Genesis 41
12 Feb 2026 - Theology
Pharaoh’s Dream
Genesis 41:6 - “‘I cannot do it,’ Joseph replied to Pharaoh, ‘but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.’”
Notice that Joseph gives an immediate response or interpretation to Pharaoh’s dream. Joseph says that God will give Pharaoh the answer to his dream, and Pharaoh does not have to wait after telling it to Joseph.
So how does Joseph interpret the dream? How does he know that the seven cows and the seven heads of grain apply to seven years (time), rather than applying to seven physical things?
The first time we hear the dream it says the good cows are ‘well favoured’ and ‘fatfleshed’ (2). It says the same thing about the cows in verse 18. The Hebrew root word yapheh used here is the same root word we see when we hear about Rachel in Genesis 29, which describes her as ‘beautiful and well favoured’ (29:17). Besides the interpretation that Joseph gave to Pharaoh, could he also be hearing something else about his personal story in the dream? Could the good, well favoured cows signify his mother Rachel, and the ugly cows signify Leah?
In Pharaoh’s dream, the cows come out of the reeds (2). The Hebrew word for ‘reeds’ used here is achu, which is similar to the word for ‘brothers’, ach. In Egyptian mythology, reeds are the central feature of the afterlife.
Even though he was a foreigner, Joseph seemed wiser than the magician-priests of Egypt. First, Joseph was sure that both of Pharaoh’s dreams had one meaning. Second, Pharaoh thought Joseph was wise when Joseph explained why the dream came twice - that God would definitely bring the seven good years and the seven years of famine soon.
When the magician-priests failed to interpret the dreams, Joseph succeeded in telling Pharaoh the true meaning of the dreams. The Bible is teaching us that God’s wisdom is greater than the wisdom of the world. The same kind of contest will take place later when Moses and Aaron come face-to-face with the magicians in Egypt in Exodus 7.
What kind of person is Joseph? How many people would fall into despair when getting news of a seven year famine, so bad that they would forget the seven good years? Joseph has chutzpah like his father Jacob and has a response and a plan for the difficult circumstances.
Notice that Pharaoh used religious words to speak of Joseph’s wisdom, saying that Joseph had “the Spirit of God” in him (38). Pharaoh gave Joseph power over everything in Egypt, except himself. He arrayed Joseph in fine linen (the coat of royalty), gave Joseph his ring, put a gold chain around his neck, and ordered that Joseph would ride in a chariot right behind his own (41-43). Egyptologists have found ancient tomb paintings and writings that show that this is precisely how people were honored by a Pharaoh. Pharaoh also gave him a new name, calling him Zaphnath-paaneah, meaning ‘a revealer of secrets’ or ‘the man to whom secrets are revealed.’ He also chose a wife for Joseph named Asenath, who was the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On (45).
Joseph was thirty years old, and had two sons during the seven good years. The first son he named Manasseh, which means ‘forgetting.’ His reasoning was that God ‘hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house’ (51). The second son he named Ephraim, meaning ‘fruitful,’ ‘For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction’ (52).
Patterns in Joseph’s Life
Jacob and Joseph
- Dad gives Joseph gifts
- Dreams
- Stripped of coat
- Thrown into a pit
Potiphar’s Wife and Joseph
- Potiphar gives Joseph gifts
- Dream of Potiphar’s wife to lay with Joseph
- Stripped of coat
- Thrown into a pit
Pharaoh and Joseph
- Pharaoh pulls Joseph out of the pit
- Joseph changes his clothes
- Pharaoh has dreams
- Pharaoh gives gifts
After Joseph was thrown into the first pit by his brothers, Joseph doesn’t know the conversation of his brothers, that Rueben tried to save his life, or that the brothers took his striped coat and covered it with blood before bringing it back to Jacob. Joseph has to assume that his dad would come looking for him. However, as he is in the pit, Joseph never sees his dad come to look for him. In Pharaoh, Joseph now has this new father figure, one who takes him out of the prison pit and gives him a new coat and other gifts.
References
- The Hebrew - Greek Key Study Bible (KJV Version)
- The BEMA Podcast, Episode 16: Out of the Pit
- The Torah Portion-by-Portion by Rabbi Seymour Rossel (2007)
- Genesis 41:2 - yepowt or yapheh
- Genesis 41:18 - wipot or yapheh
- Genesis 29:17 - yepowt or yapheh
- achu and ach