Tafsir of Yusuf 12:48

"Then there will come after that," meaning after the seven years mentioned—he did not say "after them" [i.e., using the feminine pronoun] in order to magnify their significance, "seven severe [years]," meaning seven years difficult for the people. The specifier [of the number] was omitted because the first [mention of seven years] indicates it. "[Those years] will consume what you have laid up for them," meaning what you stored during those [prosperous] years from the grains left in their ears for the sake of those [years]. Attributing the act of eating to the years, even though it is the state of the people during them, is metaphorical, as in His saying, the Exalted: "and the day [as one that] gives sight." The lam (the preposition "for") in "for them" is a reinforcement of that metaphor. The motive for this was to align the interpretation with the interpreted dream. It is also possible that expressing it in this way is for the sake of mushakalah (stylistic correspondence) with what occurred in the dream. Some have interpreted "consuming" as "depleting," as in their saying: "The travel consumed the camel's flesh," meaning it depleted it and did away with it. "Except a little of what you will fortify," meaning what you guard and hide for the emergence of agriculture; it is derived from al-hisn (the fortress), which is the place of protection and refuge.