Genesis 41:37-49
New Living Translation
Joseph Made Ruler of Egypt
37 Joseph’s suggestions were well received by Pharaoh and his officials. 38 So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find anyone else like this man so obviously filled with the spirit of God?” 39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to you, clearly no one else is as intelligent or wise as you are. 40 You will be in charge of my court, and all my people will take orders from you. Only I, sitting on my throne, will have a rank higher than yours.”
41 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the entire land of Egypt.” 42 Then Pharaoh removed his signet ring from his hand and placed it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in fine linen clothing and hung a gold chain around his neck. 43 Then he had Joseph ride in the chariot reserved for his second-in-command. And wherever Joseph went, the command was shouted, “Kneel down!” So Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of all Egypt. 44 And Pharaoh said to him, “I am Pharaoh, but no one will lift a hand or foot in the entire land of Egypt without your approval.”
45 Then Pharaoh gave Joseph a new Egyptian name, Zaphenath-paneah.[a] He also gave him a wife, whose name was Asenath. She was the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On.[b] So Joseph took charge of the entire land of Egypt. 46 He was thirty years old when he began serving in the court of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And when Joseph left Pharaoh’s presence, he inspected the entire land of Egypt.
47 As predicted, for seven years the land produced bumper crops. 48 During those years, Joseph gathered all the crops grown in Egypt and stored the grain from the surrounding fields in the cities. 49 He piled up huge amounts of grain like sand on the seashore. Finally, he stopped keeping records because there was too much to measure.
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Genesis 41:37-49
New English Translation
37 This advice made sense to Pharaoh and all his officials.[a] 38 So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find a man like Joseph,[b] one in whom the Spirit of God is present?”[c] 39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has enabled you to know all this, there is no one as wise and discerning[d] as you are! 40 You will oversee my household, and all my people will submit to your commands.[e] Only I, the king, will be greater than you.[f]
41 “See here,” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I place[g] you in authority over all the land of Egypt.”[h] 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his own hand and put it on Joseph’s. He clothed him with fine linen[i] clothes and put a gold chain around his neck. 43 Pharaoh[j] had him ride in the chariot used by his second-in-command,[k] and they cried out before him, “Kneel down!”[l] So he placed him over all the land of Egypt. 44 Pharaoh also said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, but without your permission[m] no one[n] will move his hand or his foot[o] in all the land of Egypt.” 45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah.[p] He also gave him Asenath[q] daughter of Potiphera, priest of On,[r] to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of[s] all the land of Egypt.
46 Now Joseph was 30 years old[t] when he began serving[u] Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph was commissioned by[v] Pharaoh and was in charge of[w] all the land of Egypt. 47 During the seven years of abundance the land produced large, bountiful harvests.[x] 48 Joseph[y] collected all the excess food[z] in the land of Egypt during the seven years and stored it in the cities.[aa] In every city he put the food gathered from the fields around it. 49 Joseph stored up a vast amount of grain, like the sand of the sea,[ab] until he stopped measuring it because it was impossible to measure.
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- Genesis 41:37 tn Heb “and the matter was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants.”
- Genesis 41:38 tn Heb “like this,” but the referent could be misunderstood to be a man like that described by Joseph in v. 33, rather than Joseph himself. For this reason the proper name “Joseph” has been supplied in the translation.
- Genesis 41:38 tn The rhetorical question expects the answer “No, of course not!”
- Genesis 41:39 tn Heb “as discerning and wise.” The order has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
- Genesis 41:40 tn Heb “and at your mouth (i.e., instructions) all my people will kiss.” G. J. Wenham translates this “shall kowtow to your instruction” (Genesis [WBC], 2:395). Although there is some textual support for reading “will be judged, ruled by you,” this is probably an attempt to capture the significance of this word. Wenham lists a number of references where individuals have tried to make connections with other words or expressions—such as a root meaning “order themselves” lying behind “kiss,” or an idiomatic idea of “kiss” meaning “seal the mouth,” and so “be silent and submit to.” See K. A. Kitchen, “The Term Nsq in Genesis 41:40, ” ExpTim 69 (1957): 30; D. S. Sperling, “Genesis 41:40: A New Interpretation,” JANESCU 10 (1978): 113-19.
- Genesis 41:40 tn Heb “only the throne, I will be greater than you.”
- Genesis 41:41 tn The translation assumes that the perfect verbal form is descriptive of a present action. Another option is to understand it as rhetorical, in which case Pharaoh describes a still future action as if it had already occurred in order to emphasize its certainty. In this case one could translate “I have placed” or “I will place.” The verb נָתַן (natan) is translated here as “to place in authority [over].”
- Genesis 41:41 sn Joseph became the grand vizier of the land of Egypt. See W. A. Ward, “The Egyptian Office of Joseph,” JSS 5 (1960): 144-50; and R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 129-31.
- Genesis 41:42 tn The Hebrew word שֵׁשׁ (shesh) is an Egyptian loanword that describes the fine linen robes that Egyptian royalty wore. The clothing signified Joseph’s rank.
- Genesis 41:43 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Pharaoh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Genesis 41:43 tn Heb “and he caused him to ride in the second chariot which was his.”
- Genesis 41:43 tn The verb form appears to be a causative imperative from a verbal root meaning “to kneel.” It is a homonym of the word “bless” (identical in root letters but not related etymologically).
- Genesis 41:44 tn Heb “apart from you.”
- Genesis 41:44 tn Heb “no man,” but here “man” is generic, referring to people in general.
- Genesis 41:44 tn The idiom “lift up hand or foot” means “take any action” here.
- Genesis 41:45 sn The meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name, Zaphenath-Paneah, is uncertain. Many recent commentators have followed the proposal of G. Steindorff that it means “the god has said, ‘he will live’” (“Der Name Josephs Saphenat-Pa‘neach,” ZÄS 31 [1889]: 41-42); others have suggested “the god speaks and lives” (see BDB 861 s.v. צָפְנָת פַּעְנֵחַ); “the man he knows” (J. Vergote, Joseph en Égypte, 145); or “Joseph [who is called] ʾIp-ʿankh” (K. A. Kitchen, NBD3 1262).
- Genesis 41:45 sn The name Asenath may mean “she belongs to the goddess Neit” (see HALOT 74 s.v. אָֽסְנַת). A novel was written at the beginning of the first century entitled Joseph and Asenath, which included a legendary account of the conversion of Asenath to Joseph’s faith in Yahweh. However, all that can be determined from this chapter is that their children received Hebrew names. See also V. Aptowitzer, “Asenath, the Wife of Joseph—a Haggadic Literary-Historical Study,” HUCA 1 (1924): 239-306.
- Genesis 41:45 sn On (also in v. 50) is another name for the city of Heliopolis.
- Genesis 41:45 tn Heb “and he passed through.”
- Genesis 41:46 tn Heb “a son of thirty years.”
- Genesis 41:46 tn Heb “when he stood before.”
- Genesis 41:46 tn Heb “went out from before.”
- Genesis 41:46 tn Heb “and he passed through all the land of Egypt”; this phrase is interpreted by JPS to mean that Joseph “emerged in charge of the whole land.”
- Genesis 41:47 tn Heb “brought forth by handfuls.”
- Genesis 41:48 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Genesis 41:48 tn Heb “all the food.”
- Genesis 41:48 tn Heb “of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt and placed food in the cities.”
- Genesis 41:49 tn Heb “and Joseph gathered grain like the sand of the sea, multiplying much.” To emphasize the vast amount of grain he stored up, the Hebrew text modifies the verb “gathered” with an infinitive absolute and an adverb.
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