Genesis 40-43

Genesis 40

¹Now after these things the chief servant who had the care of the wine, and the chief bread-maker in Pharaoh's house, did something against Pharaoh's orders;

²And Pharaoh was angry with his two servants, with the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker;

³And he put them in prison under the care of the captain of the army, in the same prison where Joseph himself was shut up.

⁴And the captain put them in Joseph's care, and he did what was needed for them; and they were kept in prison for some time.

⁵And these two had a dream on the same night; the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker of the king of Egypt, who were in prison, the two of them had dreams with a special sense.

⁶And in the morning when Joseph came to them he saw that they were looking sad.

⁷And he said to the servants of Pharaoh who were in prison with him, Why are you looking so sad?

⁸Then they said to him, We have had a dream, and no one is able to give us the sense. And Joseph said, Does not the sense of dreams come from God? what was your dream?

⁹Then the chief wine-servant gave Joseph an account of his dream, and said, In my dream I saw a vine before me;

¹⁰And on the vine were three branches; and it seemed as if it put out buds and flowers, and from them came grapes ready for cutting.

¹¹And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and crushing them into Pharaoh's cup, gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.

¹²Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the three branches are three days;

¹³After three days Pharaoh will give you honour, and put you back into your place, and you will give him his cup as you did before, when you were his wine-servant.

¹⁴But keep me in mind when things go well for you, and be good to me and say a good word for me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison:

¹⁵For truly I was taken by force from the land of the Hebrews; and I have done nothing for which I might be put in prison.

¹⁶Now when the chief bread-maker saw that the first dream had a good sense, he said to Joseph, I had a dream; and in my dream there were three baskets of white bread on my head;

¹⁷And in the top basket were all sorts of cooked meats for Pharaoh; and the birds were taking them out of the baskets on my head.

¹⁸Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the three baskets are three days;

¹⁹After three days Pharaoh will take you out of prison, hanging you on a tree, so that your flesh will be food for birds.

²⁰Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his servants; and he gave honour to the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker among the others.

²¹And he put the chief wine-servant back in his old place; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.

²²But the chief bread-maker was put to death by hanging, as Joseph had said.

²³But the wine-servant did not keep Joseph in mind or give a thought to him.

Genesis 41

¹Now after two years had gone by, Pharaoh had a dream; and in his dream he was by the side of the Nile;

²And out of the Nile came seven cows, good-looking and fat, and their food was the river-grass.

³And after them seven other cows came out of the Nile, poor-looking and thin; and they were by the side of the other cows.

⁴And the seven thin cows made a meal of the seven fat cows. Then Pharaoh came out of his sleep.

⁵But he went to sleep again and had a second dream, in which he saw seven heads of grain, full and good, all on one stem.

⁶And after them came up seven other heads, thin and wasted by the east wind.

⁷And the seven thin heads made a meal of the good heads. And when Pharaoh was awake he saw it was a dream.

⁸And in the morning his spirit was troubled; and he sent for all the wise men of Egypt and all the holy men, and put his dream before them, but no one was able to give him the sense of it.

⁹Then the chief wine-servant said to Pharaoh, The memory of my sin comes back to me now;

¹⁰Pharaoh had been angry with his servants, and had put me in prison in the house of the captain of the army, together with the chief bread-maker;

¹¹And we had a dream on the same night, the two of us, and the dreams had a special sense.

¹²And there was with us a young Hebrew, the captain's servant, and when we put our dreams before him, he gave us the sense of them.

¹³And it came about as he said: I was put back in my place, and the bread-maker was put to death by hanging.

¹⁴Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they took him quickly out of prison; and when his hair had been cut and his dress changed, he came before Pharaoh.

¹⁵And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and no one is able to give me the sense of it; now it has come to my ears that you are able to give the sense of a dream when it is put before you.

¹⁶Then Joseph said, Without God there will be no answer of peace for Pharaoh.

