From Prison Dreams to Pharaoh's Right Hand

1. After these things, the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord, the king of Egypt. 2. Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cup bearer and the chief baker. 3. He put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound. 4. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he took care of them. They stayed in prison many days. 5. They both dreamed a dream, each man his dream, in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the cup bearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were bound in the prison. 6. Joseph came in to them in the morning, and saw them, and saw that they were sad. 7. He asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house, saying, “Why do you look so sad today?” 8. They said to him, “We have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it.” Joseph said to them, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Please tell it to me.” 9. The chief cup bearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “In my dream, behold, a vine was in front of me, 10. and in the vine were three branches. It was as though it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters produced ripe grapes. 11. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.” 12. Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. 13. Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head, and restore you to your office. You will give Pharaoh’s cup into his hand, the way you did when you were his cup bearer. 14. But remember me when it will be well with you, and please show kindness to me, and make mention of me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. 15. For indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.” 16. When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, “I also was in my dream, and behold, three baskets of white bread were on my head. 17. In the uppermost basket there were all kinds of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head.” 18. Joseph answered, “This is its interpretation. The three baskets are three days. 19. Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from off you, and will hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from off you.” 20. On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief cup bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. 21. He restored the chief cup bearer to his position again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand; 22. but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23. Yet the chief cup bearer didn’t remember Joseph, but forgot him. 1. At the end of two full years, Pharaoh dreamed: and behold, he stood by the river. 2. Behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, sleek and fat, and they fed in the marsh grass. 3. Behold, seven other cattle came up after them out of the river, ugly and thin, and stood by the other cattle on the brink of the river. 4. The ugly and thin cattle ate up the seven sleek and fat cattle. So Pharaoh awoke. 5. He slept and dreamed a second time: and behold, seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, healthy and good. 6. Behold, seven heads of grain, thin and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them. 7. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy and full ears. Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. 8. In the morning, his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all of Egypt’s magicians and wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh. 9. Then the chief cup bearer spoke to Pharaoh, saying, “I remember my faults today. 10. Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, with the chief baker. 11. We dreamed a dream in one night, he and I. We dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream. 12. There was with us there a young man, a Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard, and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams. To each man according to his dream he interpreted. 13. As he interpreted to us, so it was. He restored me to my office, and he hanged him.” 14. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon. He shaved himself, changed his clothing, and came in to Pharaoh. 15. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” 16. Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It isn’t in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” 17. Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, “In my dream, behold, I stood on the brink of the river: 18. and behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, fat and sleek. They fed in the marsh grass, 19. and behold, seven other cattle came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for ugliness. 20. The thin and ugly cattle ate up the first seven fat cattle, 21. and when they had eaten them up, it couldn’t be known that they had eaten them, but they were still ugly, as at the beginning. So I awoke. 22. I saw in my dream, and behold, seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, full and good: 23. and behold, seven heads of grain, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them. 24. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads of grain. I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.” 25. Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dream of Pharaoh is one. What God is about to do he has declared to Pharaoh. 26. The seven good cattle are seven years; and the seven good heads of grain are seven years. The dream is one. 27. The seven thin and ugly cattle that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty heads of grain blasted with the east wind; they will be seven years of famine. 28. That is the thing which I spoke to Pharaoh. What God is about to do he has shown to Pharaoh. 29. Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. 30. There will arise after them seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land, 31. and the plenty will not be known in the land by reason of that famine which follows; for it will be very grievous. 32. The dream was doubled to Pharaoh, because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. 33. “Now therefore let Pharaoh look for a discreet and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. 34. Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt’s produce in the seven plenteous years. 35. Let them gather all the food of these good years that come, and lay up grain under the hand of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. 36. The food will be for a store to the land against the seven years of famine, which will be in the land of Egypt; that the land not perish through the famine.” 37. The thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants. 38. Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?” 39. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has shown you all of this, there is no one so discreet and wise as you. 40. You shall be over my house, and according to your word will all my people be ruled. Only in the throne I will be greater than you.” 41. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” 42. Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in robes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck, 43. and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had. They cried before him, “Bow the knee!” He set him over all the land of Egypt. 44. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without you shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.” 45. Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-Paneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On as a wife. Joseph went out over the land of Egypt. 46. Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. 47. In the seven plenteous years the earth produced abundantly. 48. He gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was around every city, he laid up in the same. 49. Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he stopped counting, for it was without number. 50. To Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore to him. 51. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, “For”, he said, “God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.” 52. The name of the second, he called Ephraim: “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” 53. The seven years of plenty, that were in the land of Egypt, came to an end. 54. The seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. 55. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do.” 56. The famine was over all the surface of the earth. Joseph opened all the store houses, and sold to the Egyptians. The famine was severe in the land of Egypt. 