Genesis 41:30

30 and seven other years of so great barrenness shall follow those, that all the abundance before shall be given to forgetting; for hunger shall waste all the land, (and then seven more years of such great famine shall follow them, that all the abundance of before shall be forgotten; for the famine shall destroy all the land,)

Genesis 41:30 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 41:30

And there shall arise after them seven years of famine
Which might be occasioned by the river Nile not rising so high as to overflow its banks, as, when it did not rise to more than twelve cubits, a famine ensued, as the above writer says F14; and it must be owing to the overruling providence of God that this should be the case for seven years running: and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt;
the seven years of plenty being all spent, it should be as if it never was; the minds of men would be so intent upon their present distressed case and circumstances, that they should wholly forget how it had been with them in time past; or it would be as if they had never enjoyed it, or were never the better for it: this answers to and explains how it was with the ill favoured kine, when they had eaten up the fat kine; they seemed never the better, nor could it be known by their appearance that they had so done: and the famine shall consume the land:
the inhabitants of it, and all the fruits and increase of it the former years produced.


FOOTNOTES:

F14 Nat Hist. l. 5. c. 9.

Genesis 41:30 In-Context

28 which shall be fulfilled by this order. (which shall be fulfilled in this order.)
29 Lo! seven years of great plenty in all the land of Egypt shall come, (Lo! seven years of great plenty shall come in all the land of Egypt,)
30 and seven other years of so great barrenness shall follow those, that all the abundance before shall be given to forgetting; for hunger shall waste all the land, (and then seven more years of such great famine shall follow them, that all the abundance of before shall be forgotten; for the famine shall destroy all the land,)
31 and the greatness of neediness shall waste the greatness of plenty.
32 Forsooth this that thou sawest the second time (in) a dream pertaining to the same thing (For what thou sawest in a second dream pertaining to the same thing), is (a) showing of firmness, that is, (a) confirming of the first, for the word of God shall be done, and it shall be [ful]filled full swiftly.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.