¹⁷Then Pharaoh said, In my dream I was by the side of the Nile:

¹⁸And out of the Nile came seven cows, fat and good-looking, and their food was the river-grass;

¹⁹Then after them came seven other cows, very thin and poor-looking, worse than any I ever saw in the land of Egypt;

²⁰And the thin cows made a meal of the seven fat cows who came up first;

²¹And even with the fat cows inside them they seemed as bad as before. And so I came out of my sleep.

²²And again in a dream I saw seven heads of grain, full and good, coming up on one stem:

²³And then I saw seven other heads, dry, thin, and wasted by the east wind, coming up after them:

²⁴And the seven thin heads made a meal of the seven good heads; and I put this dream before the wise men, but not one of them was able to give me the sense of it.

²⁵Then Joseph said, These two dreams have the same sense: God has made clear to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

²⁶The seven fat cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years: the two have the same sense.

²⁷The seven thin and poor-looking cows who came up after them are seven years; and the seven heads of grain, dry and wasted by the east wind, are seven years when there will be no food.

²⁸As I said to Pharaoh before, God has made clear to him what he is about to do.

²⁹Seven years are coming in which there will be great wealth of grain in Egypt;

³⁰And after that will come seven years when there will not be enough food; and the memory of the good years will go from men's minds; and the land will be made waste by the bad years;

³¹And men will have no memory of the good time because of the need which will come after, for it will be very bitter.

³²And this dream came to Pharaoh twice, because this thing is certain, and God will quickly make it come about.

³³And now let Pharaoh make search for a man of wisdom and good sense, and put him in authority over the land of Egypt.

³⁴Let Pharaoh do this, and let him put overseers over the land of Egypt to put in store a fifth part of the produce of the land in the good years.

³⁵And let them get together all the food in those good years and make a store of grain under Pharaoh's control for the use of the towns, and let them keep it.

³⁶And let that food be kept in store for the land till the seven bad years which are to come in Egypt; so that the land may not come to destruction through need of food.

³⁷And this seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants.

³⁸Then Pharaoh said to his servants, Where may we get such a man as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God?

³⁹And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Seeing that God has made all this clear to you, there is no other man of such wisdom and good sense as you:

⁴⁰You, then, are to be over my house, and all my people will be ruled by your word: only as king will I be greater than you.

⁴¹And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have put you over all the land of Egypt.

⁴²Then Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and he had him clothed with the best linen, and put a chain of gold round his neck;

⁴³And he made him take his seat in the second of his carriages; and they went before him crying, Make way! So he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁴Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh; and without your order no man may do anything in all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁵And Pharaoh gave Joseph the name of Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, the priest of On, to be his wife. So Joseph went through all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁶Now Joseph was thirty years old when he came before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from before the face of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁷Now in the seven good years the earth gave fruit in masses.

⁴⁸And Joseph got together all the food of those seven years, and made a store of food in the towns: the produce of the fields round every town was stored up in the town.

⁴⁹So he got together a store of grain like the sand of the sea; so great a store that after a time he gave up measuring it, for it might not be measured.

⁵⁰And before the time of need, Joseph had two sons, to whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On, gave birth.

⁵¹And to the first he gave the name Manasseh, for he said, God has taken away from me all memory of my hard life and of my father's house.

⁵²And to the second he gave the name Ephraim, for he said, God has given me fruit in the land of my sorrow.

⁵³And so the seven good years in Egypt came to an end.

⁵⁴Then came the first of the seven years of need as Joseph had said: and in every other land they were short of food; but in the land of Egypt there was bread.

⁵⁵And when all the land of Egypt was in need of food, the people came crying to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said to the people, Go to Joseph, and whatever he says to you, do it.

⁵⁶And everywhere on the earth they were short of food; then Joseph, opening all his store-houses, gave the people of Egypt grain for money; so great was the need of food in the land of Egypt.

⁵⁷And all lands sent to Egypt, to Joseph, to get grain, for the need was great over all the earth.

