Kine

Kine — bovine cattle in the older English plural — appear in two passages of distinctive interpretive weight: Pharaoh's seven-and-seven vision of plenty and famine, and Amos's biting figure for the comfortable women of Samaria.

Pharaoh's dream of plenty and famine

Pharaoh's first dream gives the umbrella its richest scene. Two sets of kine come up out of the Nile, and the lean overpower the fat: "And, look, there came up out of the river seven kine, well-favored and fat-fleshed; and they pastured in the reed-grass. And, look, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill-favored and lean-fleshed, and stood by the other kine on the brink of the river. And the ill-favored and lean-fleshed kine ate up the seven well-favored and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke." (Ge 41:2-4). The matching dream of the ears of grain follows in the next verses (Ge 41:5-7), and Joseph's interpretation later in the chapter binds the two visions to one meaning: "The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. And the seven lean and ill-favored kine that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven thin ears blasted with the east wind; they will be seven years of famine. That is the thing which I spoke to Pharaoh: what God is about to do he has shown to Pharaoh. Look, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: and there will arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine will consume the land;" (Ge 41:26-30). The kine here function as a vehicle of revelation — the seven good and seven lean stand for years of plenty and famine, with the lean swallowing the fat as the famine swallows the memory of plenty.

The kine of Bashan

A second register is figurative oracle. Amos addresses the wealthy women of Samaria as cattle of the lush Bashan pastures: "Hear this word, you⁺ kine of Bashan, who are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their lords, Bring, and let us drink." (Am 4:1). The image trades on the well-fed cows of the famed grazing land east of the Jordan; the figure is sharp, naming oppression of the poor and the demand for drink as the marks of these "kine." The plural-you marker ⁺ is UPDV preserving the second-person plural address.