The Daily Audio Bible

¹⁷ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘In my dream, I stood at the side of the River Nile. ¹⁸ I saw seven cows that came up out of the river. They were fat, and good to look at. They were eating the grass at the side of the river. ¹⁹ After them, seven more cows came up out of the river. They were thin and they were not good to look at. I have never seen cows as bad as these in Egypt before. ²⁰ The thin cows ate the seven fat cows that came out of the river first. ²¹ When they had eaten them, you would not have known it! They still seemed to be as thin as they were before they ate the fat cows. Then I woke up. ²² In another dream, I also saw seven groups of grain that grew on one branch. The grains were fat and good. ²³ After those, seven other groups of grain grew. Those grains were thin because the hot east wind had burned them. ²⁴ The thin grains ate the seven groups of fat grains. I told those dreams to my wise men and magicians. But none of them could tell me the meaning of my dreams.’

²⁵ Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, ‘Your dreams both have the same meaning. God has shown you what he will soon do. ²⁶ The seven fat cows tell us about seven years. And the seven groups of fat grains also mean seven years. Both dreams have the same meaning. ²⁷ The seven thin cows that came out of the river mean seven years. And the seven groups of thin grains mean seven years. Both of these tell us about seven years of famine.

²⁸ This is what your dreams mean. As I said, God has shown Pharaoh what he will do. ²⁹ There will be plenty of food for seven years all over the land of Egypt. ³⁰ But then seven years of famine will follow. People will forget about the seven years when they had plenty of food. The famine will destroy the land of Egypt. ³¹ No one will remember the seven good years, because the famine will be so bad. ³² God gave you two dreams with the same meaning because these things will certainly happen. God will cause them to happen very soon. ³³ Now Pharaoh should look for a clever man. He should look for a man who knows what is right and wrong. Tell him to rule over the land of Egypt.

^34-35 This is what you should do: Choose some officers. Give them authority to store food during the good years when there is plenty. They must take a fifth part of all the food that grows everywhere in Egypt. They must store the extra food during the good years that will come soon. Give these officers authority to store and to take care of the food in the cities. ³⁶ Then you will be ready for the seven years of famine that will happen everywhere in Egypt. The people in Egypt will have enough food, and the famine will not destroy the land.’

³⁷ Pharaoh and his officers thought that Joseph's idea was good. ³⁸ Pharaoh said to his officers, ‘This man has the Spirit of God in him. We will never find anyone else like him.’ ³⁹ So Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘God himself has helped you to know all these things. So there is no one who is as wise and clever as you are. ⁴⁰ I will give you authority in my palace. All my people will do whatever you tell them to do. Only I will be greater than you, because I am the king.’

⁴¹ Pharaoh also said to Joseph, ‘I give you authority in the whole land of Egypt.’ ⁴² Then Pharaoh took his king's ring from his finger and he put it on Joseph's finger. He dressed Joseph in beautiful clothes made of linen. He put a gold chain round Joseph's neck. ⁴³ Pharaoh gave Joseph a chariot to ride in. It showed that Joseph was Pharaoh's most important officer. Only Pharaoh had more authority. As Joseph travelled, his servants shouted to the people, ‘Bend your knees to respect Joseph!’

In this way Pharaoh gave Joseph authority over everything in the land of Egypt. ⁴⁴ Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I rule Egypt as Pharaoh. But nobody who lives anywhere in Egypt will do anything, unless you tell them to.’ ⁴⁵ Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. He also gave Asenath to Joseph to be his wife. She was the daughter of Potiphera, who was a priest in Heliopolis.^[a] Everyone knew that Joseph had authority in all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁶ Joseph was 30 years old when he began to serve Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Joseph then left Pharaoh's palace and he travelled all over Egypt. ⁴⁷ During the seven good years, lots of food grew in the land. ⁴⁸ Joseph got all the extra food that grew in the seven good years. He stored it in Egypt's cities, near the fields where it had grown. ⁴⁹ In this way, Joseph stored a lot of food. The food grains were as many as the sand by the sea! Joseph stopped counting how much food he had stored because there was too much food to measure.

⁵⁰ Before the years of famine arrived, Joseph became the father of two sons. Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, a priest in Heliopolis, was their mother. ⁵¹ Joseph called his firstborn son Manasseh. Joseph said, ‘God has made me forget all the trouble that my family has given to me.’ ⁵² Joseph called his second son Ephraim. Joseph said, ‘God has given children to me in the land where I have received pain.’

⁵³ The seven good years with plenty of food in Egypt, came to an end. ⁵⁴ The seven years of famine began, in the same way that Joseph had said would happen. There was a famine in all the other countries too. But in Egypt, the people still had food to eat. ⁵⁵ When the Egyptian people became hungry, they cried out to Pharaoh for food. When they did that, Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, ‘Go to Joseph. Do whatever he tells you to do.’

⁵⁶ The famine became very bad everywhere. Joseph opened all the places where he had stored the food. He sold grain to the Egyptians because there was a bad famine in all of Egypt. ⁵⁷ People from all the other countries came to Egypt to buy food from Joseph. They came because the famine was very bad all over the world.

Joseph's brothers go to Egypt^[b]

42 Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt. So he said to his sons, ‘There is no food here, so why are you just sitting there? ² I have heard that there is food in Egypt. Go there and buy some for us. Then we may continue to live and not die.’

³ So ten of Joseph's brothers went to Egypt to buy food. ⁴ But Jacob did not send his youngest son, Benjamin, with them. Jacob was afraid that something bad might happen to Benjamin. ⁵ Jacob's sons went to Egypt, as well as other people who went there to buy food. They all went to Egypt because there was a bad famine in Canaan.