Genesis 42

¹Now Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, said to his sons, Why are you looking at one another?

²And he said, I have had news that there is grain in Egypt: go down there and get grain for us, so that life and not death may be ours.

³So Joseph's ten brothers went down to get grain from Egypt.

⁴But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with them, for fear, as he said, that some evil might come to him.

⁵And the sons of Israel came with all the others to get grain: for they were very short of food in the land of Canaan.

⁶Now Joseph was ruler over all the land, and it was he who gave out the grain to all the people of the land; and Joseph's brothers came before him and went down on their faces to the earth.

⁷And when Joseph saw his brothers, it was clear to him who they were, but he made himself strange to them, and talking roughly to them, said, Where do you come from? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to get food.

⁸Now though Joseph saw that these were his brothers, they had no idea who he was.

⁹Then the memory of his dreams about them came back to Joseph, and he said to them, You have come secretly to see how poor the land is.

¹⁰And they said to him, Not so, my lord: your servants have come with money to get food.

¹¹We are all one man's sons, we are true men; we have not come with any secret purpose.

¹²And he said to them, No, but you have come to see how poor the land is.

¹³Then they said, We your servants are twelve brothers, sons of one man in the land of Canaan; the youngest of us is now with our father, and one is dead.

¹⁴And Joseph said, It is as I said; you have come with some secret purpose;

¹⁵But in this way will you be put to the test: by the life of Pharaoh, you will not go away from this place till your youngest brother comes here.

¹⁶Send one of your number to get your brother, and the rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested to see if you are true; if not, by the life of Pharaoh, your purpose is certainly secret.

¹⁷So he put them in prison for three days.

¹⁸And on the third day Joseph said to them, Do this, if you would keep your lives: for I am a god-fearing man:

¹⁹If you are true men, let one of you be kept in prison, while you go and take grain for the needs of your families;

²⁰And come back to me with your youngest brother, so that your words may be seen to be true, and you will not be put to death. This is what you are to do.

²¹And they said to one another, Truly, we did wrong to our brother, for we saw his grief of mind, and we did not give ear to his prayers; that is why this trouble has come on us.

²²And Reuben said to them, Did I not say to you, Do the child no wrong? but you gave no attention; so now, punishment has come on us for his blood.

²³They were not conscious that the sense of their words was clear to Joseph, for he had been talking to them through one who had knowledge of their language.

²⁴And turning away from them, he was overcome with weeping; then he went on talking to them again and took Simeon and put chains on him before their eyes.

²⁵Then Joseph gave orders for their bags to be made full of grain, and for every man's money to be put back into his bag, and for food to be given them for the journey: which was done.

²⁶Then they put the bags of grain on their asses and went away.

²⁷Now at their night's resting-place one of them, opening his bag to give his ass some food, saw his money in the mouth of the bag.

²⁸And he said to his brothers, My money has been given back: it is in my bag; then their hearts became full of fear, and turning to one another they said, What is this which God has done to us?

²⁹So when they came to Jacob their father, in the land of Canaan, they gave him an account of all their experiences, saying,

³⁰The man who is the ruler of the country was rough with us and put us in prison, saying that we had come with a secret evil purpose.

³¹And we said to him, We are true men, we have no evil designs;

³²We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is dead, and the youngest is now with our father in the land of Canaan.

³³And the ruler of the land said, In this way I may be certain that you are true men; let one of you be kept here with me, while you go and take grain for the needs of your families;

³⁴And come back to me with your youngest brother: then I will be certain that you are true men, and I will give your brother back to you and let you do trade in the land.

³⁵And when they took the grain out of their bags, it was seen that every man's parcel of money was in his bag; and when they and their father saw the money, they were full of fear.

³⁶And Jacob their father said to them, You have taken my children from me: Joseph is gone and Simeon is gone, and now you would take Benjamin away; all these things have come on me.

³⁷And Reuben said, Put my two sons to death if I do not come back to you with him; let him be in my care and I will give him safely back to you.

