The lean, bad-looking cows ate up the seven ¹  fat cows.

Then ¹  seven other cows came up after them; they were scrawny, very bad-looking, and lean. I had never seen such bad-looking cows ²  as these in all the land of Egypt!

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, ¹  and they stood beside the other cows at the edge of the river. ² 

When they had eaten them, ¹  no one would have known ²  that they had done so, for they were just as bad-looking as before. Then I woke up.

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, ¹  was taking care of ²  the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster ³  working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. ⁴  Joseph brought back a bad report about them ⁵  to their father.

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 ¹  seven years of famine.

But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, ¹  “Be careful ²  that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.” ³ 

Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “This is the Lord’s doing. ¹  Our wishes are of no concern. ² 

I have ¹  the power to do you harm, but the God of your father told me last night, ‘Be careful ²  that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.’ ³ 

that I must go down ¹  and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. ²  If not, ³  I want to know.”

But seven years of famine will occur ¹  after them, and all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will devastate ²  the land.

This food should be held in storage for the land in preparation for the seven years of famine that will occur throughout the land of Egypt. In this way the land will survive the famine.” ¹ 

I will provide you with food ¹  there because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise you would become poor – you, your household, and everyone who belongs to you.”’

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin ¹  on me by making me a foul odor ²  among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I ³  am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”