15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I had a dream. No one can tell me what it means. But I've heard that when you hear a dream you can explain it."
16 "I can't do it," Joseph replied to Pharaoh. "But God will give Pharaoh the answer he wants."
17 Then Pharaoh told Joseph what he had dreamed. He said, "I was standing on the bank of the Nile River.
18 Seven cows came up out of the river. They were fat and good-looking. They were eating the tall grass that was growing along the river.
19 "After them, seven other cows came up. They were bony and very ugly and thin. I had never seen such ugly cows in the whole land of Egypt.
20 "The thin, ugly cows ate up the seven fat cows that came up first.
21 But even after the thin cows ate up the fat ones, no one could tell that they had eaten them. They looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.