Joseph and Pharaoh

Optional titles:God caused Joseph to become an important leader.God exalted Joseph.God caused Joseph to be fruitful [blessed] in the place where he suffered.

Joseph was in prison for two more years after the King over Egypt [country] [Pharaoh] released [freed] the [his] wine server [from prison] and then hanged [killed] the [his] baker [food preparing man].

The King, awoke one morning very worried about two disturbing dreams he had during the night.

So the King called together the sorcerers and the wisest men in Egypt. He told them about his dreams, but nobody knew what the King’s dreams meant.

Then the King’s wine server spoke up. He said, “Now I remember something that I should have told you!”

“One time, you were angry with the chief baker and me, and you put us both in jail [prison]. While in jail, we both had strange a dream.”

“A Hebrew [Jew] man who was a servant belonging to Potiphar, [the captain over the palace guards] was there with us and he told us what our dreams meant.”

“And everything he explained happened exactly as he said!”

The King commanded, therefore: “Bring this man to me now!”

The King’s servants quickly brought Joseph out from the prison, cleaned him up and brought him before the King.

Joseph told [admitted to] the King, “I myself cannot explain what your dreams mean, but my God will do so for you.” So the King told Joseph his first dream.

The King explained, “I was standing on a bank [the edge] to the [big] Nile River. Seven fat cows came out from the water and started eating the grass. Soon, seven thin cows came out from the water behind the seven fat cows and ate them. Yet those thin cows looked just as thin and sick as before!”

The King continued, “Then I dreamed again.”

“I saw seven healthy grain [maize] heads sprouting from one stalk. Then I saw seven dry, wilted [little / withered] grain [maize] heads sprout up. The withered grain heads swallowed up the healthy grain heads!”

“I told this dream to my sorcerers, but no one could explain to me its meaning.”

Then Joseph explained the dreams, saying, “The seven fat, healthy cows and the seven healthy grain heads are the same message that God is revealing to you: Egypt will have seven good years with good harvests and great wealth.”

“Then there will follow seven very bad years with famine. Food will be very scarce during those seven bad [hungry / famine] years.”

Joseph said, “That is the meaning for the thin, sick cows and withered grain heads.”

“The famine will be so terrible that people will forget how very much food was available during the good years.”

“God has given you these two dreams having a same meaning, in order that you know that which God has firmly decided to do make happen very soon.”

Joseph added [also said], “Now I suggest [counsel] that you choose a man who is wise and can make good decisions. I suggest that you appoint him to direct what happens [the activities] in the whole country.”

Then Joseph explained a plan for collecting and storing grain during the next seven years when there would be much food.

The King told his officials, “I don’t think we could find another man wiser than this man [Joseph]. He is obviously filled with a spirit from a god.”

Then the King said to Joseph, “A god showed you these things, so you are the wisest man. I now appoint you as Governor [Prime Minister / second-in-command] over all Egypt. I alone will have more authority than you.”

Then the King put a gold chain around Joseph’s neck and gave him his signature ring. As long as he wore this ring, all the people in Egypt would respect Joseph’s authority and obey him.

The King had Joseph dressed with royal clothes and arranged for him to ride in a chariot [royal cart pulled by horses] as his Governor [Primer Minister/ second-in-command]. Thus, the people bowed to Joseph in respect as he passed by.

The King told the Egyptian people to obey Joseph in whatever he said to do.

The King also gave a wife to Joseph. Her name was Asenath.

Joseph was 30 years old when he began serving the King over Egypt.

Joseph began preparing for the hungry [famine] years by traveling throughout all the lands in Egypt.

During the next seven years, the land produced abundant crops [much much food]! Joseph ordered his servants to collect much much grain from fields everywhere in Egypt during each good year.

They stored much much grain from each harvest in many large containers [storage bins], to have food during the hungry [famine] years that were coming [would follow].

So much grain was carried in and stored in these large containers that Joseph stopped keeping records [counting]. He stopped because the amount of grain being collected and stored was just too much to be measured.

Before the hungry [famine] years began, Joseph’s wife, Asenath, gave birth to two sons.

Joseph named his first son Manasseh, meaning ‘cause to forget’, because God had helped him to forget all his troubles.

Joseph named the second son Ephraim, meaning ‘fruitful’, because God had made him fruitful in the land where he suffered.

When the seven good years with much food ended, a long time with no rain and a severe [serious] famine began to spread over the whole country.

The famine became so severe over the whole world, that many people did not have enough food to eat.

So Joseph ordered his helpers [servants] to open the grain [food] storehouses, and to sell grain to the Egyptians.

Soon, people from other countries also came to Egypt to buy grain.