78 | Genesis 41:1
Pharaoh’ s Dreams
When two full years had passed, Phar aoh
41 had a dream: He was stand ing by the Nile,
2 when out of the riv er there came up sev en cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds.
3
Af ter them, sev en oth er cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood be side those on the riv er bank. 4 And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the sev en sleek, fat cows. Then Phar aoh woke up.
5
He fell asleep again and had a sec ond dream: Sev en heads of grain, healthy and good, were grow ing on a sin gle stalk. 6 Af ter them, sev en oth er heads of grain sprout ed— thin and scorched by the east wind. 7 The thin heads of grain swal lowed up the sev en healthy, full heads. Then Phar aoh woke up; it had been a dream.
8
In the morn ing his mind was trou bled, so he sent for all the ma gi cians and wise men of Egypt. Phar aoh told them his dreams, but no one could in ter pret them for him.
9
Then the chief cup bear er said to Phar aoh,“ Today I am re mind ed of my short com ings. 10 Phar aoh was once an gry with his ser vants, and he im prisoned me and the chief bak er in the house of the cap tain of the guard. 11 Each of us had a dream the same night, and each dream had a mean ing of its own. 12 Now a young He brew was there with us, a ser vant of the cap tain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he in ter pret ed them for us, giv ing each man the in ter pre ta tion of his dream.
13
And things turned out ex act ly as he in ter pret ed them to us: I was re stored to my po si tion, and the oth er man was im paled.”
14
So Phar aoh sent for Jo seph, and he was quick ly brought from the dun geon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came be fore Phar aoh.
15
Phar aoh said to Jo seph,“ I had a dream, and no one can in ter pret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can in ter pret it.”
16
“ I can not do it,” Jo seph re plied to Phar aoh,“ but God will give Phar aoh the an swer he de sires.”
17
Then Phar aoh said to Jo seph,“ In my dream I was stand ing on the bank of the Nile, 18 when out of the riv er there came up sev en cows, fat and sleek, and they grazed among the reeds. 19 Af ter them, sev en oth er cows came up— scraw ny and very ugly and lean. I had nev er seen such ugly cows in all the land of Egypt. 20 The lean, ugly cows ate up the sev en fat cows that came up first.
21
But even af ter they ate them, no one could tell that they had done so; they looked just as ugly as be fore. Then I woke up.
22
“ In my dream I saw sev en heads of grain, full and good, grow ing on a sin gle stalk. 23 Af ter them, sev en oth er heads sprout ed— with ered and thin and scorched by the east wind. 24 The thin heads of grain swal lowed up the sev en good heads. I told this to the ma gi cians, but none of them could ex plain it to me.”
25
Then Jo seph said to Phar aoh,“ The dreams of Phar aoh are one and the same. God has re vealed to Phar aoh what he is about to do. 26 The sev en good cows are sev en years, and the sev en good heads of grain are sev en years; it is one and the same dream. 27 The sev en lean, ugly cows that came up af ter ward are sev en years, and so are the sev en worth less heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are sev en years of fam ine.
41:1 – 36 After being forgotten for two years, Joseph is finally released from prison( compare note on 40:1). The chief cupbearer remembers Joseph’ s ability to interpret dreams at the most opportune time. Joseph is called upon to interpret Pharaoh’ s puzzling dreams and subsequently reveals their meaning. The section closes with Joseph awaiting the king’ s reaction to the interpretation.
41:1 Nile The sustenance of the entire nation depended on the Nile. It flooded every year, providing millions of acres of arable land for the nation’ s food. Egyptians viewed the pharaoh as the incarnation of a god( Horus) and as the maintainer of the divinely imposed order on earth. Any irregularity in the annual flooding of the Nile was taken as a sign of weakness or illegitimacy with respect to Pharaoh’ s rule.
41:2 – 7 Pharaoh’ s two dreams in this chapter echo Joseph’ s pair of dreams( 37:5 – 11) and the two dreams of the cupbearer and baker( 40:5 – 19). His first dream features cows, which had a range of symbolic meanings in Egyptian religion. The Egyptian deity Isis, the mother of Horus, was depicted at times as a cow. Since the pharaoh was considered to be Horus incarnate, the cow symbolized the mother of the pharaoh and the pharaoh’ s own fertility and dynastic line.
41:8 wise men The Hebrew term used here, chakham, occurs often in the OT( see Da 2:12 – 14; 5:7 – 8). It refers to people in the king’ s immediate circle who were either skilled in divination— discerning the will of deities based on using objects, omens or particular methods— or served as advisers.
41:14 – 57 References to various Egyptian practices in the Joseph story, especially in this passage, may help correlate the narrative with Egyptian history, thereby providing a chronological marker for Joseph, but the proposed correlations are disputed. This debate centers on whether or not elements of the Joseph story correlate with Egypt’ s Hyksos period( ca. 1700 – 1570 BC), a time when Semites from Syria-Palestine ruled the eastern delta of Egypt. This debate has effects on the dating of the exodus( see note on Ex 1:1 – 7; note on Ex 1:8; note on Ex 1:11).
41:14 shaved It is likely that both Joseph’ s head and beard were shaved. Egyptians were generally clean shaven, though iconography of the Old Kingdom( ca. 2575 – 2150) indicates that some males had beards or moustaches.
41:17 – 24 Pharaoh repeats his dreams to Joseph as he did with his magicians and wise men( Ge 41:1 – 8). Only minor variations between the two accounts appear in the Hebrew text.