From the two men’s replies it is evident that they have already discussed their dreams with each other.

We have had dreams is literally “a dream we dreamed.” The context shows that each man has had one dream. Accordingly Good News Translation “Each of us had a dream” is a better model than Revised Standard Version.

No one to interpret them: according to von Rad there were people in Egypt who were skilled in interpreting the meaning of dreams; but the two men were unable to go to them because they were locked up in prison. So the meaning of no one is “no one here in this place”; and in some languages this is expressed in the translation. Interpret renders a Hebrew word used only in chapters 40 and 41 to mean to interpret or explain a dream. Some other languages also have a term with this special meaning. Where there is no special term, this may be rendered “there is no one to tell us what our dreams mean” or “… to explain our dreams to us.”

Do not interpretations belong to God? is literally “Do not to God interpretations?” This reply by Joseph is a rhetorical question that may need to be restructured in some languages as an emphatic statement. The sense of Joseph’s question is to affirm that the interpretation of dreams, or the ability to interpret dreams, is given by God. Accordingly if we translate as a statement, we may say, for example, “Only God can enable a person to interpret dreams” or “… to explain what a dream means.”

In some languages it is more natural to reverse the order of the last two clauses; for example, “You two tell me your dreams. God knows this kind of thing, and he will show me what your dreams are saying….”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .