Genesis 41:33-40

41:33 “So now Pharaoh should look ¹  for a wise and discerning man ²  and give him authority ³  over all the land of Egypt. 41:34 Pharaoh should do ⁴  this – he should appoint ⁵  officials ⁶  throughout the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt ⁷  during the seven years of abundance. 41:35 They should gather all the excess food ⁸  during these good years that are coming. By Pharaoh’s authority ⁹  they should store up grain so the cities will have food, ¹⁰  and they should preserve it. ¹¹  41:36 This food should be held in storage for the land in preparation for the seven years of famine that will occur throughout the land of Egypt. In this way the land will survive the famine.” ¹² 

41:37 This advice made sense to Pharaoh and all his officials. ¹³  41:38 So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find a man like Joseph, ¹⁴  one in whom the Spirit of God is present?” ¹⁵  41:39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has enabled you to know all this, there is no one as wise and discerning ¹⁶  as you are! 41:40 You will oversee my household, and all my people will submit to your commands. ¹⁷  Only I, the king, will be greater than you. ¹⁸ 

Genesis 41:1

Joseph’s Rise to Power

41:1 At the end of two full years ¹⁹  Pharaoh had a dream. ²⁰  As he was standing by the Nile,

Genesis 7:3-6

7:3 and also seven ²¹  of every kind of bird in the sky, male and female, ²²  to preserve their offspring ²³  on the face of the earth. 7:4 For in seven days ²⁴  I will cause it to rain ²⁵  on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the ground every living thing that I have made.”

7:5 And Noah did all ²⁶  that the Lord commanded him.

7:6 Noah ²⁷  was 600 years old when the floodwaters engulfed ²⁸  the earth.

Proverbs 28:23

28:23 The one who reproves ²⁹  another ³⁰  will in the end ³¹  find more favor

than the one who flatters ³²  with the tongue.

Isaiah 42:2

42:2 He will not cry out or shout;

he will not publicize himself in the streets. ³³ 

Isaiah 42:4

42:4 He will not grow dim or be crushed ³⁴ 

before establishing justice on the earth;

the coastlands ³⁵  will wait in anticipation for his decrees.” ³⁶ 

James 1:20

1:20 For human ³⁷  anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. ³⁸ 

James 3:17-18

3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, accommodating, ³⁹  full of mercy and good fruit, ⁴⁰  impartial, and not hypocritical. ⁴¹  3:18 And the fruit that consists of righteousness ⁴²  is planted ⁴³  in peace among ⁴⁴  those who make peace.

[41:33]  ¹ tn Heb “let Pharaoh look.” The jussive form expresses Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh.

[41:33]  ² tn Heb “a man discerning and wise.” The order of the terms is rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[41:33]  ³ tn Heb “and let him set him.”

[41:34]  ⁴ tn The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. The Samaritan Pentateuch has a jussive form here, “and let [Pharaoh] do.”

[41:34]  ⁵ tn Heb “and let him appoint.” The jussive form expresses Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh.

[41:34]  ⁶ tn Heb “appointees.” The noun is a cognate accusative of the preceding verb. Since “appoint appointees” would be redundant in English, the term “officials” was used in the translation instead.

[41:34]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he shall collect a fifth of the land of Egypt.” The language is figurative (metonymy); it means what the land produces, i.e., the harvest.

[41:35]  ⁸ tn Heb “all the food.”

[41:35]  ⁹ tn Heb “under the hand of Pharaoh.”

[41:35]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[for] food in the cities.” The noun translated “food” is an adverbial accusative in the sentence.

[41:35]  ¹¹ tn The perfect with vav (ו) consecutive carries the same force as the sequence of jussives before it.

[41:36]  ¹² tn Heb “and the land will not be cut off in the famine.”

[41:37]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the matter was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants.”

[41:38]  ¹⁴ tn 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.

[41:38]  ¹⁵ tn The rhetorical question expects the answer “No, of course not!”

