Genesis 41:21 But even after they ate them, no one could tell that they had done so; they looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.

◄ Genesis 41:21 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
But even after they ate them, no one could tell that they had done so; they looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.

English Standard Version
but when they had eaten them no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as at the beginning. Then I awoke.

New American Standard Bible
"Yet when they had devoured them, it could not be detected that they had devoured them, for they were just as ugly as before. Then I awoke.

King James Bible
And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill favoured, as at the beginning. So I awoke.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
When they had devoured them, you could not tell that they had devoured them; their appearance was as bad as it had been before. Then I woke up.

International Standard Version
Not only that," Pharaoh continued, "after they had finished devouring the cows, nobody could tell that they had gobbled them up, because they were just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.

American Standard Version
and when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill-favored, as at the beginning. So I awoke.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And yet gave no mark of their being full: but were as lean and ill favoured as before. I awoke, and then fell asleep again,

Darby Bible Translation
and they came into their belly, and it could not be known that they had come into their belly; and their look was bad, as at the beginning. And I awoke.

Young's Literal Translation
and they come in unto their midst, and it hath not been known that they have come in unto their midst, and their appearance is bad as at the commencement; and I awake.

Commentaries

Matthew Henry's 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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

19. behold, seven other kine … poor and ill-favoured—The cow being the emblem of fruitfulness, the different years of plenty and of famine were aptly represented by the different condition of those kine—the plenty, by the cattle feeding on the richest fodder; and the dearth, by the lean and famishing kine, which the pangs of hunger drove to act contrary to their nature.