Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Genesis 41:3
And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favored and leanfleshed; and stood by the [other] kine upon the brink of the river.
Which shows how sparingly the river overflowed the lands.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favoured, and leanfleshed,…. Thin and haggard, their bones stuck out, having scarce any flesh upon them, and made a wretched figure:
and stood by the [other] kine; and looked so much the worse, when compared with them:
upon the brink of the river; it not being overflowed, so that there was no grass to be had, but just upon the bank, where these kept for that purpose; for the fruitfulness of Egypt was owing to the river Nile; as that overflowed or did not, there was plenty or famine; hence both these sorts of creatures came up out of that.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Gen 41:3 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favoured and leanfleshed; and stood by the [other] kine upon the brink of the river.
Ver. 3. Seven other kine came up out of the river. ] These, by their leanness, portended drought and dearth, though they came up out of Nile also. This river, when it overflows unto twelve cubits’ height only, causeth famine; when to thirteen scarcity; when to fourteen, cheerfulness; when to fifteen, affluence; when to sixteen, abundance, as Pliny tells us. The greatest increase ever known, was of eighteen cubits, under Claudius (we read of a general famine in his days, Act 11:28 , mentioned also by Suetonius and Josephus); a the smallest of five cubits, in the history of the Pharsalian wars. Such a thing might happen now, to cause this sore famine. Or the river, for their sins, might be dried up, as God threatens them. Eze 29:3 ; Eze 29:9 Isa 19:5-6 And as it happened in the reign of Cleopatra, that prodigiously prodigal queen, the river overflowed not for two years together, saith Seneca: as at another time it overflowed not for nine years together, saith Callimachus; and after him Ovid. b How easy is it for God to starve us all, by denying us a few harvests! In case of famine, let us inquire the supernatural cause; as David did, 2Sa 21:1 when he knew the natural cause to be the drought.
a Suet., in Claudio. Joseph., Antiq., lib. xx. cap. 2. Luc., lib. v. cap. 9.
Creditur Aegyptus caruisse iuvantibus arva
Imbribus, atque annis sicca fuisse novem. – Ovid.
b Sen., Nat. Quaest., lib. iv. cap. 2.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
ill favoured: Gen 41:4, Gen 41:20, Gen 41:21
Reciprocal: Gen 41:54 – the seven Deu 17:1 – sheep