Genesis 41:30

30 and seven years of famine have arisen after them, and all the plenty is forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine hath finished 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Genesis 41:30 In-Context

28 this [is] the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: That which God is doing, he hath shewn Pharaoh.

29 `Lo, seven years are coming of great abundance in all the land of Egypt,

30 and seven years of famine have arisen after them, and all the plenty is forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine hath finished the land,

31 and the plenty is not known in the land because of that famine afterwards, for it [is] very grievous.

32 `And because of the repeating of the dream unto Pharaoh twice, surely the thing is established by God, and God is hastening to do it.