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 you can understand a dream to interpret it.”
16. Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me. God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
17. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream, I stood on the bank of the Nile.
18. And suddenly there came up out of the river seven cows, fattened and fine-looking, and they grazed in the reeds.
19. Then seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and gaunt. I have never seen such ugliness in all the land of Egypt.
20. And the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows.
21. And when they had eaten them up, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as before. Then I awoke.
22. “I also saw in my dreams seven ears of grain, full and good, suddenly come up on one stalk.
23. Then seven ears, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprang up after them.
24. And the thin ears swallowed the seven good ears. So I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”
25. Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do.
26. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years. The dreams are one.
27. The seven gaunt and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears scorched by the east wind will be seven years of famine.