Genesis 40–42 – NAB

From inside La Biblioteca, the Word of God continues with reverence and clarity.

This episode moves through Genesis 40 through 42: Joseph interprets dreams in prison, is raised to power by Pharaoh, and faces his brothers once more, though they do not yet recognize him.

Read from our 2005 Catholic Companion Edition of the New American Bible.

Closed with the Lord’s Prayer.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

From inside La Biblioteca, this is the Word of God. This morning, we will be reading from our 2005 Catholic Companion Version of the New American Bible. Genesis, Chapter 40 Sometime afterward, the royal cupbearer and baker gave offense to their lord, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two courtiers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and he put them in custody in the house of the chief steward. The chief steward assigned Joseph to them, and he became their attendant. After they had been in custody for some time, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the jail, both had dreams on the same night. Each dream with its own meaning. When Joseph came to them in the morning... he noticed that they looked disturbed. So he asked Pharaoh's courtiers, who were with him in custody in the master's house, Why do you look so sad today? And they answered him, We have had dreams, but there is no one to interpret them for us. Joseph said to them, Surely, interpretations come from God. Please tell the dreams to me. Then the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. In my dream, he said, I saw a vine in front of me, and on the vine there were three branches. It had barely budded... When its blossoms came out, and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, so I took the grapes, pressed them out into his cup, and put it in Pharaoh's hand. Joseph said to him, This is what it means. The three branches are three days. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your post. You will be handing Pharaoh his cup, as you formerly used to when you were his cupbearer. So if you will still remember, when all is well with you, that I was here with you. Please do me a favor of mentioning me to Pharaoh to get me out of this place. The truth is that I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and here I have not done anything for which I have been put in this dungeon. When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given this favorable interpretation, he said to him, I too had a dream. In it I had three wicker baskets on my head, and the top were all kinds of bakery products packed. But the birds were pecking at them out of the basket on my head. And in fact, in the third day, which Pharaoh's birthday, when he gave a banquet to all his staff with the courtiers around him, he lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief's baker. He restored the chief cupbearer to his office so that he again handed the cup to Pharaoh. But the chief baker he impaled just as Joseph had them in his interpretation. Yet the chief cupbearer gave no thought to Joseph. He had forgotten him. Genesis chapter 41 After a lapse of two years, Pharaoh had a dream. He saw himself standing by the Nile. When up out of the Nile came seven cows, handsome and fat. They grazed in the reed grass. Behind them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and standing on the bank of the Nile besides the others. The ugly gaunt cows ate up the seven handsome fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up. He fell asleep again and had another dream. He saw seven ears of grain, fat and healthy, growing on a single stalk. Behind them sprouted seven ears of grain, thin and blasted by the east wind. And the seven thin ears swallowed up the seven fat, healthy ears. Then Pharaoh woke up to find it was only a dream. Next morning, his spirit was agitated, so he summoned all the magicians and sages of Egypt and recounted his dreams to them, but no one could interpret his dreams for him. Then the chief cupbearer spoke up and said to the Pharaoh, on this occasion, I reminded of my negligence. Once when Pharaoh was angry, he put me in the chief baker in custody in the house of the chief steward. Later, we both had dreams on the same night, and each of our dreams had its own meaning. There was with us a Hebrew youth, a slave of the chief steward, and when we told him our dreams, he interpreted them for us and explained them for each of us the meaning of his dream. And it turned out just as he told us. I was restored to my post, but the other man was impaled. Pharaoh therefore had Joseph summoned, and they hurried brought him from the dungeon. After he shaved and changed his clothes, he came into the Pharaoh's presence. Pharaoh then said to him, I had certain dreams that no one can interpret, but I hear it said of you that the moment you are told a dream, you can interpret it. It is not I, Joseph replied to Pharaoh, but God who will give the Pharaoh the right answer. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, in my dream, I was standing on the bank of the Nile when Up from the Nile came seven cows, fat and well-formed. They grazed in the reed grass. Behind them came seven other cows, scrawny, most ill-formed and gaunt. Never have I seen such ugly specimens as these in all the land of Egypt. The gaunt, ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows. But when they had consumed them, no one could tell as if they had done so because they looked as ugly as before. Then I woke up. Joseph said to Pharaoh, Both of Pharaoh's dreams have the same meaning. God has thus foretold the Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven healthy cows are seven years, and the seven healthy ears are seven years, the same in each stream. So also, the seven thin, ugly cows that came up After them are seven years, as are the seven thin, wind-blasted years. So, as to the regiment... To land during the seven years of abundance, they should husband all the food of the coming good years, collecting the grain under Pharaoh's authority, to be stored in the towns for food. This food will serve as a reserve for the country against the seven years of famine, that are to allow in the land of Egypt that the land may not perish in the famine. This advice pleased Pharaoh and all his officials. Could we find another like him? Pharaoh asked his officials. A man so endowed with the Spirit of God? So Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has made all this known to you, no one can be as wise and discerning as you are. He shall be put in charge of my palace and all my people shall dart at your command. Only in respect to the throne shall I outrank you. herewith pharaoh told joseph i place you in charge of the whole land of egypt with that pharaoh took off his signet ring and put it on joseph's finger he had him dressed in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck he then had him ride in the chariot of his vizier and they shouted abrik before him Thus was Joseph installed over the whole land of Egypt. I, Pharaoh, proclaim, he told Joseph, that without your approval, no one shall move hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh also bestowed the name of Zaphnath-Paneah on Joseph. And he gave him in marriage Esenath, the daughters of Potipharah, priest of Heliopolis. Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. After Joseph left Pharaoh's presence, he traveled throughout the land of Egypt. During the seven years of plenty, when the land produced abundant crops, he husbanded all the food of these years, and plenty of that land of Egypt was enjoyed and stored in the towns, placing it in each town the crops of the field around it. Joseph garnered grain in the qualities like sands of the sea, so vast that at last he stopped measuring for it, for it was beyond measure. Before the famine the year set in, Joseph became the father of two sons, borne to by Asenath, daughter of Potipharah, priest of Heliopolis. He named his firstborn Manasseh, meaning God has made me forget entirely the sufferings I endured at the hands of my family. And the second he named Ephraim, meaning God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. When the seven years of abundance enjoyed by the land of Genesis chapter 42 When Jacob learned the grain rations were available in Egypt, he said to his sons,"'Why do you keep gaping at one another?' I hear.' He went on,"'That rations of grains are available in Egypt.'" Go down there and buy some for us, that we may stay alive rather than die of hunger. So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy an emergency supply of grain from Egypt. It was only Joseph's full brother, Benjamin, that Jacob did not send with the rest, for he thought some disaster might befall him. Thus, since there was a famine in the land of Canaan, also the sons of Israel were among those who came to procure rations. It was Joseph, as governor of the country, who dispensed the rations to all the people. When Joseph's brother came and knelt down before him with their faces to the ground, he recognized them as soon as he saw them. But he concealed his own identity and spooked them sternly to them."'Where do you come from?' he asked them." They answered,"'From the land of Canaan, to procure food.'" When Joseph recognized his brothers, although they did not recognize him, he was reminded of the dreams he had about them. He said to them,"'You are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of this land.'""'No, my lord,' they replied."'On the contrary, your servants have come to procure food. All of us are the sons of the same man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.'" But he answered them,"'Not so. You have come to see the nakedness of the land.'""'We are your servants,' they said. We are twelve brothers, son of a certain man in Canaan, but the youngest one is at present with our father, and the other one is gone. It is just as I said. Joseph persisted. You are spies. This is how you shall be tested. Unless your youngest brother comes here, I swear by the life of Pharaoh that you shall not leave here. So send one of your number to get your brother, while the rest of you stay here under arrest. Thus shall your words be tested for their truth. If they are untrue as Pharaoh lives, you are spies. Without He locked them up in the guardhouse for three days. To one another, however, they said, Alas, we are being punished because of our brother. We saw the anguish of his heart when he pleaded with us, yet we paid no heed. That is why this anguish has come upon us. Didn't I tell you, broken Reuben, not to do wrong to the boy? But you wouldn't listen. Now comes the reckoning for his blood. They did not understand, of course, that Joseph understood what they said, since he spoke with them through an interpreter. But turning away from them, he wept. When he was able to speak to them again, he had Simeon taken from them and be bound before their eyes. Then Joseph gave orders to have their containers filled with grain, their money replaced in each one's sacks, and provisions given to them for their journey. After this had been done for them, they loaded their donkeys with the ranches and departed. At the night encampment, when one of them opened his bag to give the donkeys some of the fodder, he was surprised to see his money in the mouth of his bag. My money has been returned, he cried out to his brothers. Here it is in my bag. At their hearts sank. Trembling, they asked one another, What is this that God has done to us? When they got back to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told them all that had happened to them. The man who is the lord of the country, they said, spoke to us sternly and put us in custody as if we were spying on the land. But we said to them, We are honest men. We have never been spies. There are twelve of us brothers, sons of the same father, but one is gone and the youngest one is at present with our father in the land of Canaan. Then the man who is lord of the country said to us, This is how I shall know if you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me, while the rest of you go home with the rations for your starving families. When you come back to me with your youngest brother, I know that you are honest men and not spies. I will restore your brother to you, and you may move about freely in the land. When they were emptying their sacks there and Each one's sex was his money bag. At the sight of their money bags, they and their father were dismayed. Their father Jacob said to them,"'Must you make me childless? Joseph is gone, and Simeon is gone, and now you would take away Benjamin?' Why must things always happen to me? Then Reuben told his father, Put him in my care, and I will bring him back to you. You may kill my own two sons if I do not return him to you. But Jacob replied, My son shall not go down with you, now that his full brother is dead. He is the only one left. If some disaster should befall him on the journey, you must make you would send my white head down to the netherworld in grief. Thank you for listening. Let's close it out with the Lord's Prayer. Amen.