The lean, bad-looking cows ate up the seven fat cows.

The bad-looking, thin cows ate the seven fine-looking, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.

Then seven bad-looking, thin cows were coming up after them from the Nile, and they stood beside the other cows at the edge of the river.

The seven lean, bad-looking cows that came up after them represent seven years, as do the seven empty heads of grain burned with the east wind. They represent seven years of famine.