27:37 Isaac replied to Esau, “Look! I have made him lord over you. I have made all his relatives his servants and provided him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?”
40:20 On the third day it was Pharaoh’s birthday, so he gave a feast for all his servants. He “lifted up” 8 the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker in the midst of his servants.
42:6 Now Joseph was the ruler of the country, the one who sold grain to all the people of the country. 9 Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down 10 before him with 11 their faces to the ground.
1 tn Heb “the son of his brother.”
2 tn For the semantic nuance “acquire [property]” for the verb עָשָׂה (’asah), see BDB 795 s.v. עָשָׂה.
3 tn Heb “went out to go.”
4 tn This is the same Hebrew word translated “ground” in the preceding verse.
5 tn The verb is singular in the Hebrew; Jacob is addressed as the representative of his descendants.
6 tn Theoretically the Niphal stem can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Jacob were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in other formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless (i.e., pronounce blessings upon) themselves/one another.” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 28:14 predicts that Jacob will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae (see Gen 12:2 and 18:18 as well, where Abram/Abraham receives this promise). For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.
7 tn Heb “and they will pronounce blessings by you, all the families of the earth, and by your offspring.”
8 tn The translation puts the verb in quotation marks because it is used rhetorically here and has a double meaning. With respect to the cup bearer it means “reinstate” (see v. 13), but with respect to the baker it means “decapitate” (see v. 19).
9 tn The disjunctive clause either introduces a new episode in the unfolding drama or provides the reader with supplemental information necessary to understanding the story.
10 sn Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down before him. Here is the beginning of the fulfillment of Joseph’s dreams (see Gen 37). But it is not the complete fulfillment, since all his brothers and his parents must come. The point of the dream, of course, was not simply to get the family to bow to Joseph, but that Joseph would be placed in a position of rule and authority to save the family and the world (41:57).
11 tn The word “faces” is an adverbial accusative, so the preposition has been supplied in the translation.
12 tn Heb “all Egypt.” The expression is a metonymy and refers to all the people of Egypt.
13 tn The imperfect verbal form has a deliberative force here.