Genesis 41:46-57

Easy-to-Read Version

⁴⁶ Joseph was 30 years old when he began serving the king of Egypt. He traveled throughout the country of Egypt. ⁴⁷ During the seven good years, the crops in Egypt grew very well. ⁴⁸ Joseph saved the food in Egypt during those seven years and stored the food in the cities. In every city he stored grain that grew in the fields around the city. ⁴⁹ Joseph stored so much grain that it was like the sands of the sea. He stored so much grain that it could not be measured.

⁵⁰ Joseph’s wife, Asenath, was the daughter of Potiphera, the priest in the city of On. Before the first year of hunger came, Joseph and Asenath had two sons. ⁵¹ Joseph named the first son Manasseh.^[a] He was given this name because Joseph said, “God made me forget all my hard work and everything back home in my father’s house.” ⁵² Joseph named the second son Ephraim.^[b] Joseph gave him this name because he said, “I had great troubles, but God has made me successful in everything.”

The Famine Begins

⁵³ For seven years people had all the food they needed, but those years ended. ⁵⁴ Then the seven years of hunger began, just as Joseph had said. No food grew anywhere in any of the countries in that area. But in Egypt people had plenty to eat because Joseph had stored the grain. ⁵⁵ The famine began, and the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh said to the Egyptian people, “Go ask Joseph what to do.”

⁵⁶ There was famine everywhere, so Joseph gave the people grain from the warehouses. He sold the stored grain to the people of Egypt. The famine was bad in Egypt, ⁵⁷ but the famine was bad everywhere. So people from the countries around Egypt had to come to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain.