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So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son." So his father wept for him.

But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death.

But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother.

What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also.

Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up." For he thought, "He may die too, just like his brothers." So Tamar went to live in her father's house.

He said, "What pledge should I give you?" "Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand," she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.

So he went back to Judah and said, "I didn't find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, 'There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here.' "

As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, "This one came out first."

But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, "So this is how you have broken out!" And he was named Perez.

So he left in Joseph's care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,

So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.

So he asked Pharaoh's officials who were in custody with him in his master's house, "Why are your faces so sad today?"

So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, "In my dream I saw a vine in front of me,

He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh's hand,

In the morning his mind was troubled, so he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.

So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh.

But even after they ate them, no one could tell that they had done so; they looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.

The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.

The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe.