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Genesis 41:23

Old Testament Law (Torah) ASV (1901)

What does Genesis 41:23 say?

The American Standard Version records this verse as: “and, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, [and] blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:” Read the surrounding verses and the named sources below before drawing broader conclusions.

The verse

and, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, [and] blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:
Genesis 41:23 — American Standard Version

Context — Genesis 41

American Standard Version (1901) — public domain. Click any verse for its study page.
20and the lean and ill-favored kine did eat up the first seven fat kine:
21and when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill-favored, as at the beginning. So I awoke.
22And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up upon one stalk, full and good:
23and, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, [and] blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:
24and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears: and I told it unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me.
25And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: what God is about to do he hath declared unto Pharaoh.
26The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.
← Genesis 41:22Genesis 41:24 →
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What do historical commentaries say?

John Gill's Exposition
John Gill (1697–1771) · Exposition of the Old and New Testament · 18th-century historical commentary
“And, behold, seven ears withered, etc.] Here a new epithet of the bad ears is given, and expressed by a word nowhere else used, which Ben Melech interprets, small, little, according to the use of the word in the Misnah; Aben Ezra, void, empty, such as had no grains of corn in them, nothing but husk or chaff, and observes that some render it images; for the word is so used in the Arabic language, and may signify that these ears were only mere shadows or images of ears, which had no substance in them: Jarchi says, the word, in the Syriac language signifies a rock, and so it denotes that these ears were dry as a rock, and had no moisture in them, laid dried, burnt up, and blasted with the east…”
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Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible · 19th-century historical commentary
“blasted with the east wind--destructive everywhere to grain, but particularly so in Egypt; where, sweeping over the sandy deserts of Arabia, it comes in the character of a hot, blighting wind, that quickly withers all vegetation (compare Eze 19:12; Hos 13:15).”
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Related study paths

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Sources and verification