Genesis 41:21

Summary

This verse continues Pharaoh's account of his dream to Joseph: the lean cows swallowed the fat cows into their bellies, yet no visible change resulted — their appearance remained as bad as before. The verse closes with Pharaoh's report that he then awoke.

Key words

• ta.Vo.nah ("they went", H0935G) — qal narrative verb, feminine plural, describing the cows entering; sets the sequential narrative pace of the dream recollection.
• kir.Be.nah ("their inward part[s]", H7130G + H9029) — masculine singular noun in construct with feminine plural suffix, repeated twice (lines 4-5 and 12-13), emphasizing that the cows went into the interior of the other cows.
• no.Da' ("it was known", H3045) — niphal perfect, passive/reflexive voice: the action of "becoming known" happens to no one in particular — no external observer perceives any change.
• mar.'ei.hen ("their appearance", H4758 + H9029) — masculine singular noun in construct with feminine plural suffix, referring to the visible look of the cows after consuming the others.
• 'i.Katz ("I awoke", H3364) — qal narrative first-person verb, marking Pharaoh's own first-person voice returning at the close of the dream report.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure moves through a chain of narrative verbs connected by the vav consecutive (va-, H9001): "and they went," "and it was not known," "and I awoke." This chaining device ties the clauses into a single flowing report rather than isolated statements. The clause ve.lo' no.Da' ("and it was not known") uses the niphal stem of yada' (H3045), which removes any explicit agent — the text does not say who failed to perceive the change; the perception itself simply "was not known," a grammatical choice that keeps focus on the impossibility of detecting any difference in the cows rather than on an observer.

The phrase kir.Be.nah ("their inward part[s]") appears twice, in construct form with the feminine plural suffix "their" (H9029), stressing that the lean cows' consuming was into the interior of the fat cows — a physical entering rather than a general devouring. The comparative clause ka.'aSher ba.te.chi.Lah ("as ... at the beginning") uses the relative particle 'a.Sher (H0834D) to draw an explicit parallel between the cows' current appearance and their prior state, reinforcing that no trace of the eaten cows remained visible. The final verb 'i.Katz ("I awoke") shifts to first-person qal, marking Pharaoh's own voice resuming as narrator of his dream.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders kir.Be.nah ("their inward part[s]", H7130G) as τὰς κοιλίας αὐτῶν ("their bellies/cavities"), a concrete anatomical term, while the Hebrew noun is more general ("inward part"). The Vulgate departs further: instead of a direct clause about the cows entering the others' interior, it reads "they gave no sign of being full, but were torpid with similar leanness and squalor" — a paraphrase that omits explicit mention of kir.Be.nah ("inward parts") and reframes the observation about appearance in different terms than the Hebrew's mar.'ei.hen ra' ("their appearance was bad", H4758 + H7451H).