Genesis 41:27
◄  Genesis 41:27  ►
New International Version (©2011)
The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.

New Living Translation (©2007)
The seven thin, scrawny cows that came up later and the seven thin heads of grain, withered by the east wind, represent seven years of famine.

English Standard Version (©2001)
The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven thin ears scorched by the east wind will be seven years of famine.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
The seven thin, ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven worthless, scorched heads of grain are seven years of famine."

International Standard Version (©2012)
The seven gaunt cows that arose after the healthy cows are seven years, as are the seven gaunt ears scorched by the east wind. There will be seven years of famine.

NET Bible (©2006)
The seven lean, bad-looking cows that came up after them represent seven years, as do the seven empty heads of grain burned with the east wind. They represent seven years of famine.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
The seven thin, sickly cows that came up behind them are seven years. The seven empty heads of grain scorched by the east wind are also seven years. Seven years of famine are coming.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And the seven thin and ill favored cows that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears dried by the east wind shall be seven years of famine.

American King James Version
And the seven thin and ill favored cows that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.

American Standard Version
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.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the seven lean and thin kine that came up after them, and the seven thin ears that were blasted with the burning wind, are seven years of famine to come:

Darby Bible Translation
And the seven lean and bad kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears, parched with the east wind, will be seven years of famine.

English Revised Version
And the seven lean and ill favoured 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.

Webster's Bible Translation
And the seven thin and ill-favored cows that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind will be seven years of famine.

World English Bible
The seven thin and ugly cattle that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty heads of grain blasted with the east wind; they will be seven years of famine.

Young's Literal Translation
and the seven thin and bad kine which are coming up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears, blasted with an east wind, are seven years of famine;

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

41:9-32 God's time for the enlargement of his people is the fittest time. If the chief butler had got Joseph to be released from prison, it is probable he would have gone back to the land of the Hebrews. Then he had neither been so blessed himself, nor such a blessing to his family, as afterwards he proved. Joseph, when introduced to Pharaoh, gives honour to God. Pharaoh had dreamed that he stood upon the bank of the river Nile, and saw the kine, both the fat ones, and the lean ones, come out of the river. Egypt has no rain, but the plenty of the year depends upon the overflowing of the river Nile. See how many ways Providence has of dispensing its gifts; yet our dependence is still the same upon the First Cause, who makes every creature what it is to us, be it rain or river. See to what changes the comforts of this life are subject. We cannot be sure that to-morrow shall be as this day, or next year as this. We must learn how to want, as well as how to abound. Mark the goodness of God in sending the seven years of plenty before those of famine, that provision might be made. The produce of the earth is sometimes more, and sometimes less; yet, take one with another, he that gathers much, has nothing over; and he that gathers little, has no lack, Ex 16:18. And see the perishing nature of our worldly enjoyments. The great harvests of the years of plenty were quite lost, and swallowed up in the years of famine; and that which seemed very much, yet did but just serve to keep the people alive. There is bread which lasts to eternal life, which it is worth while to labour for. They that make the things of this world their good things, will find little pleasure in remembering that they have received them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years,.... Signify other seven years, and these different from the former, as follows:

and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine: or there will be seven years of famine that will answer to them, and are signified by them: Grotius, from the Oneirocritics or interpreters of dreams, observes, that years are signified by kine, and particularly he relates from Achmes, that according to the doctrine of the Egyptians, female oxen (and such these were) signified times and seasons, and if fat (as the good ones here also were) signified fruitful times, but if poor and thin (as the bad ones here were) barren times: it seems as if all this skill of theirs was borrowed from Joseph's interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams here given. Josephus (l) relates a dream of Archelaus the son of Herod, who dreamed that he saw ten ears of corn, full and large, devoured by oxen; he sent for the Chaldeans and others to tell him what they signified; one said one thing and another another; at length one Simon, an Essene, said that the ears signified years, and the oxen changes of affairs, because, when they plough up the earth, they turn it up and change it; so that he should reign as many years as were ears of corn seen, and after many changes should die, as he accordingly did.

(l) Antiqu. l. 17. c. 15. sect. 3. & de Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 7. sect. 3.

Genesis 41:27 Parallel Commentaries

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Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dreams
…26The seven good cows are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. 27And the seven thin and ill favored cows that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine. 28This is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh: What God is about to do he shows to Pharaoh. …

Genesis 41:3 After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank.
Genesis 41:26 The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream.
2 Kings 8:1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, "Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the LORD has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years."