Genesis (American Standard Version, 1901) · 58 of 73 · tr. American Standard Version (1901)
41:22-41:44
[41:22] And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up upon one stalk, full and good:
[41:23] and, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:
[41:24] and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears: and I told it unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me.
[41:25] And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: what God is about to do he hath declared unto Pharaoh.
[41:26] The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.
[41:27] And the seven lean and ill-favored kine that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind; they shall be seven years of famine.
[41:28] That is the thing which I spake unto Pharaoh: what God is about to do he hath showed unto Pharaoh.
[41:29] Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:
[41:30] and there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;
[41:31] and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine which followeth; for it shall be very grievous.
[41:32] And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh, it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.
[41:33] Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.
[41:34] Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.
[41:35] And let them gather all the food of these good years that come, and lay up grain under the hand of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it.
[41:36] And the food shall be for a store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.
[41:37] And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
[41:38] And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the spirit of God is?
[41:39] And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou:
[41:40] thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.
[41:41] And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
[41:42] And Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;
[41:43] and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he set him over all the land of Egypt.
[41:44] And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.
The ritual practice of discerning hidden knowledge — future events, concealed causes, or the will of higher powers — through a structured technique applied to cards, lots, astrological configuration, entrails, oracle, or other sortilege, rather than through direct unmediated insight. Distinct from gnosis_direct_knowledge (unmediated inner apprehension of ultimate truth, not a technique applied to an external medium) and cosmic_sympathy (the underlying doctrine of hidden affinity that many divinatory techniques presuppose, rather than the practice of consulting it).
Joseph applies the structured technique of dream interpretation to discern hidden knowledge of future events (seven years of plenty then famine), which is the narrative's central action.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The passage's central theological claim is that God actively orders the unfolding of events ('what God is about to do he hath declared unto Pharaoh' appears twice), making divine pronoia the driving force of the entire narrative.