57. All countries came into Egypt, to Joseph, to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all the earth. 1. Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” 2. He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.” 3. Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. 4. But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.” 5. The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. 6. Joseph was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth. 7. Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them, and spoke roughly with them. He said to them, “Where did you come from?” They said, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.” 8. Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him. 9. Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land.” 10. They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. 11. We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies.” 12. He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land!” 13. They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is today with our father, and one is no more.” 14. Joseph said to them, “It is like I told you, saying, ‘You are spies!’ 15. By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go out from here, unless your youngest brother comes here. 16. Send one of you, and let him get your brother, and you shall be bound, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies.” 17. He put them all together into custody for three days. 18. Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this, and live, for I fear God. 19. If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses. 20. Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won’t die.” They did so. 21. They said to one another, “We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.” 22. Reuben answered them, saying, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘Don’t sin against the child,’ and you wouldn’t listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required.” 23. They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them. 24. He turned himself away from them, and wept. Then he returned to them, and spoke to them, and took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes. 25. Then Joseph gave a command to fill their bags with grain, and to restore each man’s money into his sack, and to give them food for the way. So it was done to them. 26. They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there. 27. As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. 28. He said to his brothers, “My money is restored! Behold, it is in my sack!” Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?” 29. They came to Jacob their father, to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying, 30. “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly with us, and took us for spies of the country. 31. We said to him, ‘We are honest men. We are no spies. 32. We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Canaan.’ 33. The man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your houses, and go your way. 34. Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. So I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’” 35. As they emptied their sacks, behold, each man’s bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. 36. Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.” 37. Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons, if I don’t bring him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again.” 38. He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”

1. What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh? 2. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God. 3. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 4. Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed. 5. But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. 6. Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, 7. “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8. Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.” 9. Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. 10. How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 11. He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them. 12. He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision. 13. For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. 15. For the law produces wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience. 16. For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. 17. As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. 18. Besides hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.” 19. Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20. Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, 21. and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. 22. Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.” 23. Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, 24. but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, 25. who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification. 1. Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; 2. through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3. Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; 4. and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope: 5. and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6. For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7. For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die. 8. But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. 10. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life. 11. Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. 12. Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned. 13. For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. 14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come. 15. But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16. The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. 17. For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. 18. So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. 19. For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. 20. The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; 21. that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2. May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? 3. Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4. We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. 5. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; 6. knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. 7. For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; 9. knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him! 10. For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. 11. Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12. Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13. Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14. For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. 15. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be! 16. Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 17. But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered. 18. Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness. 19. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. 20. For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21. What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22. But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life. 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1. My soul rests in God alone. My salvation is from him. 2. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress— I will never be greatly shaken. 3. How long will you assault a man, would all of you throw him down, Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence? 4. They fully intend to throw him down from his lofty place. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. 5. My soul, wait in silence for God alone, for my expectation is from him. 6. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I will not be shaken. 7. With God is my salvation and my honor. The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. 8. Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Selah. 9. Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath. 10. Don’t trust in oppression. Don’t become vain in robbery. If riches increase, don’t set your heart on them. 11. God has spoken once; twice I have heard this, that power belongs to God. 12. Also to you, Lord, belongs loving kindness, for you reward every man according to his work.