17. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph: “In my dream, I was standing on the bank of the Nile,
18. when up from the Nile came seven cows, fat and well-formed; they grazed in the reed grass.
19. Behind them came seven other cows, scrawny, most ill-formed and gaunt. Never have I seen such bad specimens as these in all the land of Egypt!
20. The gaunt, bad cows devoured the first seven fat cows.
21. But when they had consumed them, no one could tell that they had done so, because they looked as bad as before. Then I woke up.
22. In another dream I saw seven ears of grain, full and healthy, growing on a single stalk.
23. Behind them sprouted seven ears of grain, shriveled and thin and scorched by the east wind;
24. and the seven thin ears swallowed up the seven healthy ears. I have spoken to the magicians, but there is no one to explain it to me.”
25. Joseph said to Pharaoh: “Pharaoh’s dreams have the same meaning. God has made known to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
26. The seven healthy cows are seven years, and the seven healthy ears are seven years—the same in each dream.
27. The seven thin, bad cows that came up after them are seven years, as are the seven thin ears scorched by the east wind; they are seven years of famine.
28. Things are just as I told Pharaoh: God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
29. Seven years of great abundance are now coming throughout the land of Egypt;
30. but seven years of famine will rise up after them, when all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. When the famine has exhausted the land,
31. no trace of the abundance will be found in the land because of the famine that follows it, for it will be very severe.