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

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

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

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

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.

One basket had very good-looking figs in it. They looked like those that had ripened early. The other basket had very bad-looking figs in it, so bad they could not be eaten.