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Text -- Genesis 41:1-53 (NET)
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Joseph’s Rise to Power
41:1 At the end of two full years Pharaoh had a dream . As he was standing by the Nile ,
41:2 seven fine-looking , fat cows were coming up out of the Nile , and they grazed in the reeds .
41:3 Then seven bad-looking , thin cows were coming up after them from the Nile , and they stood beside the other cows at the edge of the river .
41:4 The bad-looking , thin cows ate the seven fine-looking , fat cows . Then Pharaoh woke up .
41:5 Then he fell asleep again and had a second dream : There were seven heads of grain growing on one stalk , healthy and good .
41:6 Then seven heads of grain , thin and burned by the east wind , were sprouting up after them.
41:7 The thin heads swallowed up the seven healthy and full heads . Then Pharaoh woke up and realized it was a dream .
41:8 In the morning he was troubled , so he called for all the diviner-priests of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams , but no one could interpret them for him .
41:9 Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh , “Today I recall my failures .
41:10 Pharaoh was enraged with his servants , and he put me in prison in the house of the captain of the guards – me and the chief baker .
41:11 We each had a dream one night ; each of us had a dream dream with its own meaning .
41:12 Now a young man , a Hebrew , a servant of the captain of the guards , was with us there . We told him our dreams , and he interpreted the meaning of each of our respective dreams for us.
41:13 It happened just as he had said to us– Pharaoh restored me to my office , but he impaled the baker.”
41:14 Then Pharaoh summoned Joseph . So they brought him quickly out of the dungeon ; he shaved himself, changed his clothes , and came before Pharaoh .
41:15 Pharaoh said to Joseph , “I had a dream , and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard about you, that you can interpret dreams .”
41:16 Joseph replied to Pharaoh , “It is not within my power, but God will speak concerning the welfare of Pharaoh .”
41:17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph , “In my dream I was standing by the edge of the Nile .
41:18 Then seven fat and fine-looking cows were coming up out of the Nile , and they grazed in the reeds .
41:19 Then seven other cows came up after them; they were scrawny , very bad-looking , and lean . I had never seen such bad-looking cows as these in all the land of Egypt !
41:20 The lean , bad-looking cows ate up the seven fat cows .
41:21 When they had eaten them, no one would have known that they had done so, for they were just as bad-looking as before . Then I woke up .
41:22 I also saw in my dream seven heads of grain growing on one stalk , full and good .
41:23 Then seven heads of grain , withered and thin and burned with the east wind , were sprouting up after them.
41:24 The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads of grain . So I told all this to the diviner-priests , but no one could tell me its meaning.”
41:25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh , “Both dreams of Pharaoh have the same meaning. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do .
41:26 The seven good cows represent seven years , and the seven good heads of grain represent seven years . Both dreams have the same meaning.
41:27 The seven lean , bad-looking cows that came up after them represent seven years , as do the seven empty heads of grain burned with the east wind . They represent seven years of famine .
41:28 This is just what I told Pharaoh : God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do .
41:29 Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the whole land of Egypt .
41:30 But seven years of famine will occur after them, and all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt . The famine will devastate the land .
41:31 The previous abundance of the land will not be remembered because of the famine that follows , for the famine will be very severe .
41:32 The dream was repeated to Pharaoh because the matter has been decreed by God , and God will make it happen soon .
41:33 “So now Pharaoh should look for a wise and discerning man and give him authority over all the land of Egypt .
41:34 Pharaoh should do this– he should appoint officials throughout the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven years of abundance .
41:35 They should gather all the excess food during these good years that are coming . By Pharaoh’s authority they should store up grain so the cities will have food , and they should preserve it.
41:36 This food should be held in storage for the land in preparation for the seven years of famine that will occur throughout the land of Egypt . In this way the land will survive the famine .”
41:37 This advice made sense to Pharaoh and all his officials .
41:38 So Pharaoh asked his officials , “Can we find a man like Joseph , one in whom the Spirit of God is present?”
41:39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph , “Because God has enabled you to know all this , there is no one as wise and discerning as you are!
41:40 You will oversee my household , and all my people will submit to your commands . Only I, the king , will be greater than you.
41:41 “See here,” Pharaoh said to Joseph , “I place you in authority over all the land of Egypt .”
41:42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his own hand and put it on Joseph’s . He clothed him with fine linen clothes and put a gold chain around his neck .
41:43 Pharaoh had him ride in the chariot used by his second-in-command , and they cried out before him, “Kneel down !” So he placed him over all the land of Egypt .
41:44 Pharaoh also said to Joseph , “I am Pharaoh , but without your permission no one will move his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt .”
41:45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah . He also gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera , priest of On , to be his wife . So Joseph took charge of all the land of Egypt .
41:46 Now Joseph was 30 years old when he began serving Pharaoh king of Egypt . Joseph was commissioned by Pharaoh and was in charge of all the land of Egypt .
41:47 During the seven years of abundance the land produced large, bountiful harvests.
41:48 Joseph collected all the excess food in the land of Egypt during the seven years and stored it in the cities . In every city he put the food gathered from the fields around it.
41:49 Joseph stored up a vast amount of grain , like the sand of the sea , until he stopped measuring it because it was impossible to measure .
41:50 Two sons were born to Joseph before the famine came . Asenath daughter of Potiphera , priest of On , was their mother .
41:51 Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh , saying, “Certainly God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s house .”
41:52 He named the second child Ephraim , saying, “Certainly God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering .”
