Genesis 41:29
in Genesis 41Behold, seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:
KJV
Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:
⋯
This verse in Genesis 41
Commentary
6 notes on this verse(Verse 29.) Behold, seven years of great abundance are coming in all the land of Egypt. I wonder how the Hebrew word () Sabee, which we translated above as abundance or satiety, in reference to the well that the servants of Isaac dug, can now be translated most accurately as oath when we use the Seventy (Septuagint) translation. Both oath and seven and satiety and abundance can be understood as the context and order demand. But also in subsequent places, wherever abundance is mentioned, the same word is written in Hebrew.
This site's exposition
It is just as I said to Pharaoh
on Genesis 41:28-31
The famine will be heavy enough to wipe out the memory of the good years. Gill notes that abundance on this scale rested on the Nile rising high year after year, and seven such years running are credited here to God. The language of forgetting comes back at verse 51, over Manasseh.
This site's exposition
seven years of great abundance are coming
Joseph gives the good news first. The abundance is promised to the land of Egypt, and by verse 57 the famine reaches every country around it. Egypt's surplus becomes the store that feeds the nations, Jacob's family among them.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. Not only a sufficiency but an abundance, even to luxury, as when the Nile rose to sixteen cubits, as Pliny observes (m); which, though a natural cause, was owing to God, and that it should thus overflow for seven years successively, and cause such a continued plenty, can be ascribed to no other. (m) Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 9.
36 And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine. 37 And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants. 38 And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
How wonderful wisely has Providence, that great house-keeper, ordered the affairs of this numerous family from the beginning!
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הִנֵּ֛ה | hineh | there! | H2009 → | 843 times |
| שֶׁ֥בַע | sheva' | seven | H7651 → | 394 times |
| שָׁנִ֖ים | shanim | years | H8141 → | 877 times |
| בָּא֑וֹת | baot | [are] about to come | H935 → | 2568 times |
| שָׂבָ֥ע | sava' | plenty | H7647 → | 8 times |
| גָּד֖וֹל | gadol | great | H1419 → | 526 times |
| בְּכָל־ | bekhol | [will be] in all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| אֶ֥רֶץ | ʾeretz | [the] land of | H776 → | 2504 times |
| מִצְרָֽיִם׃ | mitzrayim | Egypt | H4714 → | 641 times |
הִנֵּ֛הthere!
hinehH2009 →843 times
שֶׁ֥בַעseven
sheva'H7651 →394 times
שָׁנִ֖יםyears
shanimH8141 →877 times
בָּא֑וֹת[are] about to come
baotH935 →2568 times
שָׂבָ֥עplenty
sava'H7647 →8 times
גָּד֖וֹלgreat
gadolH1419 →526 times
בְּכָל־[will be] in all
bekholH3605 →5413 times
אֶ֥רֶץ[the] land of
ʾeretzH776 →2504 times
מִצְרָֽיִם׃Egypt
mitzrayimH4714 →641 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 41:26The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven ripe heads of grain are seven years. The dreams have the same meaning.
it leads to
- Genesis 41:47
During the seven years of abundance, the land brought forth bountifully.
- Genesis 41:2
when seven cows, sleek and well-fed, came up from the river and began to graze among the reeds.
- Genesis 41:5
but he fell back asleep and dreamed a second time: Seven heads of grain, plump and ripe, came up on one stalk.
- 1 John 5:7
For there are three that testify:
- 1 Corinthians 10:4
and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
- Genesis 41:47
Through
Genesis 41:49So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance, like the sand of the sea, that he stopped keeping track of it; for it was beyond measure.
it leads to
- Psalms 78:27
He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea.
- 1 Samuel 13:5
Now the Philistines assembled to fight against Israel with three thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and troops as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Michmash, east of…
- Genesis 22:17
I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
- Psalms 78:27
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Genesis
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.