Genesis 41:23

23 and right behind them, seven other ears, shriveled, thin, and dried out by the east wind.

Genesis 41:23 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 41:23

And, behold, seven ears withered
Here a new epithet of the bad ears is given, and expressed by a word nowhere else used, which Ben Melech interprets, small, little, according to the use of the word in the Misnah; Aben Ezra, void, empty, such as had no grains of corn in them, nothing but husk or chaff, and observes that some render it images; for the word is so used in the Arabic language, and may signify that these ears were only mere shadows or images of ears, which had no substance in them: Jarchi says, the word, in the Syriac language signifies a rock, and so it denotes that these ears were dry as a rock, and had no moisture in them, laid dried, burnt up, and blasted with the east wind.

Genesis 41:23 In-Context

21 But you couldn't tell by looking - after eating them up they were just as skinny and ugly as before. Then I woke up.

22 "In my second dream I saw seven ears of grain, full-bodied and lush, growing out of a single stalk,

23 and right behind them, seven other ears, shriveled, thin, and dried out by the east wind.

24 And the thin ears swallowed up the full ears. I've told all this to the magicians but they can't figure it out."

25 Joseph said to Pharaoh, "Pharaoh's two dreams both mean the same thing. God is telling Pharaoh what he is going to do.