And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:
Pharaoh himself retells his dream to Joseph, and the retelling opens with Pharaoh standing upon the bank of the river. That riverside position is the setting from which the rest of the dream unfolds. Out of the river come the cattle and then the ears of grain that form the two visions he describes. He lays those visions before Joseph for interpretation because the magicians had been unable to explain them.
The two parts are one message from God revealing what is to come in Egypt. It foretells seven years of plenty to be followed by seven years of severe famine.
Pharaoh himself retells his dream to Joseph, and the retelling opens with Pharaoh standing upon the bank of the river. That riverside position is the setting from which the rest of the dream unfolds. Out of the river come the cattle and then the ears of grain that form the two visions he describes. He lays those visions before Joseph for interpretation because the magicians had been unable to explain them.
The two parts are one message from God revealing what is to come in Egypt. It foretells seven years of plenty to be followed by seven years of severe famine.