Genesis 41:20

 Genesis 41:20

And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine:

a. NASB 1995: And the lean and ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows.  [New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.]

b. NKJV: “And the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven, the fat cows.  [Scripture quotations marked "NKJV" are taken from the New King James Version®, Copyright© 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.]

c. Classic Amplified:  And the lean and ill favored cows ate up the seven fat cows that had come first. [Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation]

d. Stone Edition Torah/Prophets/Writings: And the emaciated and inferior cows ate up  the first seven healthy cows.  [The Artscroll Series/Stone Edition, THE TANACH--STUDENT SIZE EDITION Copyright 1996, 1998 by Mesorah Publications, Ltd.]

e. ESV:  And the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows, [Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

f. Unless otherwise stated, all Greek and Hebrew definitions are from Blue Letter Bible

1. “And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine:”

a. [And the] lean [Strong: 7534 raq, rak; from H7556 in its original sense; emaciated (as if flattened out):—lean(-fleshed), thin.]

b. [and the] ill favored [Strong: 7451 raʻ, rah; from H7489; bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral):—adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, displease(-ure), distress, evil((-favouredness), man, thing), + exceedingly, × great, grief(-vous), harm, heavy, hurt(-ful), ill (favoured), + mark, mischief(-vous), misery, naught(-ty), noisome, + not please, sad(-ly), sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked(-ly, -ness, one), worse(-st), wretchedness, wrong. (Including feminine raaah; as adjective or noun.)]

c. kine [Strong: 6510 pârâh, paw-raw'; feminine of H6499; a heifer:—cow, heifer, kine.]

d. [did] eat up [Strong: 398 ʼâkal, aw-kal'; a primitive root; to eat (literally or figuratively):—× at all, burn up, consume, devour(-er, up), dine, eat(-er, up), feed (with), food, × freely, × in...wise(-deed, plenty), (lay) meat, × quite.]

e. [the] first [Strong: 7223 riʼshôwn, ree-shone'; or רִאשֹׁן riʼshôn; from H7221; first, in place, time or rank (as adjective or noun):—ancestor, (that were) before(-time), beginning, eldest, first, fore(-father) (-most), former (thing), of old time, past.]

f. [Strong: 853 'eth ayth apparent contracted from 226 in the demonstrative sense of entity; properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely):--(as such unrepresented in English).]

g. seven [Strong: 7651 shebaʻ, sheh'-bah; or (masculine) (שִׁבְעָה shibʻâh); from H7650; a primitive cardinal number; seven (as the sacred full one); also (adverbially) seven times; by implication, a week; by extension, an indefinite number:—(+ by) seven(-fold),-s, (-teen, -teenth), -th, times).]

g. fat [Strong: 1277 bârîyʼ, baw-ree'; from H1254 (in the sense of H1262); fatted or plump:—fat ((fleshed), -ter), fed, firm, plenteous, rank.]

h. kine [Strong: 6510 pârâh, paw-raw'; feminine of H6499; a heifer:—cow, heifer, kine.]

1). In accordance with his goodness, for God is a good and merciful God, God was giving Pharaoh a means of averting a disaster for Egypt through the dreams and giving Joseph the interpretation of the dreams. Henry Morris writes in his book The Genesis Record, it was not “for the purpose of embarrassing or dethroning the king of Egypt. As a matter of fact his own control over the country was destined to be strengthened by these events; but the underlying purpose of it all had to do rather with God’s plan for Israel. Therefore not only did God give Joseph the true interpretation of the dreams, but also an effective plan of action for Pharaoh.”

a). Pharaoh was troubled by the dreams. Joseph specifically responded to Pharaoh with the words, “God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”

2). God giving dreams and their interpretation here is an example of the gifts of the Spirit, in particular, the word of wisdom, one of the gifts of the Spirit in operation. Kenneth E. Hagin writes in “Concerning Spiritual Gifts”: “The difference between the two gifts, the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom is that the revelation which the word of knowledge brings is always present tense or something which happened in the past. The word of wisdom always speaks of the future.” Here a 14 year plan to avert a disaster that would have come upon the known world. All the nations around Egypt suffered from this famine (Genesis 41:57), that was allowed by God to happen. He did not cause it, but in his goodness, mercy, and grace provided a means to endure through it.