Genesis 45:4-8

45:4 Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me,” so they came near. Then he said, “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 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.

Isaiah 45:1-5

45:1 This is what the Lord says to his chosen ⁸  one,

to Cyrus, whose right hand I hold ⁹ 

in order to subdue nations before him,

and disarm kings, ¹⁰ 

to open doors before him,

so gates remain unclosed:

45:2 “I will go before you

and level mountains. ¹¹ 

Bronze doors I will shatter

and iron bars ¹²  I will hack through.

45:3 I will give you hidden treasures, ¹³ 

riches stashed away in secret places,

so you may recognize that I am the Lord,

the one who calls you by name, the God of Israel.

45:4 For the sake of my servant Jacob,

Israel, my chosen one,

I call you by name

and give you a title of respect, even though you do not recognize ¹⁴  me.

45:5 I am the Lord, I have no peer, ¹⁵ 

there is no God but me.

I arm you for battle, ¹⁶  even though you do not recognize ¹⁷  me.

Isaiah 49:23

49:23 Kings will be your children’s ¹⁸  guardians;

their princesses will nurse your children. ¹⁹ 

With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you

and they will lick the dirt on ²⁰  your feet.

Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;

those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.

Acts 7:20-25

7:20 At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful ²¹  to God. For ²²  three months he was brought up in his father’s house, 7:21 and when he had been abandoned, ²³  Pharaoh’s daughter adopted ²⁴  him and brought him up ²⁵  as her own son. 7:22 So Moses was trained ²⁶  in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful ²⁷  in his words and deeds. 7:23 But when he was about forty years old, it entered his mind ²⁸  to visit his fellow countrymen ²⁹  the Israelites. ³⁰  7:24 When ³¹  he saw one of them being hurt unfairly, ³²  Moses ³³  came to his defense ³⁴  and avenged the person who was mistreated by striking down the Egyptian. 7:25 He thought his own people ³⁵  would understand that God was delivering them ³⁶  through him, ³⁷  but they did not understand. ³⁸ 

[45:5]  ¹ tn Heb “let there not be anger in your eyes.”

[45:5]  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.

[45:6]  ³ tn Heb “the famine [has been] in the midst of.”

[45:7]  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).

[45:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “to make you a remnant.” The verb, followed here by the preposition לְ (lÿ), means “to make.”

[45:7]  ⁶ tn The infinitive gives a second purpose for God’s action.

[45:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “a father.” The term is used here figuratively of one who gives advice, as a father would to his children.

[45:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “anointed” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV “his appointed king.”

[45:1]  ⁹ sn The “right hand” is a symbol of activity and strength; the Lord directs Cyrus’ activities and assures his success.

[45:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the belts of kings I will loosen”; NRSV “strip kings of their robes”; NIV “strip kings of their armor.”

[45:2]  ¹¹ tc The form הֲדוּרִים (hadurim) makes little, if any, sense here. It is probably a corruption of an original הָרָרִים (hararim, “mountains”), the reduplicated form of הָר (har, “mountain”).

[45:2]  ¹² tn That is, on the gates. Cf. CEV “break the iron bars on bronze gates.”

[45:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “treasures of darkness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “treasures from dark, secret places.”

[45:4]  ¹⁴ tn Or “know” (NCV, NRSV, TEV, NLT); NIV “acknowledge.”

[45:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and there is none besides.” On the use of עוֹד (’od) here, see BDB 729 s.v. 1.c.

[45:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “gird you” (so NASB) or “strengthen you” (so NIV).

[45:5]  ¹⁷ tn Or “know” (NAB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT); NIV “have not acknowledged.”

[49:23]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).

[49:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.

[49:23]  ²⁰ tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”

[7:20]  ²¹ tn Or “was well-formed before God,” or “was well-pleasing to God” (BDAG 145 s.v. ἀστεῖος suggests the meaning is more like “well-bred” as far as God was concerned; see Exod 2:2).

[7:20]  ²² tn Grk “who was brought up for three months.” The continuation of the sentence as a relative clause is awkward in English, so a new sentence was started in the translation by changing the relative pronoun to a regular pronoun (“he”).

[7:21]  ²³ tn Or “exposed” (see v. 19).

[7:21]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Pharaoh’s daughter took him up for herself.” According to BDAG 64 s.v. ἀναιρέω, “The pap. exx. involve exposed children taken up and reared as slaves…The rendering ‘adopt’ lacks philological precision and can be used only in a loose sense (as NRSV), esp. when Gr-Rom. terminology relating to adoption procedures is taken into account.” In this instance both the immediate context and the OT account (Exod 2:3-10) do support the normal sense of the English word “adopt,” although it should not be understood to refer to a technical, legal event.

[7:21]  ²⁵ tn Or “and reared him” (BDAG 74 s.v. ἀνατρέφω b).

[7:22]  ²⁶ tn Or “instructed.”

[7:22]  ²⁷ tn Or “was able” (BDAG 264 s.v. δυνατός 1.b.α).

[7:23]  ²⁸ tn Grk “heart.”

[7:23]  ²⁹ tn Grk “brothers.” The translation “compatriot” is given by BDAG 18-19 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.b.

[7:23]  ³⁰ tn Grk “the sons of Israel.”

[7:24]  ³¹ tn Grk “And when.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:24]  ³² tn “Hurt unfairly” conveys a better sense of the seriousness of the offense against the Israelite than “treated unfairly,” which can sometimes refer to slight offenses, or “wronged,” which can refer to offenses that do not involve personal violence, as this one probably did.

[7:24]  ³³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:24]  ³⁴ tn Or “he defended,” “he retaliated” (BDAG 55 s.v. ἀμύνομαι).

[7:25]  ³⁵ tn Grk “his brothers.”

[7:25]  ³⁶ tn Grk “was granting them deliverance.” The narrator explains that this act pictured what Moses could do for his people.

[7:25]  ³⁷ tn Grk “by his hand,” where the hand is a metaphor for the entire person.

[7:25]  ³⁸ sn They did not understand. Here is the theme of the speech. The people did not understand what God was doing through those he chose. They made the same mistake with Joseph at first. See Acts 3:17; 13:27. There is good precedent for this kind of challenging review of history in the ancient scriptures: Ps 106:6-46; Ezek 20; and Neh 9:6-38.