Genesis 41:48-49

41:48 Joseph ¹  collected all the excess food ²  in the land of Egypt during the seven years and stored it in the cities. ³  In every city he put the food gathered from the fields around it. 41:49 Joseph stored up a vast amount of grain, like the sand of the sea, ⁴  until he stopped measuring it because it was impossible to measure.

Genesis 41:56

41:56 While the famine was over all the earth, ⁵  Joseph opened the storehouses ⁶  and sold grain to the Egyptians. The famine was severe throughout the land of Egypt.

Genesis 45:6-7

45:6 For these past two years there has been famine in ⁷  the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 45:7 God sent me ⁸  ahead of you to preserve you ⁹  on the earth and to save your lives ¹⁰  by a great deliverance.

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “all the food.”

³ tn Heb “of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt and placed food in the cities.”

⁴ 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.

⁵ tn Or “over the entire land”; Heb “over all the face of the earth.” The disjunctive clause is circumstantial-temporal to the next clause.

⁶ tc The MT reads “he opened all that was in [or “among”] them.” The translation follows the reading of the LXX and Syriac versions.

⁷ tn Heb “the famine [has been] in the midst of.”

⁸ 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).

⁹ tn Heb “to make you a remnant.” The verb, followed here by the preposition לְ (lÿ), means “to make.”

¹⁰ tn The infinitive gives a second purpose for God’s action.