Study Desk

Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I had a dream, and no one can explain it for me. I heard that you can explain dreams when someone tells you about them."

Joseph answered, "I cannot! But God can explain the dream for you, Pharaoh."

For seven years there will be plenty of food in Egypt.

Then during the seven years of hunger, there will be food for the country of Egypt. And Egypt will not be destroyed by the famine."

For seven years people had all the food they needed, but those years ended.

The famine began, and the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh said to the Egyptian people, "Go ask Joseph what to do."

I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go there and buy grain for us so that we will live and not die!"

Then Joseph put them all in prison for three days.

They said to each other, "We are being punished for the bad thing we did to our younger brother Joseph. We saw the trouble he was in. He begged us to save him, but we refused to listen. So now we are in trouble."

Then Reuben said to them, "I told you not to do anything bad to that boy, but you refused to listen to me. Now we are being punished for his death."

Joseph told the servants to fill the bags with grain. The brothers had given Joseph the money for the grain, but he didn't keep the money. He put the money in their bags of grain. Then he gave them what they would need for their trip back home.

That night the brothers stopped at a place to spend the night. One of the brothers opened his sack to get some grain for his donkey. And there in the sack, he saw his money!

He said to the other brothers, "Look! Here is the money I paid for the grain. Someone put the money back in my sack." The brothers were very afraid. They said to one another, "What is God doing to us?"

The people ate all the grain they had brought from Egypt. When that grain was gone, Jacob said to his sons, "Go to Egypt and buy some more grain for us to eat."

I will make sure he is safe. I will be responsible for him. If I don't bring him back to you, you can blame me forever.

If you had let us go before, we could have already made two trips for food."

On the way home, we opened our sacks and found our money in every sack. We don't know how it got there, but we brought that money with us to give it back to you. And we have brought more money to pay for the food that we want to buy this time."

But the servant answered, "Don't be afraid; believe me. Your God, the God of your father, must have put the money in your sack as a gift. I remember that you paid me for the grain the last time." Then the servant brought Simeon out of the prison.

The brothers heard that they were going to eat with Joseph, so they worked until noon preparing their gifts for him.

The servants seated Joseph at a table by himself. His brothers were at another table by themselves, and the Egyptians were at a table by themselves. The Egyptians believed that it was wrong for them to eat with Hebrews.