Genesis 33:3

33:3 But Jacob ¹  himself went on ahead of them, and he bowed toward the ground seven times as he approached ²  his brother.

Genesis 45:5

45:5 Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, ³  for God sent me ⁴  ahead of you to preserve life!

Genesis 45:7

45:7 God sent me ⁵  ahead of you to preserve you ⁶  on the earth and to save your lives ⁷  by a great deliverance.

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¹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “until his drawing near unto his brother.” The construction uses the preposition with the infinitive construct to express a temporal clause.

³ tn Heb “let there not be anger in your eyes.”

⁴ 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.

⁵ sn God sent me. The repetition of this theme that God sent Joseph is reminiscent of commission narratives in which the leader could announce that God sent him (e.g., Exod 3:15).

⁶ tn Heb “to make you a remnant.” The verb, followed here by the preposition לְ (lÿ), means “to make.”

⁷ tn The infinitive gives a second purpose for God’s action.