41:34 Pharaoh should do60 this—he should appoint61 officials62 throughout the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt63 during the seven years of abundance.
tn The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. The Samaritan Pentateuch has a jussive form here, “and let [Pharaoh] do.”
61
tnHeb “and let him appoint.” The jussive form expresses Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh.
62
tnHeb “appointees.” The noun is a cognate accusative of the preceding verb. Since “appoint appointees” would be redundant in English, the term “officials” was used in the translation instead.
63
tnHeb “and he shall collect a fifth of the land of Egypt.” The language is figurative (metonymy); it means what the land produces, i.e., the harvest.