³⁸And he said, I will not let my son go down with you; for his brother is dead and he is all I have: if evil overtakes him on the journey, then through you will my grey head go down to the underworld in sorrow.

Genesis 43

¹Now the land was in bitter need of food.

²And when the grain which they had got in Egypt was all used up, their father said to them, Go again and get us a little food.

³And Judah said to him, The man said to us with an oath, You are not to come before me again without your brother.

⁴If you will let our brother go with us, we will go down and get food:

⁵But if you will not send him, we will not go down: for the man said to us, You are not to come before me if your brother is not with you.

⁶And Israel said, Why were you so cruel to me as to say to him that you had a brother?

⁷And they said, The man put a number of questions to us about ourselves and our family, saying, Is your father still living? have you another brother? And we had to give him answers; how were we to have any idea that he would say, Come back with your brother?

⁸Then Judah said to Israel, his father, Send the boy with me, and let us be up and going, so that we and you and our little ones may not come to destruction.

⁹Put him into my care and make me responsible for him: if I do not give him safely back to you, let mine be the sin for ever.

¹⁰Truly, if we had not let the time go by, we might have come back again by now.

¹¹Then their father Israel said to them, If it has to be so, then do this: take of the best fruits of the land in your vessels to give the man, perfumes and honey and spices and nuts:

¹²And take twice as much money with you; that is to say, take back the money which was put in your bags, for it may have been an error;

¹³And take your brother and go back to the man:

¹⁴And may God, the Ruler of all, give you mercy before the man, so that he may give you back your other brother and Benjamin. If my children are to be taken from me; there is no help for it.

¹⁵So they took what their father said for the man, and twice as much money in their hands, and Benjamin, and went on their journey to Egypt, and came before Joseph.

¹⁶And when Joseph saw Benjamin, he said to his chief servant, Take these men into my house, and make ready a meal, for they will take food with me in the middle of the day.

¹⁷And the servant did as Joseph said, and took the men into Joseph's house.

¹⁸Now the men were full of fear because they had been taken into Joseph's house and they said, It is because of the money which was put back in our bags the first time; he is looking for something against us, so that he may come down on us and take us and our asses for his use.

¹⁹So they went up to Joseph's chief servant at the door of the house,

²⁰And said, O my lord, we only came down the first time to get food;

²¹And when we came to our night's resting-place, on opening our bags we saw that every man's money was in the mouth of his bag, all our money in full weight: and we have it with us to give it back;

²²As well as more money, with which to get food: we have no idea who put our money in our bags.

²³Then the servant said, Peace be with you: have no fear: your God, even the God of your father, has put wealth in your bags for you: I had your money. Then he let Simeon come out to them.

²⁴And the servant took them into Joseph's house, and gave them water for washing their feet; and he gave their asses food.

²⁵And they got ready the things for Joseph before he came in the middle of the day: for word was given to them that they were to have a meal there.

²⁶And when Joseph came in, they gave him the things which they had for him, and went down to the earth before him.

²⁷And he said, How are you? is your father well, the old man of whom you were talking to me? is he still living?

²⁸And they said, Your servant, our father, is well, he is still living. And they went down on their faces before him.

²⁹Then, lifting up his eyes, he saw Benjamin, his brother, his mother's son, and he said, Is this your youngest brother of whom you gave me word? And he said, God be good to you, my son.

³⁰Then Joseph's heart went out to his brother, and he went quickly into his room, for he was overcome with weeping.

³¹Then, after washing his face, he came out, and controlling his feelings said, Put food before us.

³²And they put a meal ready for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians who were with him by themselves; because the Egyptians may not take food with the Hebrews, for that would make them unclean.

³³And they were all given their seats before him in order of birth, from the oldest to the youngest: so that they were looking at one another in wonder.

³⁴And Joseph sent food to them from his table, but he sent five times as much to Benjamin as to any of the others. And they took wine freely with him.