Genesis 41:17-32

English Standard Version

¹⁷ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, ^(A)in my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile. ¹⁸ Seven cows, plump and attractive, came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass. ¹⁹ Seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I had never seen in all the land of Egypt. ²⁰ And the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows, ²¹ but when they had eaten them no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as at the beginning. Then I awoke. ²² I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk, full and good. ²³ Seven ears, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprouted after them, ²⁴ and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. And ^(B)I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”

²⁵ Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; ^(C)God has revealed to 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. ²⁷ The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also ^(D)seven years of famine. ²⁸ It is as I told Pharaoh; ^(E)God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do. ²⁹ There will come ^(F)seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, ³⁰ but after them there will arise ^(G)seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. ^(H)The famine will consume the land, ³¹ and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe. ³² And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the ^(I)thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.