Genesis 42:1

Joseph’s Brothers in Egypt

42:1 When Jacob heard ¹  there was grain in Egypt, he ²  said to his sons, “Why are you looking at each other?” ³ 

Genesis 42:5

42:5 So Israel’s sons came to buy grain among the other travelers, ⁴  for the famine was severe in the land of Canaan.

Genesis 50:20

50:20 As for you, you meant to harm me, ⁵  but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 9:28

9:28 Otherwise the people of the land ⁷  from which you brought us will say, “The Lord was unable to bring them to the land he promised them, and because of his hatred for them he has brought them out to kill them in the desert.” ⁸ 

Psalms 105:16-17

105:16 He called down a famine upon the earth;

he cut off all the food supply. ⁹ 

105:17 He sent a man ahead of them ¹⁰  –

Joseph was sold as a servant.

¹ tn Heb “saw.”

² tn Heb “Jacob.” Here the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³ sn Why are you looking at each other? The point of Jacob’s question is that his sons should be going to get grain rather than sitting around doing nothing. Jacob, as the patriarch, still makes the decisions for the whole clan.

⁴ tn Heb “in the midst of the coming ones.”

⁵ tn Heb “you devised against me evil.”

⁶ tn Heb “God devised it for good in order to do, like this day, to preserve alive a great nation.”

⁷ tc The MT reads only “the land.” Smr supplies עַם (’am, “people”) and LXX and its dependents supply “the inhabitants of the land.” The truncated form found in the MT is adequate to communicate the intended meaning; the words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV, NLT).

⁹ tn Heb “and every staff of food he broke.” The psalmist refers to the famine that occurred in Joseph’s time (see v. 17 and Gen 41:53-57).

¹⁰ tn After the reference to the famine in v. 16, v. 17 flashes back to events that preceded the famine (see Gen 37).