34. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.
35. They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food.
36. This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.’
37. The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials.
38. So Pharaoh asked them, ‘Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?’
39. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.
40. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.’
41. So Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.’
42. Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain round his neck.
43. He made him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, ‘Make way !’ Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.
44. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt.’
45. Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt.
46. Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and travelled throughout Egypt.
47. During the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully.
48. Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it.
49. Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure.