Genesis 41:48-57

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.

41:50 Two sons were born to Joseph before the famine came. ⁵  Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, was their mother. ⁶  41:51 Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, ⁷  saying, ⁸  “Certainly ⁹  God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s house.” 41:52 He named the second child Ephraim, ¹⁰  saying, ¹¹  “Certainly ¹²  God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”

41:53 The seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt came to an end. 41:54 Then the seven years of famine began, ¹³  just as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food. 41:55 When all the land of Egypt experienced the famine, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh said to all the people of Egypt, ¹⁴  “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.”

41:56 While the famine was over all the earth, ¹⁵  Joseph opened the storehouses ¹⁶  and sold grain to the Egyptians. The famine was severe throughout the land of Egypt. 41:57 People from every country ¹⁷  came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain because the famine was severe throughout the earth.

[41:48]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[41:48]  ² tn Heb “all the food.”

[41:48]  ³ tn Heb “of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt and placed food in the cities.”

[41:49]  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.

[41:50]  ⁵ tn Heb “before the year of the famine came.”

[41:50]  ⁶ tn Heb “gave birth for him.”

[41:51]  ⁷ sn The name Manasseh (מְנַשֶּׁה, mÿnasheh) describes God’s activity on behalf of Joseph, explaining in general the significance of his change of fortune. The name is a Piel participle, suggesting the meaning “he who brings about forgetfulness.” The Hebrew verb נַשַּׁנִי (nashani) may have been used instead of the normal נִשַּׁנִי (nishani) to provide a closer sound play with the name. The giving of this Hebrew name to his son shows that Joseph retained his heritage and faith; and it shows that a brighter future was in store for him.

[41:51]  ⁸ tn The word “saying” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[41:51]  ⁹ tn Or “for.”

[41:52]  ¹⁰ sn The name Ephraim (אֶפְרַיִם, ’efrayim), a form of the Hebrew verb פָּרָה (parah), means “to bear fruit.” The theme of fruitfulness is connected with this line of the family from Rachel (30:2) on down (see Gen 49:22, Deut 33:13-17, and Hos 13:15). But there is some difficulty with the name “Ephraim” itself. It appears to be a dual, for which F. Delitzsch simply said it meant “double fruitfulness” (New Commentary on Genesis, 2:305). G. J. Spurrell suggested it was a diphthongal pronunciation of a name ending in -an or -am, often thought to be dual suffixes (Notes on the text of the book of Genesis, 334). Many, however, simply connect the name to the territory of Ephraim and interpret it to be “fertile land” (C. Fontinoy, “Les noms de lieux en -ayim dans la Bible,” UF 3 [1971]: 33-40). The dual would then be an old locative ending. There is no doubt that the name became attached to the land in which the tribe settled, and it is possible that is where the dual ending came from, but in this story it refers to Joseph’s God-given fruitfulness.

[41:52]  ¹¹ tn The word “saying” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[41:52]  ¹² tn Or “for.”

[41:54]  ¹³ tn Heb “began to arrive.”

[41:55]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to all Egypt.” The name of the country is used by metonymy for the inhabitants.

[41:56]  ¹⁵ tn Or “over the entire land”; Heb “over all the face of the earth.” The disjunctive clause is circumstantial-temporal to the next clause.

[41:56]  ¹⁶ tc The MT reads “he opened all that was in [or “among”] them.” The translation follows the reading of the LXX and Syriac versions.

[41:57]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “all the earth,” which refers here (by metonymy) to the people of the earth. Note that the following verb is plural in form, indicating that the inhabitants of the earth are in view.