Genesis 41:29

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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שָׂבָ֥ע

sâbâʻ

H7647

“plenty”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 8× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H7646

TWOT: 2231c

plenty, satiety - plenty (of breadstuffs) - satiety

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
9: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is שָׂבָ֥ע plenty H7647 — appearing just 8 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

שָׂבָ֥ע plenty H7647

Shared distinctive vocabulary

שָׂבָ֥ע plenty H7647 occurs in 8 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

1 verb
5 nouns
2 adjectives
1 particle

Verb forms

בָּא֑וֹת Qal · Participle Active

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 14 words from the Hebrew and 15 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 10 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Genesis 41:29 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 41:46–47 Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
Genesis 41:26 The seven good cattle are seven years; and the seven good heads of grain are seven years. The dream is one.
Genesis 41:49 Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he stopped counting, for it was without number.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Genesis 41:29 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

הִנֵּ֛ה שֶׁ֥בַע שָׁנִ֖ים בָּא֑וֹת שָׂבָ֥ע גָּד֖וֹל בְּכָל אֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם

Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 41:29 Septuagint · lemma form

ἰδού ἑπτά ἔτος ἔρχομαι εὐθηνία πολύς ἐν πᾶς γῆ αἴγυπτος

behold, for seven years there is coming great plenty in all the land of Egypt.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

הָא שְׁבַע שְׁנִין אָתְיָן שׂוֹבְעָא רַבָּא בְּכָל אַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

הָא שְׁבַע שְׁנַיָיא אַתְיָין שׁוֹבְעָא רַבָּא בְּכָל אַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם

Behold, there come seven years of great plenty in all the land of Mizraim.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Genesis 41:29 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Gen 41:29. Seven years of great plenty — See the goodness of God, in sending the seven years of plenty before those of famine, that provision might be made accordingly. How wonderful wisely has Providence that great house-keeper, ordered the affairs of his numerous family from the beginning! Great variety of seasons there have been, and the produce of the earth sometimes more, and sometimes less; yet, take one time with another, what was miraculous concerning the manna is ordinarily verified in the common course of Providence; “He that gathers much has nothing over, and he that gathers little has no lack,” Exo 16:18.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Or, abundance and saturity.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

John Gill's Exposition

And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice,.... Or was repeated to him under different figures and images:

it is because the thing is established by God; by a firm decree of his, and is sure, and will most certainly be accomplished; of which Pharaoh might be assured, and to assure him of it was the repetition of the dream made:

and God will shortly bring it to pass: or "make haste to do it" (o), that is, would soon begin to accomplish these events; for, as Bishop Usher (p) observes, from the harvest of this (the then present) year, the seven years of plenty are reckoned.

(o) "festinans Deus ad faciendum", Montanus; "accelerat facere", Drusius; "festinat facere", Piscator. (p) Annal. Ver. Test. p. 15.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

See the goodness of God, in sending the seven years of plenty before those of famine, that provision might be made accordingly. How wonderful wisely has Providence, that great house-keeper, ordered the affairs of this numerous family from the beginning! Great variety of seasons there have been and the produce of the earth sometimes more, and sometimes less; yet take one time with another, what was miraculous concerning the manna, is ordinarily verified in the common course of Providence; He that gathers much has nothing over, and he that gathers little has no lack, Exod. xvi, 18.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 9 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is sâbâʻ (“plenty”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word sâbâʻ carries the sense “plenty.” How does it shape the verse?
The word “plenty” first appears here in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
Genesis 41:30 shares the word «plenty» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «בָּא֑וֹת» is Qal Participle Active. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Joseph Benson's Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 10 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 6 words in this verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.