59 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And, behold, seven other kine,.... Here some addition is made: these are said not only to be very ill favoured, and leanfleshed, [See comments on Genesis 41:3], but poor, thin, meagre, exhausted of their flesh and strength through some disease upon them, or want of food: and it follows, what was not before expressed, such as I never saw in all the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the lean and the ill favoured kine,.... The same as previously described; [See comments on Genesis 41:4].
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when they had eaten them up,.... Or "were come into their bowels" (k), into their inward parts, their bellies, being swallowed and devoured by them: it could not be known that they had eaten them: or were in their bellies, they seemed never the fuller nor the fatter for them: but they [were] still ill favoured as at the beginning; looked as...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I saw in my dream,.... Falling asleep again quickly, he dreamed a second time; and this dream being of a like kind with the former, and so small a space between them, they are represented as one, and this is the continuation of it: and, behold, seven ears, &c. [See comments on Genesis 41:5].
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And, behold, seven ears withered,.... 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;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears,.... [See comments on Genesis 41:7]; and I told [this] unto the magicians; just in the same manner as he had to Joseph: but [there was] none that could declare [it] unto me; the meaning of it; what all this should signify or portend.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, the dream of Pharaoh [is] one,.... Though there were two distinct dreams expressed under different images and representations, yet the meaning, sense, and signification of them were the same; one interpretation would do for both: God hath showed Pharaoh what he [is] about to do; that is, by the above dreams, when they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The seven good kine [are] seven years,.... Signify seven years, and these years of plenty, as appears from the antithesis in Genesis 41:26: and the seven good ears [are] seven years; signify the same: the dream [is] one; for though the seven good kine were seen in one dream, the seven good ears in another, yet both dreams were one as to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them [are] seven years,.... Signify other seven years, and these different from the former, as follows: and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine: or there will be seven years of famine that will answer to them, and are signified by them: Grotius,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
This [is] the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh,.... As an interpretation of his dreams: what God [is] about to do, he sheweth unto Pharaoh: the events of fourteen years with respect to plenty and sterility.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And there shall arise after them seven years of famine,.... Which might be occasioned by the river Nile not rising so high as to overflow its banks, as, when it did not rise to more than twelve cubits, a famine ensued, as the above writer says (n); and it must be owing to the overruling providence of God that this should be the case for seven...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the plenty shall not be known in the land, by reason of that famine following,.... That is, before it would be over; otherwise the former plenty was in some measure known by the stores of provisions laid up in the seven years of it, and which were brought forth when the famine became very pressing; but by that time, and before the seven years...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice,.... Or was repeated to him under different figures and images: [it is] because the thing [is] established by God; by a firm decree of his, and is sure, and will most certainly be accomplished; of which Pharaoh might be assured, and to assure him of it was the repetition of the dream made: and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise,.... Of good judgment and conduct, of abilities equal to the execution of a scheme hereafter proposed: it can scarcely be thought consistent with the great modesty of Joseph that he meant himself, or that indeed, he ventured to give any advice at all, until it was first asked of him by the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Let Pharaoh do [this],.... Appoint such a person; who as a sovereign prince could do it of himself: and let him appoint officers over the land; not Pharaoh, but the wise and discreet governor he should set over the land, who should have a power of appointing officers or overseers under him to manage things according to his direction: and take up...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And let them, gather all the food of those good years that come,.... That is, let the under officers collect together the fifth part of all fruits of the land during the seven years of plenty: and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh; as his property, and only to be disposed of by his orders; for as it was to be purchased with his money, it was...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And that food shall be for store to the land,.... A deposit in the said cities, to be brought forth and used in a time of public distress; the Targum of Jonathan is, it "shall be hidden in a cave in the earth:'' against the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt: and so be a supply to the inhabitants of the land, when they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh,.... He approved of the advice Joseph gave, and of the scheme and plan which he proposed: and in the eyes of all his servants; his nobles, ministers of state and courtiers, all highly commended and applauded it; and it was with the general and unanimous consent of all agreed that it should be put into...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Pharaoh said unto his servants,.... That were about him, and with whom he was consulting about a proper person to be over this affair of gathering in the fruits of the earth in the time of plenty, and laying them up against a time of famine: can we find [such an one] as this [is], in whom the Spirit of God [is]? if we search among all the...