Genesis Chapter 41 verse 2 Holy Bible
And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, well-favored and fat-fleshed; and they fed in the reed-grass.
read chapter 41 in ASV
And out of the Nile came seven cows, good-looking and fat, and their food was the river-grass.
read chapter 41 in BBE
And behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fine-looking and fat-fleshed, and they fed in the reed-grass.
read chapter 41 in DARBY
And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favored kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow.
read chapter 41 in KJV
And behold, there came up out of the river seven well-favored cows and fat-fleshed; and they fed in a meadow.
read chapter 41 in WBT
Behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, well-favored and fat-fleshed, and they fed in the reed-grass.
read chapter 41 in WEB
and lo, from the River coming up are seven kine, of fair appearance, and fat `in' flesh, and they feed among the reeds;
read chapter 41 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 2. - And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well-favored kine and fat-fleshed. According to Plutarch and Clement of Alexandria, the heifer was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as a symbol of the earth, agriculture, and the nourishment derived therefrom. It was therefore natural that the succession of seven prosperous years should be represented by seven thriving cows. That they appeared ascending from the river is explained by the circumstance that the Nile by its annual inundations is the cause of Egypt's fertility (cf. Havernick, 'Introd.,' 21). A hymn to the Nile, composed by Euna (according to the generality of Egyptologers a contemporary of Moses), and translated from a papyrus in the British Museum by Canon Cook (who ascribes to it an earlier date than the nineteenth dynasty), describes the Nile as "overflowing the gardens created by Ra giving life to all animals....watering the land without ceasing... Lover of food, bestower of corn... Bringer of food! Great Lord of provisions! Creator of all good things!" (vide 'Records of the Past,' vol. 4. pp. 107, 108); And they fed in a meadow - בָּאָחוּ, ἐν τῷ Αχει, (LXX.), literally, in the Nile or reed grass. The word XXX appears to be an Egyptian term descriptive of any herbage growing in a stream. It occurs only here and in ver. 18, and Job 8:11.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(2) Kine.--The cow was regarded by the Egyptians as the symbol of the earth, and of agriculture; and naturally both the kine and the ears of wheat rose out of the river, because as no rain falls in Egypt, its fertility entirely depends upon the overflow of the Nile. The cows sacred to Isis were seven in number, and in a copy of the Ritual of the Dead, Mr. Malan (p. 192) found a picture of the seven sacred cows with the divine bull.In a meadow.--Heb., in the marsh-grass. The word occurs only in this chapter and in Job 8:11, where it is translated flag. It is the name of the rank herbage which grows luxuriantly along the banks of the Nile; or, as some think, of one special kind of marsh-grass, called by botanists cyperus esculentus.
