Now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream, and behold, he was standing by the Nile.
Parallel translations
- WEB At the end of two full years, Pharaoh dreamed: and behold, he stood by the river.
- KJV And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.
- BSB After two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing beside the Nile,
- NKJV Then it came to pass, at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh had a dream; and behold, he stood by the river.
- NLT Two full years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing on the bank of the Nile River.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Two years later, Pharaoh has a vivid dream while standing by the Nile.
Overview
The note 'two full years' marks the long delay Joseph endured after the cup bearer forgot him. God now begins to move through Pharaoh's dreams, setting in motion Joseph's deliverance and exaltation. The Lord's purposes unfold in His own time, not ours.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Gen 29:14Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” He lived with him for a month.
- Gen 20:3But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken. For she is a man’s wife.”
- Gen 40:5They both dreamed a dream, each man his dream, in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the cup bearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were bound in the prison.
- Exod 4:9It will happen, if they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, that you shall take of the water of the river, and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land.”
- Deut 11:10For the land, where you go in to possess it, isn’t as the land of Egypt, that you came out of, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs;
- Exod 1:22Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
- Ezek 29:9The land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste; and they shall know that I am Yahweh. Because he has said, ‘The river is mine, and I have made it;’
- Ezek 29:3Speak and say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the middle of his rivers, that has said, ‘My river is my own, and I have made it for myself.’
- Gen 31:21So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.
- Job 33:15–16In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, in slumbering on the bed;
- Esth 6:1On that night, the king couldn’t sleep. He commanded the book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the king.
- Matt 27:19While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him.”
- Isa 19:5The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry.
- Gen 37:5–10Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him all the more.
- Dan 4:5–18I saw a dream which made me afraid; and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.
- Dan 7:1–8In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head on his bed: then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters.
- Dan 2:1–3In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams; and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep went from him.
- Judg 7:13–14When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his fellow. He said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream; and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.”
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 41:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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