[41:39]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “as discerning and wise.” The order has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[41:40]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and at your mouth (i.e., instructions) all my people will kiss.” G. J. Wenham translates this “shall kowtow to your instruction” (Genesis [WBC], 2:395). 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,” ExpTim 69 (1957): 30; D. S. Sperling, “Genesis 41:40: A New Interpretation,” JANESCU 10 (1978): 113-19.

[41:40]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “only the throne, I will be greater than you.”

[41:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “two years, days.”

[41:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “was dreaming.”

[7:3]  ²¹ tn Or “seven pairs” (cf. NRSV).

[7:3]  ²² tn Here (and in v. 9) the Hebrew text uses the normal generic terms for “male and female” (זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה, zakhar unÿqevah).

[7:3]  ²³ tn Heb “to keep alive offspring.”

[7:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “for seven days yet,” meaning “after [or “in”] seven days.”

[7:4]  ²⁵ tn The Hiphil participle מַמְטִיר (mamtir, “cause to rain”) here expresses the certainty of the act in the imminent future.

[7:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “according to all.”

[7:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Now Noah was.” The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + predicate nominative after implied “to be” verb) provides background information. The age of Noah receives prominence.

[7:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and the flood was water upon.” The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) is circumstantial/temporal in relation to the preceding clause. The verb הָיָה (hayah) here carries the nuance “to come” (BDB 225 s.v. הָיָה). In this context the phrase “come upon” means “to engulf.”

[28:23]  ²⁹ tn Or “rebukes” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:23]  ³⁰ tn Heb “a man,” but the context does not indicate this should be limited only to males.

[28:23]  ³¹ tn There is a problem with אַחֲרַי (’akharay), which in the MT reads “after me.” This could be taken to mean “after my instructions,” but that is forced. C. H. Toy suggests simply changing it to “after” or “afterward,” i.e., “in the end” (Proverbs [ICC], 504), a solution most English versions adopt. G. R. Driver suggested an Akkadian cognate ahurru, “common man,” reading “as a rebuker an ordinary man” (“Hebrew Notes,” ZAW 52 [1934]: 147).

[28:23]  ³² tn The construction uses the Hiphil participle מַחֲלִיק (makhaliq, “makes smooth”) followed by the adverbial accusative of means, the metonymy “tongue” – he makes what he says smooth. This will be pleasing for the moment, but it will offer no constructive help like the rebuke would.

[42:2]  ³³ tn Heb “he will not cause his voice to be heard in the street.”

[42:4]  ³⁴ tn For rhetorical effect the terms used to describe the “crushed (רָצַץ, ratsats) reed” and “dim (כָּהָה, kahah) wick” in v. 3 are repeated here.

[42:4]  ³⁵ tn Or “islands” (NIV); NLT “distant lands beyond the sea.”

[42:4]  ³⁶ tn Or “his law” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV) or “his instruction” (NLT).

[1:20]  ³⁷ tn The word translated “human” here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But it sometimes is used generically to mean “anyone,” “a person” (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 2), and in this context, contrasted with “God’s righteousness,” the point is “human” anger (not exclusively “male” anger).

[1:20]  ³⁸ sn God’s righteousness could refer to (1) God’s righteous standard, (2) the righteousness God gives, (3) righteousness before God, or (4) God’s eschatological righteousness (see P. H. Davids, James [NIGTC], 93, for discussion).

[3:17]  ³⁹ tn Or “willing to yield,” “open to persuasion.”

[3:17]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “fruits.” The plural Greek term καρπούς has been translated with the collective singular “fruit.”

[3:17]  ⁴¹ tn Or “sincere.”

[3:18]  ⁴² tn Grk “the fruit of righteousness,” meaning righteous living as a fruit, as the thing produced.

[3:18]  ⁴³ tn Grk “is sown.”

[3:18]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “for,” or possibly “by.”