Genesis 41:29

Summary

This verse presents the first part of the interpretation Joseph gives to Pharaoh's dream: an announcement introduced by an attention-marker, stating that seven years characterized by great abundance are about to arrive throughout the land of Egypt.

Key words

• hiNeh ("there!", H2009) — an interjection that draws attention to what follows, often functioning to introduce a significant declaration or vision.
• shaNim ("years", H8141) — masculine plural noun, the subject being quantified by the preceding cardinal number sheva' ("seven", H7651).
• ba'ot ("[are] about to come", H0935G) — Qal participle, feminine plural, agreeing with shanim ("years"); the participle form expresses an action presented as currently unfolding or imminent, not a simple future tense.
• saVa' ("plenty", H7647) — masculine singular noun, standing in apposition to describe the quality of the years announced.
• 'Eretz ("[the] land of", H0776G) — feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be joined to what follows (Mitzrayim, "Egypt") to form the phrase "land of Egypt."

What the text says

The sentence opens with hiNeh ("there!", H2009), a particle that in Biblical Hebrew narrative frequently signals a shift toward direct, vivid presentation of a fact or vision — here it frames Joseph's interpretive statement as something immediate and certain rather than a mere prediction. The subject of the clause is sheva' shanim ("seven years"), and the predicate is carried by the participle ba'ot ("[are] about to come", H0935G), which agrees in gender and number with shanim ("years", H8141). The use of a participle rather than a finite verb form contributes a nuance of an event already in motion or about to unfold, which is not automatically visible in translations that render it simply as "will come" or "are coming."

The phrase sava' gadol ("great plenty", H7647 + H1419A) functions as a description attached to the coming years, specifying their character. The final phrase, be-khol 'eretz Mitzrayim ("in all the land of Egypt", H3605 + H0776G + H4714G), uses the construct chain khol... 'eretz... ("all of... the land of...") to specify the geographic scope of the abundance, with 'eretz ("land of", H0776G) in construct state requiring the following proper name Mitzrayim ("Egypt", H4714G) to complete the phrase.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders sava' ("plenty", H7647) with euthēnia ("prosperity/abundance"), and the Vulgate uses fertilitas ("fertility"), both of which shift the semantic field slightly from the Hebrew noun's more general sense of "plenty" or "sufficiency" toward specific connotations of prosperity or agricultural fruitfulness.