angry
with the chief baker and me, and
you put us in prison in the house of
the captain of the guard.
11 One night
each of us had a dream, and the
dreams had different meanings.
12 A
young Hebrew was there with us, a
slave of the captain of the guard. We
told him our dreams, and he interpreted
them for us.
13 Things turned
out just as he said: you restored me
to my position, but you executed the
baker.”
14 The king sent for Joseph, and he
was immediately brought from the
prison. After he had shaved and
-- --
changed his clothes, he came into
the king's presence.
15 The king said
to him, “I have had a dream, and no
one can explain it. I have been told
that you can interpret dreams.”
16 Joseph answered, “I cannot,
Your Majesty, but God will give a favorable
interpretation.”
17 The king said, “I dreamed that I
was standing on the bank of the
Nile,
18 when seven cows, fat and
sleek, came up out of the river and
began feeding on the grass.
19 Then
seven other cows came up which
were thin and bony. They were the
poorest cows I have ever seen anywhere
in Egypt.
20 The thin cows ate
up the fat ones,
21 but no one would
have known it, because they looked
just as bad as before. Then I woke
up.
22 I also dreamed that I saw
seven heads of grain which were full
and ripe, growing on one stalk.
23 Then seven heads of grain
sprouted, thin and scorched by the
desert wind,
24 and the thin heads of
grain swallowed the full ones. I told
the dreams to the magicians, but
none of them could explain them to
me.”
25 Joseph said to the king, “The
two dreams mean the same thing;
God has told you what he is going to
do.
26 The seven fat cows are seven
years, and the seven full heads of
grain are also seven years; they have
the same meaning.
27 The seven thin
cows which came up later and the
seven thin heads of grain scorched
by the desert wind are seven years
of famine.
28 It is just as I told you—
God has shown you what he is going
to do.
29 There will be seven years of
great plenty in all the land of Egypt.
30 After that, there will be seven
years of famine, and all the good
years will be forgotten, because the
famine will ruin the country.
31 The
time of plenty will be entirely forgotten,
because the famine which follows
will be so terrible.
32 The repetition
of your dream means that the
matter is fixed by God and that he
will make it happen in the near future.
33 “Now you should choose some
man with wisdom and insight and
put him in charge of the country.
34 You must also appoint other officials
and take a fifth of the crops
during the seven years of plenty.
35 Order them to collect all the food
during the good years that are coming,
and give them authority to store
up grain in the cities and guard it.
36 The food will be a reserve supply
for the country during the seven
years of famine which are going to
come on Egypt. In this way the people
will not starve.”
Joseph Is Made Governor over Egypt
37 The king and his officials approved
this plan,
38 and he said to
them, “We will never find a better
man than Joseph, a man who has
God's spirit in him.”
39 The king said
to Joseph, “God has shown you all
this, so it is obvious that you have
greater wisdom and insight than
anyone else.
40 I will put you in
charge of my country, and all my
people will obey your orders. Your
authority will be second only to
mine. note
41 I now appoint you governor
over all Egypt.”
42 The king removed
from his finger the ring engraved
with the royal seal and put it on Joseph's
finger. He put a fine linen
robe on him, and placed a gold chain
around his neck. note
43 He gave him the
second royal chariot to ride in, and
his guard of honor went ahead of
him and cried out, “Make way!
Make way!” And so Joseph was appointed
governor over all Egypt.
44 The king said to him, “I am the
king—and no one in all Egypt shall
so much as lift a hand or a foot without
your permission.”
45
46 He gave
Joseph the Egyptian name Zaphenath
Paneah, and he gave him a
wife, Asenath, the daughter of
Potiphera, a priest in the city of Heliopolis.
45
46 Joseph was thirty years old when
he began to serve the king of Egypt.
He left the king's court and traveled
all over the land.
47 During the seven
years of plenty the land produced
-- --
abundant crops,
48 all of which
Joseph collected and stored in the
cities. In each city he stored the food
from the fields around it.
49 There
was so much grain that Joseph
stopped measuring it—it was like
the sand of the sea.
50 Before the years of famine came,
Joseph had two sons by Asenath.
51 He said, “God has made me forget
all my sufferings and all my father's
family”; so he named his first son
Manasseh. note
52 He also said, “God has
given me children in the land of my
trouble”; so he named his second
son Ephraim. note
53 The seven years of plenty that
the land of Egypt had enjoyed came
to an end,
54 and the seven years of
famine began, just as Joseph had
said. There was famine in every other
country, but there was food
throughout Egypt. note
55 When the
Egyptians began to be hungry, they
cried out to the king for food. So he
ordered them to go to Joseph and do
what he told them. note
56 The famine
grew worse and spread over the
whole country, so Joseph opened all
the storehouses and sold grain to the
Egyptians.
57 People came to Egypt
from all over the world to buy grain
from Joseph, because the famine
was severe everywhere.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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