4. The sickly, thin cows ate the healthy, well-fed cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.
5. He fell asleep and dreamed a second time: Seven heads of grain, plump and ripe, came up on one stalk.
6. After them, seven heads of grain, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up.
7. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven plump, ripe ones. Then Pharaoh woke up, and it was only a dream.
8. When morning came, he was troubled, so he summoned all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.
9. Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I remember my faults.
10. Pharaoh had been angry with his servants, and he put me and the chief baker in the custody of the captain of the guard.
11. He and I had dreams on the same night; each dream had its own meaning.
12. Now a young Hebrew, a slave of the captain of the guards, was with us there. We told him our dreams, he interpreted our dreams for us, and each had its own interpretation.
13. It turned out just the way he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was hanged.”
14. Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they quickly brought him from the dungeon. He shaved, changed his clothes, and went to Pharaoh.
15. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said about you that you can hear a dream and interpret it.”
16. “I am not able to,” Joseph answered Pharaoh. “It is God who will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
17. So Pharaoh said to Joseph: “In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile,
18. when seven well-fed, healthy-looking cows came up from the Nile and began to graze among the reeds.
19. After them, seven other cows — ugly, very sickly, and thin — came up. I’ve never seen such ugly ones as these in all the land of Egypt.