Genesis 45:5

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!

Genesis 49:6

49:6 O my soul, do not come into their council,

do not be united to their assembly, my heart, ³ 

for in their anger they have killed men,

and for pleasure they have hamstrung oxen.

[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.

[49:6]  ³ tn The Hebrew text reads “my glory,” but it is preferable to repoint the form and read “my liver.” The liver was sometimes viewed as the seat of the emotions and will (see HALOT 456 s.v. II כָּבֵד) for which the heart is the modern equivalent.