Genesis 41:2

Summary

Genesis 41:2 describes the beginning of Pharaoh's dream: seven cows, described as good-looking and physically fat, come up out of the Nile and begin grazing among the reeds. The verse uses the presentative "behold" to place the reader/dreamer directly inside the visual scene.

Key words

• hi.Neh ("there!", H2009) — interjection that introduces the dream-vision suddenly, marking a shift into direct perception rather than narrated report.
• 'o.Lot ("[were] coming up", H5927G) — qal participle, feminine plural, describing the cows' action as ongoing/durative at the moment of viewing, not a completed single event.
• ye.Fot ("good looking of", H3303) — adjective in construct form, feminine plural, linked to mar.'Eh ("appearance", H4758); the construct chain literally reads "beautiful of appearance."
• ve.ri.'Ot ("fat of", H1277) — adjective in construct form, feminine plural, paired with ba.Sar ("flesh", H1320), forming "fat of flesh," parallel in structure to the previous phrase.
• tir.'Ei.nah ("they grazed", H7462B) — qal verb with narrative vav, feminine plural, shifting the sentence from the participial description of appearance into a sequential narrated action.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve ("and", H9002) plus hi.Neh ("there!", H2009), a construction that suspends normal narrative flow and inserts the dreamer's (and reader's) direct visual experience of the scene. The location is marked by min-ha-y'Or ("from the River", H4480A + H9009 + H2975G), identifying the Nile as the source from which the cows emerge.

The subject, She.va' pa.Rot ("seven cows", H7651 + H6510), is described through two parallel construct phrases: ye.Fot mar.'Eh ("good looking of appearance") and ve.ri.'Ot ba.Sar ("fat of flesh"). Both adjectives are feminine plural forms in construct state, each governing a singular noun — a grammatical pattern that in Hebrew allows a plural subject to be qualified by an adjective bound tightly to a following noun, producing the sense "beautiful in appearance" and "fat in flesh" rather than simply "beautiful" and "fat" as free-standing adjectives.

The verb 'o.Lot ("coming up", H5927G) is a participle, presenting the emergence of the cows as a scene unfolding before the eyes rather than a single past action. The narrative then shifts with the vav-consecutive form tir.'Ei.nah ("they grazed", H7462B), moving the description forward into sequential action: the cows begin grazing ba-'Achu ("among the reeds", H9003 + H0260).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders min-ha-y'Or with ὥσπερ ἐκ τοῦ ποταμοῦ ("as if from the river"), adding a comparative sense (ὥσπερ, "as if") not present in the Hebrew min ("from", H4480A), which states the origin directly rather than comparatively. The Vulgate's de quo ("from which") follows the Hebrew more directly, referring back to the river without the comparative nuance. The LXX also uses ἐκλεκταὶ ("choice, select") for ve.ri.'Ot ("fat of", H1277), a term emphasizing quality/selection rather than the Hebrew's more physical sense of fatness of flesh.