Study Desk

for I really was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews and I have done nothing wrong here for which they should put me in a dungeon."

In the top basket there were baked goods of every kind for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them from the basket that was on my head."

On the third day it was Pharaoh's birthday, so he gave a feast for all his servants. He "lifted up" the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker in the midst of his servants.

In the morning he was troubled, so he called for all the diviner-priests of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.

Now a young man, a Hebrew, a servant of the captain of the guards, was with us there. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted the meaning of each of our respective dreams for us.

When they had eaten them, no one would have known that they had done so, for they were just as bad-looking as before. Then I woke up.

The previous abundance of the land will not be remembered because of the famine that follows, for the famine will be very severe.

"So now Pharaoh should look for a wise and discerning man and give him authority over all the land of Egypt.

This food should be held in storage for the land in preparation for the seven years of famine that will occur throughout the land of Egypt. In this way the land will survive the famine."

When all the land of Egypt experienced the famine, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh said to all the people of Egypt, "Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you."

He then said, "Look, I hear that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy grain for us so that we may live and not die."

But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, "What if some accident happens to him?"

So Israel's sons came to buy grain among the other travelers, for the famine was severe in the land of Canaan.

When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger to them and spoke to them harshly. He asked, "Where do you come from?" They answered, "From the land of Canaan, to buy grain for food."

But they exclaimed, "No, my lord! Your servants have come to buy grain for food!

He imprisoned them all for three days.

On the third day Joseph said to them, "Do as I say and you will live, for I fear God.

If you are honest men, leave one of your brothers confined here in prison while the rest of you go and take grain back for your hungry families.

They said to one another, "Surely we're being punished because of our brother, because we saw how distressed he was when he cried to us for mercy, but we refused to listen. That is why this distress has come on us!"

Reuben said to them, "Didn't I say to you, ‘Don't sin against the boy,' but you wouldn't listen? So now we must pay for shedding his blood!"