⁶ Joseph had authority to rule Egypt at that time. He was the man who sold food to all the Egyptians. When Joseph's brothers arrived there, they bent down in front of him, with their faces to the ground.^[c]

⁷ As soon as Joseph saw the men, he knew that they were his brothers. But he spoke to them as if they were strangers. He did not speak to them in a kind way. He asked them, ‘Where do you come from?’ They replied, ‘We come from the land of Canaan. We have come here to buy food.’ ⁸ Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.^[d]

⁹ Then Joseph remembered the dream that he had dreamed about his brothers. He said to them, ‘You have come here secretly to see how your people can attack our land.’ ¹⁰ They replied ‘No, my lord, that is not true! We are your servants and we have come to buy food. ¹¹ We are all the sons of one man. We are honest men. We are not your enemies.’

¹² But Joseph said, ‘No! You have come here to see if our country is weak so that you can attack us.’ ¹³ Joseph's brothers replied, ‘We belong to a family of 12 brothers. We are the sons of one man who lives in Canaan. Our youngest brother stayed at home with our father. One other brother is not with us any more.’ ¹⁴ Joseph said to them, ‘It is as I told you. You are our enemies! ¹⁵ I will see if what you say is true. This is what I will do. I promise by the life of Pharaoh himself, I will not let you leave this place.^[e] You must first bring your youngest brother here. I will only let you go after that. ¹⁶ One of you must go to bring your brother here. I will keep you others in prison. In that way I will know if what you said is true. If your youngest brother does not come, then I will certainly know that you are enemies!’

¹⁷ Then Joseph put his brothers in prison for three days.

Jesus tells a story about some weeds

²⁴ Then Jesus told the people another story. He said, ‘This is what the kingdom of heaven is like: A farmer planted some good wheat seeds into his field. ²⁵ But one night, when everyone was sleeping, a bad person came to the farmer's field. He did not like the farmer. This bad person planted seeds from weeds among the good wheat seeds. Then the bad person went away again. ²⁶ The good seeds grew and the plants began to make new seeds. But when this happened, the weeds also grew.

²⁷ So the farmer's servants came to speak to him. “Master, you planted only good seeds in your field but now many weeds are also growing there. How did this happen?” they asked him.

²⁸ The farmer said to his servants, “A bad person who does not like me has done this.”

So the servants then asked the farmer, “Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?”

²⁹ The farmer replied, “No, I do not want you to do that. If you pull up the weeds, you may also pull up some of the good wheat plants. ³⁰ Let the good plants and the weeds grow up together. At harvest time, I will tell the workers to cut down the weeds first. Then they will tie them together and burn them. Then they will cut the wheat and bring it into my building. I will store it there.” ’

Jesus tells a story about a small seed

³¹ Jesus told the people another story. He said, ‘I will tell you again what the kingdom of heaven is like. It is like a very small seed of the plant called mustard. A man took this seed and he planted it in his field. ³² It is the smallest seed that there is. But when it starts to grow, it will become bigger than the largest bush. It will become a tree. The wild birds will come and they will build their nests among the branches of that tree.’

Jesus tells a story about yeast

³³ Jesus told the people another story. He said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is also like this. It is like how yeast works. A woman took the yeast and she mixed it into three large bowls of flour. Then the yeast went through all the flour so that it grew big.’^[a]

³⁴ Jesus told the crowds of people all these things. But he only used stories to teach them. ³⁵ So what God's prophet had said long ago now became true:

Jesus explains the story about the weeds

³⁶ Then Jesus told the crowds of people to go away. He went into the house where he was staying. His disciples also went into the house with him. They said to him, ‘Explain to us the story about the weeds that were growing in the field.’

³⁷ Jesus replied, ‘The Son of Man is like the farmer who planted the good seed in the field. ³⁸ The field is like the world. The good seeds are like the people who belong to God's kingdom. The weeds are like the people who belong to the Devil. ³⁹ The Devil is the bad person who planted the weed seeds in the field. The time for harvest is like the end of time. God's angels are the workers who cut the plants down.

⁴⁰ In the story, the workers cut down the weeds and they burned them in the fire. When this world comes to an end, it will happen like that. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his workers, who are his angels. They will remove from his kingdom everything that causes sin. They will take away everyone who does evil things. ⁴² The angels will throw those bad people into the great fire. There the people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.^{[c] 43} The people who obeyed God will shine like the sun. They will be in the kingdom of their Father. You have ears, so listen well to what I say!’

Jesus tells a story about a man who found valuable things in the ground

⁴⁴ ‘I can tell you again what the kingdom of heaven is like,’ Jesus said. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like some valuable things that a man buried in a field. Another man found it, but then he covered it over again with dirt. The second man was very happy and he went away. He sold everything that he had. Then he went and bought the field with the valuable things in it.’^[d]

Jesus tells a story about some valuable stones

⁴⁵ ‘I will tell you again what the kingdom of heaven is like,’ Jesus said. ‘A trader looks for beautiful stones that he can buy. ⁴⁶ One day he found a very valuable stone that someone wanted to sell. So he went away and he sold everything that he had. Then he went and he bought that very valuable stone.’

This song is for the music leader.

The Lord's servant, David, wrote it.

David sang these words to the Lord when the Lord saved him from the power of his enemies. This was at the time when Saul was king.

Thank you, Lord!^[a]

Choose what is good and right

4 My children, listen to what your father teaches you. Listen carefully so that you understand what is right. ² My teaching will help you, so do not refuse it.

^3-4 My father taught me when I was a little boy. My mother loved me as her only child. My father said to me,