Kejadian 41:25-46

41:25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Both dreams of Pharaoh have the same meaning. ¹  God has revealed ²  to Pharaoh what he is about to do. ³  41:26 The seven good cows represent seven years, and the seven good heads of grain represent seven years. Both dreams have the same meaning. ⁴  41:27 The seven lean, bad-looking cows that came up after them represent seven years, as do the seven empty heads of grain burned with the east wind. They represent ⁵  seven years of famine. 41:28 This is just what I told ⁶  Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. 41:29 Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the whole land of Egypt. 41:30 But seven years of famine will occur ⁷  after them, and all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will devastate ⁸  the land. 41:31 The previous abundance of the land will not be remembered ⁹  because of the famine that follows, for the famine will be very severe. ¹⁰  41:32 The dream was repeated to Pharaoh ¹¹  because the matter has been decreed ¹²  by God, and God will make it happen soon. ¹³ 

41:33 “So now Pharaoh should look ¹⁴  for a wise and discerning man ¹⁵  and give him authority ¹⁶  over all the land of Egypt. 41:34 Pharaoh should do ¹⁷  this – he should appoint ¹⁸  officials ¹⁹  throughout the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt ²⁰  during the seven years of abundance. 41:35 They should gather all the excess food ²¹  during these good years that are coming. By Pharaoh’s authority ²²  they should store up grain so the cities will have food, ²³  and they should preserve it. ²⁴  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.” ²⁵ 

41:37 This advice made sense to Pharaoh and all his officials. ²⁶  41:38 So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find a man like Joseph, ²⁷  one in whom the Spirit of God is present?” ²⁸  41:39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has enabled you to know all this, there is no one as wise and discerning ²⁹  as you are! 41:40 You will oversee my household, and all my people will submit to your commands. ³⁰  Only I, the king, will be greater than you. ³¹ 

41:41 “See here,” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I place ³²  you in authority over all the land of Egypt.” ³³  41:42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his own hand and put it on Joseph’s. He clothed him with fine linen ³⁴  clothes and put a gold chain around his neck. 41:43 Pharaoh ³⁵  had him ride in the chariot used by his second-in-command, ³⁶  and they cried out before him, “Kneel down!” ³⁷  So he placed him over all the land of Egypt. 41:44 Pharaoh also said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, but without your permission ³⁸  no one ³⁹  will move his hand or his foot ⁴⁰  in all the land of Egypt.” 41:45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. ⁴¹  He also gave him Asenath ⁴²  daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, ⁴³  to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of ⁴⁴  all the land of Egypt.

41:46 Now Joseph was 30 years old ⁴⁵  when he began serving ⁴⁶  Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph was commissioned by ⁴⁷  Pharaoh and was in charge of ⁴⁸  all the land of Egypt.

[41:25]  ¹ tn Heb “the dream of Pharaoh is one.”

[41:25]  ² tn Heb “declared.”

[41:25]  ³ tn The active participle here indicates what is imminent.

[41:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “one dream it is.”

[41:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “are.” Another option is to translate, “There will be seven years of famine.”

[41:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “it is the word that I spoke.”

[41:30]  ⁷ tn The perfect with the vav consecutive continues the time frame of the preceding participle, which has an imminent future nuance here.

[41:30]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verb כָּלָה (kalah) in the Piel stem means “to finish, to destroy, to bring an end to.” The severity of the famine will ruin the land of Egypt.

[41:31]  ⁹ tn Heb “known.”

[41:31]  ¹⁰ tn Or “heavy.”

[41:32]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and concerning the repeating of the dream to Pharaoh two times.” The Niphal infinitive here is the object of the preposition; it is followed by the subjective genitive “of the dream.”

[41:32]  ¹² tn Heb “established.”

[41:32]  ¹³ tn The clause combines a participle and an infinitive construct: God “is hurrying…to do it,” meaning he is going to do it soon.

[41:33]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “let Pharaoh look.” The jussive form expresses Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh.

[41:33]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a man discerning and wise.” The order of the terms is rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[41:33]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and let him set him.”

[41:34]  ¹⁷ tn The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. The Samaritan Pentateuch has a jussive form here, “and let [Pharaoh] do.”

[41:34]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and let him appoint.” The jussive form expresses Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh.

[41:34]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “all the food.”

[41:35]  ²² tn Heb “under the hand of Pharaoh.”

[41:35]  ²³ tn Heb “[for] food in the cities.” The noun translated “food” is an adverbial accusative in the sentence.

[41:35]  ²⁴ tn The perfect with vav (ו) consecutive carries the same force as the sequence of jussives before it.

[41:36]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and the land will not be cut off in the famine.”

[41:37]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and the matter was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants.”

[41:38]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ tn The rhetorical question expects the answer “No, of course not!”

[41:39]  ²⁹ tn Heb “as discerning and wise.” The order has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[41:40]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ tn Heb “only the throne, I will be greater than you.”

[41:41]  ³² tn The translation assumes that the perfect verbal form is descriptive of a present action. Another option is to understand it as rhetorical, in which case Pharaoh describes a still future action as if it had already occurred in order to emphasize its certainty. In this case one could translate “I have placed” or “I will place.” The verb נָתַן (natan) is translated here as “to place in authority [over].”

[41:41]  ³³ sn Joseph became the grand vizier of the land of Egypt. See W. A. Ward, “The Egyptian Office of Joseph,” JSS 5 (1960): 144-50; and R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 129-31.

[41:42]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew word שֵׁשׁ (shesh) is an Egyptian loanword that describes the fine linen robes that Egyptian royalty wore. The clothing signified Joseph’s rank.

[41:43]  ³⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Pharaoh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[41:43]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and he caused him to ride in the second chariot which was his.”

[41:43]  ³⁷ tn The verb form appears to be a causative imperative from a verbal root meaning “to kneel.” It is a homonym of the word “bless” (identical in root letters but not related etymologically).

[41:44]  ³⁸ tn Heb “apart from you.”

[41:44]  ³⁹ tn Heb “no man,” but here “man” is generic, referring to people in general.

[41:44]  ⁴⁰ tn The idiom “lift up hand or foot” means “take any action” here.

[41:45]  ⁴¹ sn The meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name, Zaphenath-Paneah, is uncertain. Many recent commentators have followed the proposal of G. Steindorff that it means “the god has said, ‘he will live’” (“Der Name Josephs Saphenat-Pa‘neach,” ZÄS 31 [1889]: 41-42); others have suggested “the god speaks and lives” (see BDB 861 s.v. צָפְנָת פַּעְנֵחַ); “the man he knows” (J. Vergote, Joseph en Égypte, 145); or “Joseph [who is called] áIp-àankh” (K. A. Kitchen, NBD³ 1262).

[41:45]  ⁴² sn The name Asenath may mean “she belongs to the goddess Neit” (see HALOT 74 s.v. אָֽסְנַת). A novel was written at the beginning of the first century entitled Joseph and Asenath, which included a legendary account of the conversion of Asenath to Joseph’s faith in Yahweh. However, all that can be determined from this chapter is that their children received Hebrew names. See also V. Aptowitzer, “Asenath, the Wife of Joseph – a Haggadic Literary-Historical Study,” HUCA 1 (1924): 239-306.

[41:45]  ⁴³ sn On (also in v. 50) is another name for the city of Heliopolis.

[41:45]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and he passed through.”

[41:46]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “a son of thirty years.”

[41:46]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “when he stood before.”

[41:46]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “went out from before.”

[41:46]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and he passed through all the land of Egypt”; this phrase is interpreted by JPS to mean that Joseph “emerged in charge of the whole land.”