Genesis 41:23

23 "After them, seven other heads of grain came up. They were weak and thin and dried up 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 even after the thin cows ate up the fat ones, no one could tell that they had eaten them. They looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.

22 "In my dreams I also saw seven heads of grain. They were full and good. They were all growing on one stem.

23 "After them, seven other heads of grain came up. They were weak and thin and dried up by the east wind.

24 "The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads. I told my dreams to the magicians. But none of them could explain them to me."

25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, "Both of Pharaoh's dreams have the same meaning. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do.