ثُمَّ يَأتي مِن بَعدِ ذٰلِكَ سَبعٌ شِدادٌ يَأكُلنَ ما قَدَّمتُم لَهُنَّ إِلّا قَليلًا مِمّا تُحصِنونَ
Then after that there will come seven hard ones which will eat up whatever you have set aside for them – all except a little which you preserve [for seed].
EXEGESIS
Will eat up (yaʾkulna) is attached to the years (sinīn) mentioned in the previous verse, as if the difficult times of those years will eat into their reserves left from the previous years of ease. This is because the eating of reserves will occur during those years of hardship.[1] This expression calls to mind the dream itself, where the fat cows are eaten by the lean ones, so too Prophet Joseph (a) describes the hard ones eating into the bounteous years.
Shidād (hard ones) is derived from the root verb shadda and means difficulty and hardship. This is because those years would be years fraught with difficulty. Alternatively, it could be from shadda ʿalayhi, meaning to attack. This would mean that the people are attacked and besieged by those difficult years. In this latter sense, there is a clever imagery being evoked, whereby those difficult years are like a wild animal attacking the people, but if they have put aside stores of food, the animal will instead turn its attention to those stores and leave them alone.[2]
Tuḥṣinūn (preserve) is from the causative verb aḥṣana derived from iḥṣān which originally means to protect and preserve. In the context of the verse, it means to store and put in safekeeping.[3]
EXPOSITION
Then after that there will come seven hard ones: seven hard years.[4]
Which will eat up whatever you have set aside for them: they will eat from the grain stored from the bounteous years, and perhaps some of what they produce as well, as they would still have some food production (albeit insufficient, if they had no reserves).
All except a little which you preserve: what little is produced in these years should be set aside into storage, and what had been stored in previous years would be eaten. This is because what was stored previously would not preserve well for many years and thus by eating older storage and storing new production any spillage would be minimised.[5]
Some have suggested that this means the grain harvested during the years of poor harvest should still be set aside, to be used as seedlings for future crops.[6]
One of the lessons of these verses is that a person should always plan ahead and try to have something in store for hard times. In times of plenty he should not give into wastefulness and excess, but invest that towards his future and helping others. The destruction of our environment and the pillaging of its riches, with no regards to the future, is a symptom of the lack of such forward thinking. Our responsibility is not only to our brothers and sisters and fellow human beings alive today, but we must also have a regard for future generations.[7]
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- ‘The seven gaunt and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears scorched by the east wind will be seven years of famine. It is as I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do. Seven years of great abundance will come throughout all the land of Egypt. However, there will arise after them seven years of famine. All the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine will consume the land. The abundance will be unknown in the land because of the famine following, for it will be very severe. The reason the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice is because the matter is established by God, and God will soon bring it to pass.’[8]
[1] See Tibyan, 6/150. See also Tabari, 12/136.
[2] Mizan, 11/190.
[3] Tibyan, 6/150.
[4] Tabrisi, 5/365; Tabari, 12/136.
[5] See also Qurtubi, 9/204; Muhit, 6/285.
[6] See Alusi, 6/445; Nemuneh, 9/426.
[7] See Nemuneh, 10/11.
[8] Genesis 41:27-32.