Bible Strands
Genesis 41:30
but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will devastate the land.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Joseph, standing before Pharaoh, interprets the king's dream by declaring that seven years of plenty will be immediately followed by seven years of famine.
The words — וְנִשְׁכַּח (ve./nish.Kach) means "and it will be forgotten," paired with כָּל־הַשָּׂבָע (kol./ha.Sa.Va'), meaning "all the abundance," to describe how the coming scarcity will erase the memory of prior plenty.
The thread — The devastating famine that consumes the land begins in Genesis 41:54, is noted in Psalm 47:13 as leaving the region without food, and is described in Psalm 105:16 as a divinely called shortage that cuts off supplies.
Why it lands — The text states the famine will be so severe it will erase the memory of Egypt's former wealth, requiring the reader to acknowledge that human prosperity is temporary and subject to sovereign warning.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;
Cross-references
- Genesis 41:54 the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. And although there was famine in every country, there was food throughout the land of Egypt.
- Genesis 47:13 There was no food, however, in all that region, because the famine was so severe; the lands of Egypt and Canaan had been exhausted by the famine.
- Psalms 105:16 He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food.
- James 5:17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
- Genesis 41:21 When they had devoured them, however, no one could tell that they had done so; their appearance was as ugly as it had been before. Then I awoke.
- Genesis 41:27 Moreover, the seven thin, ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind—they are seven years of famine.
- Genesis 41:51 Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, saying, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s household.”
- Genesis 41:56 When the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened up all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians; for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.
- 2 Samuel 24:13 So Gad went and said to David, “Do you choose to endure three years of famine in your land, three months of fleeing the pursuit of your enemies, or three days of plague upon your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should reply to Him who sent me.”
- 1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”