41:18-32
Pharaoh then recounts the dreams again, and points out that his magicians proved themselves to be pretty useless. Joseph has no problem interpreting the dreams, starting by saying that they are giving the same message. There will be seven years of good crops, but this will be followed by seven years of famine. The famine would be very severe. The fact that Pharaoh had two dreams with the same message meant that the matter was fixed by God and would happen soon.
41:33-36
The dreams were not given purely to give information, but so action could be taken. Joseph makes a suggestion, namely that Pharaoh should select a wise man to manage the whole process of helping Egypt prepare for the coming events. There would then be overseers who were under the “prime minister”, who would oversee the process of one fifth of the produce harvested during the years of plenty. This would then be kept in a central store. This would then ensure that there was provision for the years of famine. In some ways this seems like a very centralised system, though v35 seems to imply that the regional overseers were to have some autonomy.
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