Genesis 45:5-8

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! 45:6 For these past two years there has been famine in ³  the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 45:7 God sent me ⁴  ahead of you to preserve you ⁵  on the earth and to save your lives ⁶  by a great deliverance. 45:8 So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser ⁷  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, ⁸  but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. ⁹ 

Psalms 76:10

76:10 Certainly ¹⁰  your angry judgment upon men will bring you praise; ¹¹ 

you reveal your anger in full measure. ¹² 

Isaiah 20:6

20:6 At that time ¹³  those who live on this coast ¹⁴  will say, ‘Look what has happened to our source of hope to whom we fled for help, expecting to be rescued from the king of Assyria! How can we escape now?’”

Acts 4:28

4:28 to do as much as your power ¹⁵  and your plan ¹⁶  had decided beforehand ¹⁷  would happen.

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 tn Heb “the famine [has been] in the midst of.”

⁴ 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).

⁵ tn Heb “to make you a remnant.” The verb, followed here by the preposition לְ (lÿ), means “to make.”

⁶ tn The infinitive gives a second purpose for God’s action.

⁷ tn Heb “a father.” The term is used here figuratively of one who gives advice, as a father would to his children.

⁸ tn Heb “you devised against me evil.”

⁹ tn Heb “God devised it for good in order to do, like this day, to preserve alive a great nation.”

¹⁰ tn Or “for.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the anger of men will praise you.” This could mean that men’s anger (subjective genitive), when punished by God, will bring him praise, but this interpretation does not harmonize well with the next line. The translation assumes that God’s anger is in view here (see v. 7) and that “men” is an objective genitive. God’s angry judgment against men brings him praise because it reveals his power and majesty (see vv. 1-4).

¹² tn Heb “the rest of anger you put on.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear. Perhaps the idea is that God, as he prepares for battle, girds himself with every last ounce of his anger, as if it were a weapon.

¹³ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV).

¹⁴ sn This probably refers to the coastal region of Philistia (cf. TEV).

¹⁵ tn Grk “hand,” here a metaphor for God’s strength or power or authority.

¹⁶ tn Or “purpose,” “will.”

¹⁷ tn Or “had predestined.” Since the term “predestine” is something of a technical theological term, not in wide usage in contemporary English, the translation “decide beforehand” was used instead (see L&N 30.84). God’s direction remains as the major theme.