^41:37This advice made sense to Pharaoh and all his officials.⁶⁹^41:38So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find a man like Joseph,⁷⁰ one in whom the Spirit of God is present?”⁷¹^41:39So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has enabled you to know all this, there is no one as wise and discerning⁷² as you are! ^41:40You will oversee my household, and all my people will submit to your commands.⁷³ Only I, the king, will be greater than you.⁷⁴

^41:41“See here,” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I place⁷⁵ you in authority over all the land of Egypt.”⁷⁶^41:42Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his own hand and put it on Joseph’s. He clothed him with fine linen⁷⁷ clothes and put a gold chain around his neck. ^41:43Pharaoh⁷⁸ had him ride in the chariot used by his second-in-command,⁷⁹ and they cried out before him, “Kneel down!”⁸⁰ So he placed him over all the land of Egypt. ^41:44Pharaoh also said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, but without your permission⁸¹ no one⁸² will move his hand or his foot⁸³ in all the land of Egypt.” ^41:45Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah.⁸⁴ He also gave him Asenath⁸⁵ daughter of Potiphera, priest of On,⁸⁶ to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of⁸⁷ all the land of Egypt.

^41:46Now Joseph was 30 years old⁸⁸ when he began serving⁸⁹ Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph was commissioned by⁹⁰ Pharaoh and was in charge of⁹¹ all the land of Egypt. ^41:47During the seven years of abundance the land produced large, bountiful harvests.⁹²^41:48Joseph⁹³ collected all the excess food⁹⁴ in the land of Egypt during the seven years and stored it in the cities.⁹⁵ In every city he put the food gathered from the fields around it. ^41:49Joseph stored up a vast amount of grain, like the sand of the sea,⁹⁶ until he stopped measuring it because it was impossible to measure.

^41:50Two sons were born to Joseph before the famine came.⁹⁷ Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, was their mother.⁹⁸^41:51Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh,⁹⁹ saying,¹⁰⁰ “Certainly¹⁰¹ God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s house.” ^41:52He named the second child Ephraim,¹⁰² saying,¹⁰³ “Certainly¹⁰⁴ God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”

^41:53The seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt came to an end. ^41:54Then the seven years of famine began,¹⁰⁵ just as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food. ^41:55When all the land of Egypt experienced the famine, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh said to all the people of Egypt,¹⁰⁶ “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.”

^41:56While the famine was over all the earth,¹⁰⁷ Joseph opened the storehouses¹⁰⁸ and sold grain to the Egyptians. The famine was severe throughout the land of Egypt. ^41:57People from every country¹⁰⁹ came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain because the famine was severe throughout the earth.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

69 Heb “and the matter was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants.”
70 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.
71 The rhetorical question expects the answer “No, of course not!”
72 Heb “as discerning and wise.” The order has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
73 Heb “and at your mouth (i.e., instructions) all my people will kiss.” G. J. Wenham translates this “shall kowtow to your instruction” (Genesis [], 2:). 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,” 69 (1957): 30; D. S. Sperling, “Genesis 41:40: A New Interpretation,” 10 (1978): 113–19.
74 Heb “only the throne, I will be greater than you.”
75 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].”
76 Joseph became the grand vizier of the land of Egypt. See W. A. Ward, “The Egyptian Office of Joseph,” 5 (1960): 144–50; and R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 129–31.
77 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.
78 Heb “he”; the referent (Pharaoh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
79 Heb “and he caused him to ride in the second chariot which was his.”
80 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).
81 Heb “apart from you.”
82 Heb “no man,” but here “man” is generic, referring to people in general.
83 The idiom “lift up hand or foot” means “take any action” here.
84 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,” 31 [1889]: 41–42); others have suggested “the god speaks and lives” (see 861 צָפְנָת פַּעְנֵחַ); “the man he knows” (J. Vergote, Joseph en Égypte, 145); or “Joseph [who is called] Ipʾ-ʿankh” (K. A. Kitchen, NBD3 ).
85 The name Asenath may mean “she belongs to the goddess Neit” (see 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,” 1 (1924): 239–306.
86 On (also in v. 50) is another name for the city of Heliopolis.
87 Heb “and he passed through.”
88 Heb “a son of thirty years.”
89 Heb “when he stood before.”
90 Heb “went out from before.”
91 Heb “and he passed through all the land of Egypt”; this phrase is interpreted by to mean that Joseph “emerged in charge of the whole land.”
92 Heb “brought forth by handfuls.”
93 Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
94 Heb “all the food.”
95 Heb “of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt and placed food in the cities.”
96 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.
97 Heb “before the year of the famine came.”
98 Heb “gave birth for him.”
99 The name Manasseh (מְנַשֶּׁה, ménasheh) describes God’s activity on behalf of Joseph, explaining in general the significance of his change of fortune. The name is a Piel participle, suggesting the meaning “he who brings about forgetfulness.” The Hebrew verb נַשַּׁנִי (nashani) may have been used instead of the normal נִשַּׁנִי (nishani) to provide a closer sound play with the name. The giving of this Hebrew name to his son shows that Joseph retained his heritage and faith; and it shows that a brighter future was in store for him.
100 The word “saying” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
101 Or “for.”
102 The name Ephraim (אֶפְרַיִם, ’efrayim), a form of the Hebrew verb פָּרָה (parah), means “to bear fruit.” The theme of fruitfulness is connected with this line of the family from Rachel (30:2) on down (see Gen 49:22, Deut 33:13–17, and Hos 13:15). But there is some difficulty with the name “Ephraim” itself. It appears to be a dual, for which F. Delitzsch simply said it meant “double fruitfulness” (New Commentary on Genesis, 2:305). G. J. Spurrell suggested it was a diphthongal pronunciation of a name ending in -an or -am, often thought to be dual suffixes (Notes on the text of the book of Genesis, 334). Many, however, simply connect the name to the territory of Ephraim and interpret it to be “fertile land” (C. Fontinoy, “Les noms de lieux en -ayim dans la Bible,” 3 [1971]: 33–40). The dual would then be an old locative ending. There is no doubt that the name became attached to the land in which the tribe settled, and it is possible that is where the dual ending came from, but in this story it refers to Joseph’s God-given fruitfulness.
103 The word “saying” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
104 Or “for.”
105 Heb “began to arrive.”
106 Heb “to all Egypt.” The name of the country is used by metonymy for the inhabitants.
107 Or “over the entire land”; Heb “over all the face of the earth.” The disjunctive clause is circumstantial-temporal to the next clause.
108 The reads “he opened all that was in [or “among”] them.” The translation follows the reading of the and versions.
109 Heb “all the earth,” which refers here (by metonymy) to the people of the earth. Note that the following verb is plural in form, indicating that the inhabitants of the earth are in view.