Discovery BoxGenesis 12:11 
Context12:11 As he approached 1 Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, 2 I know that you are a beautiful woman. 3
Genesis 21:21
Context21:21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran. 4 His mother found a wife for him from the land of Egypt. 5
Genesis 37:36
Context37:36 Now 6 in Egypt the Midianites 7 sold Joseph 8 to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard. 9
Genesis 41:41
Context41:41 “See here,” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I place 10 you in authority over all the land of Egypt.” 11
Genesis 41:57--42:1
Context41:57 People from every country 12 came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain because the famine was severe throughout the earth.
42:1 When Jacob heard 13 there was grain in Egypt, he 14 said to his sons, “Why are you looking at each other?” 15
Genesis 45:20
Context45:20 Don’t worry 16 about your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt will be yours.’”
Genesis 45:25
Context45:25 So they went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. 17
Genesis 46:7
Context46:7 He brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons, 18 his daughters and granddaughters – all his descendants.
Genesis 47:21
Context47:21 Joseph 19 made all the people slaves 20 from one end of Egypt’s border to the other end of it.
Genesis 47:28
Context47:28 Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; the years 21 of Jacob’s life were 147 in all.
1 tn Heb “drew near to enter.”
2 tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) is deictic here; it draws attention to the following fact.
3 tn Heb “a woman beautiful of appearance are you.”
4 sn The wilderness of Paran is an area in the east central region of the Sinai peninsula, northeast from the traditional site of Mt. Sinai and with the Arabah and the Gulf of Aqaba as its eastern border.
5 tn Heb “And his mother took for him a wife from the land of Egypt.”
6 tn The disjunctive clause formally signals closure for this episode of Joseph’s story, which will be resumed in Gen 39.
7 tc The MT spells the name of the merchants as מְדָנִים (mÿdanim, “Medanites”) rather than מִדְיָנִים (midyanim, “Midianites”) as in v. 28. It is likely that the MT is corrupt at this point, with the letter yod (י) being accidentally omitted. The LXX, Vulgate, Samaritan Pentateuch, and Syriac read “Midianites” here. Some prefer to read “Medanites” both here and in v. 28, but Judg 8:24, which identifies the Midianites and Ishmaelites, favors the reading “Midianites.”
8 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 sn The expression captain of the guard might indicate that Potiphar was the chief executioner.
10 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].”
11 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.
12 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.
13 tn Heb “saw.”
14 tn Heb “Jacob.” Here the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
15 sn Why are you looking at each other? The point of Jacob’s question is that his sons should be going to get grain rather than sitting around doing nothing. Jacob, as the patriarch, still makes the decisions for the whole clan.
16 tn Heb “let not your eye regard.”
17 tn Heb “and they entered the land of Canaan to their father.”
18 tn The Hebrew text adds “with him” here. This is omitted in the translation because it is redundant in English style (note the same phrase earlier in the verse).
19 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
20 tc The MT reads “and the people he removed to the cities,” which does not make a lot of sense in this context. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the LXX read “he enslaved them as slaves.”
21 tn Heb “the days of the years.”
