And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness:
Behold, seven other kine ... poor and ill-favoured. The cow being the emblem of fruitfulness, the different years of plenty and of famine were aptly represented by the different condition of those kine; the plenty, by the cattle feeding on the richest fodder; and the dearth, by the lean and famishing kine, which the pangs of hunger drove to act contrary to their nature.