Discovery Box

Genesis 41:17-27

41:17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream I was standing ¹  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. ²  41:19 Then ³  seven other cows came up after them; they were scrawny, very bad-looking, and lean. I had never seen such bad-looking cows ⁴  as these in all the land of Egypt! 41:20 The lean, bad-looking cows ate up the seven ⁵  fat cows. 41:21 When they had eaten them, ⁶  no one would have known ⁷  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 ⁸  seven heads of grain growing on one stalk, full and good. 41:23 Then ⁹  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 ¹⁰  to the diviner-priests, but no one could tell me its meaning.” ¹¹ 

41:25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Both dreams of Pharaoh have the same meaning. ¹²  God has revealed ¹³  to Pharaoh what he is about to do. ¹⁴  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. ¹⁵  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 ¹⁶  seven years of famine.