Joseph, the dreamer of Genesis, and the dreams of Pharaoh
Joseph's dreams in Genesis: the sheaves and the stars, the cupbearer and the baker, Pharaoh's seven fat and seven lean cows and what they meant.
No biblical figure is as closely linked to dreams as Joseph, the favourite son of the patriarch Jacob. His story, told in chapters 37 to 50 of the Book of Genesis, is built around three pairs of dreams: his own, those of two fellow prisoners and those of the pharaoh of Egypt. Each pair marks a turning point in the tale, which carries the young shepherd from the pit into which his brothers throw him to the summit of the Egyptian court. It is one of the most accomplished narratives of the Old Testament.
The sheaves and the stars
The young Joseph tells his brothers that he dreamt of binding sheaves in the fields: his sheaf rose and stood upright, while theirs gathered round and bowed down to it. In a second dream the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowed down before him. Even his father Jacob, though he rebukes him, keeps these words in mind.
The dreams kindle his brothers' jealousy; they scornfully call him «the dreamer» and decide to be rid of him. Joseph is sold to merchants heading for Egypt. Only at the end of the story does the reader understand that those images truly foretold the day when the brothers, driven by famine, would bow down before him without recognising him.
The cupbearer and the baker
In Egypt Joseph, a servant in the house of the official Potiphar, ends up in prison on an unjust accusation. There he meets Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and chief baker, both fallen from favour, who have two dreams on the same night. Before interpreting them Joseph utters a sentence that sums up the biblical viewpoint: «Do not interpretations belong to God?» (Genesis 40:8).
The cupbearer saw a vine with three branches, whose grapes he pressed into the king's cup: three days later he will be restored. The baker saw three baskets of bread on his head, pecked at by birds: three days later he will be put to death. Both interpretations come true exactly, but the cupbearer, back at court, forgets the young Hebrew left behind in prison.
The fat cows and the lean cows
Two years later Pharaoh dreams of seven fine, fat cows coming up out of the Nile, followed by seven ugly, lean cows that devour them. Then he sees seven full ears of grain, swallowed by seven thin ears scorched by the east wind. None of the magicians and wise men of Egypt can explain the dreams, until the cupbearer remembers Joseph.
Joseph announces seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine and advises storing grain in granaries. Pharaoh appoints him administrator of the whole land. The image of the fat years and the lean years has entered the everyday language of many European tongues precisely thanks to this episode. The Egyptian name the king gives him, Zaphenath-paneah, is still debated by philologists.
Scholars have noted the many Egyptian details in the story, from court titles to Pharaoh's magicians, and have linked it to the dream tradition of the land of the Nile. Whatever the debate about its date, the story of Joseph puts forward a precise idea: dreams come from God, and only one inspired by God can truly understand them.