The king made haste to send for Jo'seph, asking him to come to the palace at once. It was the custom in those days for men in prison to let their beards grow as a sign of sorrow, but Jo'seph quickly removed his beard when he heard that the king wished to see him. After changing his prison garments for clothes provided by the king's servants, he was brought before Pha'roah.
When Jo'seph stood before him, Pha'roah told him at once that he had been greatly troubled by two dreams which his magicians and wise men had not been able to explain. Pha'roah also said that he had learned of Jo'seph's ability to interpret dreams, but Jo'seph replied, "It is not in me: God shall give Pha'roah an answer of peace." Pha'roah then told his two strange dreams to Jo'seph.
"In my dream," declared Pha'roah, "I stood upon a bank of the river: and, behold, there came up out of the river seven cows, fat and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow. And, behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and lean, such as I never saw in all the land of E'gypt for badness: and the lean and the ill favoured cows did eat up the first seven fat cows, but after eating every one of them they were still as thin as ever."
"After falling asleep again," Pha'roah went on to say, "I saw seven ears of corn growing on one stalk, and each ear was full and good. Then I saw another stalk with seven poor and worthless ears upon it. The seven poor ears devoured those that were good, but were afterwards poor as ever."
Jo'seph then told Pha'roah that the two dreams had the same meaning. The LORD was telling him that a time of great prosperity for the land of E'gypt was to be followed by an equal period of famine and suffering. Jo'seph said, "The seven fat and well favoured cows, and the seven full ears of corn, mean that for seven years there will be good harvests and great prosperity in E'gypt. The seven thin cows and the seven withered ears of corn mean that the years of plenty will be followed by seven years of famine. Unless the good crops are used wisely, and the surplus carefully stored up in each city, the whole country will be in danger of starving to death."
Having explained the dreams to Pha'roah so clearly that everyone could see the LORD was speaking through him, Jo'seph gave still further good advice. He suggested that Pha'roah choose some man of great wisdom and proven ability to take charge of the work of storing up surplus food during the seven good years. It was a very difficult task, but unless it was done, and done well, there would be no hope of saving the people of E'gypt from starvation during the seven years of famine. That is why it was so important to find a man wise enough to direct the storing up of food in all cities of E'gypt. Besides gathering the surplus food, it was necessary to distribute it in such a way that each city would have enough for its own needs, and to store the food where it would not spoil or be damaged.
