Study Desk

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.

It happened just as he had said to us—Pharaoh restored me to my office, but he impaled the baker."

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."

Joseph replied to Pharaoh, "It is not within my power, but God will speak concerning the welfare of Pharaoh."

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."

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.

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."

Then the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food.

But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, "What if some accident happens to him?"

When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger to them and spoke to them harshly. He asked, "Where do you come from?" They answered, "From the land of Canaan, to buy grain for food."

Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.

But they exclaimed, "No, my lord! Your servants have come to buy grain for food!

"No," he insisted, "but you have come to see if our land is vulnerable."

But Joseph told them, "It is just as I said to you: You are spies!

But you must bring your youngest brother to me. Then your words will be verified and you will not die." They did as he said.

They said to one another, "Surely we're being punished because of our brother, because we saw how distressed he was when he cried to us for mercy, but we refused to listen. That is why this distress has come on us!"

Reuben said to them, "Didn't I say to you, ‘Don't sin against the boy,' but you wouldn't listen? So now we must pay for shedding his blood!"

But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies!

But bring your youngest brother back to me so I will know that you are honest men and not spies. Then I will give your brother back to you and you may move about freely in the land.'"

But Jacob replied, "My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair in sorrow to the grave."