16. Joseph answered the king, “I am not able to explain the meaning of dreams. God will do this for the king.”
17. Then the king said to Joseph, “In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile River.
18. I saw seven fat and beautiful cows. They came up out of the river and ate the grass.
19. Then I saw seven more cows come out of the river. They were thin and lean and ugly. They were the worst looking cows I have seen in all the land of Egypt.
20. And these thin and ugly cows ate the first seven fat cows.
21. But after they had eaten the seven cows, no one could tell they had eaten them. They just looked as thin and ugly as they did in the beginning. Then I woke up.
22. “I had another dream. I saw seven full and good heads of grain growing on one stalk.
23. Then seven more heads of grain sprang up after them. But these heads were thin and ugly. They were burned by the hot east wind.