What Does Genesis 41:21 Mean in the King James?
And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill favoured, as at the beginning. So I awoke.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
What enters completely can still leave the condition that receives it unchanged.
THE MEANING
You can take something fully inside and still remain unchanged; intake is not the same as nourishment. The lean cows consume the fat ones, yet their appearance stays as it was at the beginning. The verse holds open the gap between something entering and anything being restored.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that taking something in, even completely, must mean you are nourished or made whole.
THE ROOT
קִרְבֶּנָה
qirbenah
GROWS FROM
קרב
To approach or draw near; קֶרֶב (qereb) means the inner part or midst.
The KJV says “eaten them,” while the Hebrew pictures the lean cows coming into the fat cows’ inward parts. The root also gives קָרַב (qarab), “draw near,” and קָרְבָּן (qorban), “drawing near”; here entry reaches the inside, but their appearance does not change.
ALSO GROWS
qereb: Inner part, midst
קֶרֶב
This is where the fat cows enter: the image reaches inside, yet the lean cows remain visibly unchanged.
qarab: Approach, draw near
קָרַב
The action is more than contact; what is consumed comes all the way near and within.
qorban: Drawing near; an offering
קָרְבָּן
This branch carries the same nearness in its name, sharpening the contrast between arrival inside and actual transformation.
נוֹדַע
nodaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“known” in this verse is nodaʿ. The cows have entered the others, but the event leaves no sign by which it can be recognized. The verse distinguishes what has happened inside from what can be perceived as a change.
ALSO GROWS
yada: Know, recognize, perceive
יָדַע
The verse says the consumption cannot be recognized from the result.
daʿat: Knowledge, awareness
דַּעַת
There is no awareness of a change because the appearance offers no evidence that anything has been taken in.
THE PATTERN
Taking something in does not guarantee nourishment; without satisfaction, the receiving condition remains unchanged.
All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.“All that is within me” is קְרָבַי (qeravay, “my inward parts”), from the same Q-R-B word-family as the cows’ inward parts. In the dream, the inward parts receive without changing the appearance; here the inward parts are where a response rises.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us