41:53 The seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt came to an end .
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics
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expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes -> Gen 41:1; Gen 41:1; Gen 41:2; Gen 41:3; Gen 41:3; Gen 41:5; Gen 41:5; Gen 41:6; Gen 41:7; Gen 41:7; Gen 41:8; Gen 41:8; Gen 41:8; Gen 41:8; Gen 41:8; Gen 41:8; Gen 41:9; Gen 41:11; Gen 41:12; Gen 41:12; Gen 41:12; Gen 41:12; Gen 41:13; Gen 41:13; Gen 41:13; Gen 41:14; Gen 41:15; Gen 41:15; Gen 41:15; Gen 41:15; Gen 41:16; Gen 41:16; Gen 41:16; Gen 41:17; Gen 41:18; Gen 41:19; Gen 41:19; Gen 41:20; Gen 41:21; Gen 41:21; Gen 41:22; Gen 41:23; Gen 41:24; Gen 41:24; Gen 41:25; Gen 41:25; Gen 41:25; Gen 41:26; Gen 41:27; Gen 41:28; Gen 41:30; Gen 41:30; Gen 41:31; Gen 41:31; Gen 41:32; Gen 41:32; Gen 41:32; Gen 41:33; Gen 41:33; Gen 41:33; Gen 41:34; Gen 41:34; Gen 41:34; Gen 41:34; Gen 41:35; Gen 41:35; Gen 41:35; Gen 41:35; Gen 41:36; Gen 41:37; Gen 41:38; Gen 41:38; Gen 41:39; Gen 41:40; Gen 41:40; Gen 41:41; Gen 41:41; Gen 41:42; Gen 41:43; Gen 41:43; Gen 41:43; Gen 41:44; Gen 41:44; Gen 41:44; Gen 41:45; Gen 41:45; Gen 41:45; Gen 41:45; Gen 41:46; Gen 41:46; Gen 41:46; Gen 41:46; Gen 41:47; Gen 41:48; Gen 41:48; Gen 41:48; Gen 41:49; Gen 41:50; Gen 41:50; Gen 41:51; Gen 41:51; Gen 41:51; Gen 41:52; Gen 41:52; Gen 41:52
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NET Notes: Gen 41:2 Heb “And look, he was standing by the Nile, and look, from the Nile were coming up seven cows, attractive of appearance and fat of flesh.”...
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NET Notes: Gen 41:3 Heb “the Nile.” This has been replaced by “the river” in the translation for stylistic reasons.
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NET Notes: Gen 41:7 Pharaoh’s two dreams, as explained in the following verses, pertained to the economy of Egypt. Because of the Nile River, the land of Egypt weat...
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NET Notes: Gen 41:8 Heb “for Pharaoh.” The pronoun “him” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
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NET Notes: Gen 41:9 Heb “sins, offenses.” He probably refers here to the offenses that landed him in prison (see 40:1).
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NET Notes: Gen 41:11 Heb “and we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he, each according to the interpretation of his dream we dreamed.”
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NET Notes: Gen 41:12 Heb “and he interpreted for us our dreams, each according to his dream he interpreted.”
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NET Notes: Gen 41:13 Heb “him”; the referent (the baker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
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NET Notes: Gen 41:15 Heb “you hear a dream to interpret it,” which may mean, “you only have to hear a dream to be able to interpret it.”
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NET Notes: Gen 41:17 Heb “In my dream look, I was standing.” The use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) he...
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NET Notes: Gen 41:18 Heb “and look, from the Nile seven cows were coming up, fat of flesh and attractive of appearance, and they grazed in the reeds.”
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NET Notes: Gen 41:27 Heb “are.” Another option is to translate, “There will be seven years of famine.”
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NET Notes: Gen 41:30 The Hebrew verb כָּלָה (kalah) in the Piel stem means “to finish, to destroy, to bring an end to.” The...
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NET Notes: Gen 41:32 The clause combines a participle and an infinitive construct: God “is hurrying…to do it,” meaning he is going to do it soon.
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NET Notes: Gen 41:34 Heb “and he shall collect a fifth of the land of Egypt.” The language is figurative (metonymy); it means what the land produces, i.e., the...
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NET Notes: Gen 41:35 The perfect with vav (ו) consecutive carries the same force as the sequence of jussives before it.
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NET Notes: Gen 41:37 Heb “and the matter was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants.”
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NET Notes: Gen 41:39 Heb “as discerning and wise.” The order has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
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NET Notes: Gen 41:41 Joseph became the grand vizier of the land of Egypt. See W. A. Ward, “The Egyptian Office of Joseph,” JSS 5 (1960): 144-50; and R. de Vaux...
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NET Notes: Gen 41:42 The Hebrew word שֵׁשׁ (shesh) is an Egyptian loanword that describes the fine linen robes that Egyptian royalty wore. Th...
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NET Notes: Gen 41:43 The verb form appears to be a causative imperative from a verbal root meaning “to kneel.” It is a homonym of the word “bless” ...
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NET Notes: Gen 41:46 Heb “and he passed through all the land of Egypt”; this phrase is interpreted by JPS to mean that Joseph “emerged in charge of the w...
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NET Notes: Gen 41:48 Heb “of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt and placed food in the cities.”
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NET Notes: Gen 41:49 Heb “and Joseph gathered grain like the sand of the sea, multiplying much.” To emphasize the vast amount of grain he stored up, the Hebrew...
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