Genesis 41:23

23 Then seven more heads of grain sprang up after them, but these heads were thin and ugly and were burned by the hot 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 after they had eaten the seven cows, no one could tell they had eaten them. They looked just as thin and ugly as they did in the beginning. Then I woke up.

22 "I had another dream. I saw seven full and good heads of grain growing on one stalk.

23 Then seven more heads of grain sprang up after them, but these heads were thin and ugly and were burned by the hot east wind.

24 Then the thin heads ate the seven good heads. I told this dream to the magicians, but no one could explain its meaning to me."

25 Then Joseph said to the king, "Both of these dreams mean the same thing. God is telling you what he is about to do.