Genesis 41:17-21 - Exposition

Pharaoh then relates his dreams in substantially the same terms as those in which they have already been recited, only adding concerning the lean kine that they were ( Genesis 41:19 ) such as I never saw (literally, I never saw such as these ) in all the land of Egypt for badness: and that ( Genesis 41:21 ) when they had eaten them ( i.e. the good kine) up, it could not be known they had eaten them ;—literally, and they ( i.e. the good kine ) went into the interior parts, i.e. the stomach (of the bad kine), and it was not known that they had gone into the interior parts — but they (the bad kine) were still ill-favored, as at the beginning —literally, and their appearance was bad as in the beginning, i.e. previously; and concerning the thin and blasted ears, that they were also ( Genesis 41:23 ) withered — צְנֻמוֹת , from צָנַם , to be hard, meaning either barren (Gesenius), dry (Furst), or sapless (Kalisch)—a word which the LXX . and the Vulgate both omit. Onkelos explains by כרת , flowering, but not fruiting; and Dathius renders by jejunae . After which he ( i.e. Pharaoh) informs Joseph that the professional interpreters attached to the Court (the chartummim, or masters of the occult sciences) could give him no idea of its meaning.