17. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood on the bank of the river [Nile];
18. And behold, there came up out of the river [Nile] seven fat, sleek, and handsome cows, and they grazed in the reed grass [of a marshy pasture].
19. And behold, seven other cows came up after them, undernourished, gaunt, and ugly [just skin and bones; such emaciated animals] as I have never seen in all of Egypt.
20. And the lean and ill favored cows ate up the seven fat cows that had come first.
21. And when they had eaten them up, it could not be detected and known that they had eaten them, for they were still as thin and emaciated as at the beginning. Then I awoke. [But again I fell asleep and dreamed.]
22. And I saw in my dream, and behold, seven ears [of grain] growing on one stalk, plump and good.
23. And behold, seven [other] ears, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprouted after them.
24. And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears. Now I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could tell me what it meant.
25. Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, The [two] dreams are one; God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do.
26. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears [of grain] are seven years; the [two] dreams are one [in their meaning].
27. And the seven thin and ill favored cows that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty ears [of grain], blighted and shriveled by the east wind; they are seven years of hunger and famine.