Genesis 41:33-37

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 

[41:33]  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.”