Genesis 45:5

45:5 Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, ¹  for God sent me ²  ahead of you to preserve life!

Genesis 45:7-8

45:7 God sent me ³  ahead of you to preserve you ⁴  on the earth and to save your lives ⁵  by a great deliverance. 45:8 So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser ⁶  to Pharaoh, lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Genesis 50:20

50:20 As for you, you meant to harm me, ⁷  but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. ⁸ 

¹ tn Heb “let there not be anger in your eyes.”

² sn You sold me here, for God sent me. The tension remains as to how the brothers’ wickedness and God’s intentions work together. Clearly God is able to transform the actions of wickedness to bring about some gracious end. But this is saying more than that; it is saying that from the beginning it was God who sent Joseph here. Although harmonization of these ideas remains humanly impossible, the divine intention is what should be the focus. Only that will enable reconciliation.

³ sn God sent me. The repetition of this theme that God sent Joseph is reminiscent of commission narratives in which the leader could announce that God sent him (e.g., Exod 3:15).

⁴ tn Heb “to make you a remnant.” The verb, followed here by the preposition לְ (lÿ), means “to make.”

⁵ tn The infinitive gives a second purpose for God’s action.

⁶ tn Heb “a father.” The term is used here figuratively of one who gives advice, as a father would to his children.

⁷ tn Heb “you devised against me evil.”

⁸ tn Heb “God devised it for good in order to do, like this day, to preserve alive a great nation.”