What Does Genesis 41:3 Mean in the King James?
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.
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
The lean cattle rise from the same river as the full ones, so lack appears within the landscape of provision.
THE MEANING
You see lack rise from the same waters as plenty and stand beside it, placing both conditions in one scene before any outcome unfolds. The lean cattle emerge from the river that also brings the well-favoured cattle.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Lack can only come from outside what provides.
THE ROOT
דַּקּוֹת בָּשָׂר
daqqot basar
GROWS FROM
דקק
To be thin or fine; the related verbal sense is to grind or reduce to fine particles.
“leanfleshed” in this verse is daqqot basar. The word pictures bodies as thin, while the same root describes matter made fine. The cattle’s leanness is a loss of substance, not just an unfavorable look.
ALSO GROWS
daq: Fine, thin
דַּק
This adjective names the quality seen in the cattle: their flesh is reduced and slender.
daq daq: Very fine, finely ground
דַּק דַּק
The repeated form in Deuteronomy 9:21 carries fineness toward powder, connecting thinness with substance reduced to its smallest pieces.
מַרְאֶה
mar'eh
GROWS FROM
ראה
To see, look at, or perceive.
Appearance grows from the same root as seeing and the word for a seer. The lean cattle are presented as a sight within the dream before their meaning is disclosed.
ALSO GROWS
ra'ah: To see, look at, perceive
רָאָה
The verb names the act of seeing from which the word for appearance is formed.
ro'eh: One who sees; a seer
רֹאֶה
The same root names both what is seen and the one who sees it, tying the cattle’s appearance to the act of perception.
עֹלוֹת
ʿolot
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up, rise, or ascend.
“came up” in this verse is ʿolot. The sign of scarcity rises out of the river into view. The root also names an ascending offering and an ascent, so the verse’s movement is upward from the water into the scene.
ALSO GROWS
ʿolah: An ascending offering; burnt offering
עֹלָה
The offering’s name comes from its ascending, showing another form of the root’s upward movement.
maʿalah: Ascent; step
מַעֲלָה
This noun names an upward rise or a step, echoing the cattle’s movement out of the river.
THE PATTERN
What looks depleted can become the force that overtakes what looks full.
And the ill favoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke.So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;THE THREAD
And the ill favoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke.The next verse repeats דַּקּוֹת בָּשָׂר (daqqot basar, thin of flesh) and shows what the earlier sight holds in tension: the lean cattle consume the fat cattle. The root describing thinness belongs to the figures that overtake fullness.
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