Genesis 41:1

Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams

1 Two years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing near the Nile.

Genesis 41:1 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 41:1

And it came to pass at the end of two full years
It is not a clear case, as Aben Ezra observes, from whence these years are to be reckoned, whether from the time of Joseph's being put into prison, or from the time that the chief butler was taken out of it; the latter seems more probable, and better connects this and the preceding chapter: that Pharaoh dreamed, and, behold, he stood by the river;
it seemed to him, in his dream, as if he stood near the river Nile, or some canal or flow of water cut out of that river.

Genesis 41:1 In-Context

1 Two years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing near the Nile.

2 In front of him, seven healthy-looking, fattened cows climbed up out of the Nile and grazed on the reeds.

3 Just then, seven other cows, terrible-looking and scrawny, climbed up out of the Nile after them and stood beside them on the bank of the Nile.

4 The terrible-looking, scrawny cows devoured the seven healthy-looking, fattened cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.

5 He went back to sleep and had a second dream, in which seven ears of grain, full and healthy, grew on a single stalk.