Discovery BoxGenesis 37:25 
Context37:25 When they sat down to eat their food, they looked up 1 and saw 2 a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh down to Egypt. 3
Genesis 37:28
Context37:28 So when the Midianite 4 merchants passed by, Joseph’s brothers pulled 5 him 6 out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmaelites 7 then took Joseph to Egypt.
Genesis 39:1
Context39:1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. 8 An Egyptian named Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, 9 purchased him from 10 the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.
Genesis 40:5
Context40:5 Both of them, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, had a dream 11 the same night. 12 Each man’s dream had its own meaning. 13
Genesis 41:8
Context41:8 In the morning he 14 was troubled, so he called for 15 all the diviner-priests 16 of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, 17 but no one could interpret 18 them for him. 19
Genesis 41:19
Context41:19 Then 20 seven other cows came up after them; they were scrawny, very bad-looking, and lean. I had never seen such bad-looking cows 21 as these in all the land of Egypt!
Genesis 41:34
Context41:34 Pharaoh should do 22 this – he should appoint 23 officials 24 throughout the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt 25 during the seven years of abundance.
Genesis 41:36
Context41:36 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.” 26
Genesis 41:43
Context41:43 Pharaoh 27 had him ride in the chariot used by his second-in-command, 28 and they cried out before him, “Kneel down!” 29 So he placed him over all the land of Egypt.
Genesis 41:45
Context41:45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. 30 He also gave him Asenath 31 daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, 32 to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of 33 all the land of Egypt.
Genesis 41:48
Context41:48 Joseph 34 collected all the excess food 35 in the land of Egypt during the seven years and stored it in the cities. 36 In every city he put the food gathered from the fields around it.
Genesis 41:54
Context41:54 Then the seven years of famine began, 37 just as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food.
Genesis 45:8-9
Context45:8 So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser 38 to Pharaoh, lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 45:9 Now go up to my father quickly 39 and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not delay!
Genesis 45:18-19
Context45:18 Get your father and your households and come to me! Then I will give you 40 the best land in Egypt and you will eat 41 the best 42 of the land.’ 45:19 You are also commanded to say, 43 ‘Do this: Take for yourselves wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives. Bring your father and come.
Genesis 45:23
Context45:23 To his father he sent the following: 44 ten donkeys loaded with the best products of Egypt and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, food, and provisions for his father’s journey.
Genesis 46:3
Context46:3 He said, “I am God, 45 the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.
Genesis 46:26
Context46:26 All the direct descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt with him were sixty-six in number. (This number does not include the wives of Jacob’s sons.) 46
Genesis 47:11
Context47:11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers. He gave them territory 47 in the land of Egypt, in the best region of the land, the land of Rameses, 48 just as Pharaoh had commanded.
Genesis 47:13-15
Context47:13 But there was no food in all the land because the famine was very severe; the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan wasted away 49 because of the famine. 47:14 Joseph collected all the money that could be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan as payment 50 for the grain they were buying. Then Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s palace. 51 47:15 When the money from the lands of Egypt and Canaan was used up, all the Egyptians 52 came to Joseph and said, “Give us food! Why should we die 53 before your very eyes because our money has run out?”
Genesis 47:20
Context47:20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. Each 54 of the Egyptians sold his field, for the famine was severe. 55 So the land became Pharaoh’s.
Genesis 47:26
Context47:26 So Joseph made it a statute, 56 which is in effect 57 to this day throughout the land of Egypt: One-fifth belongs to Pharaoh. Only the land of the priests did not become Pharaoh’s.
Genesis 50:7
Context50:7 So Joseph went up to bury his father; all Pharaoh’s officials went with him – the senior courtiers 58 of his household, all the senior officials of the land of Egypt,
1 tn Heb “lifted up their eyes.”
2 tn Heb “and they saw and look.” By the use of וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and look”), the narrator invites the reader to see the event through the eyes of the brothers.
3 tn Heb “and their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh, going to go down to Egypt.”
4 sn On the close relationship between Ishmaelites (v. 25) and Midianites, see Judg 8:24.
5 tn Heb “they drew and they lifted up.” The referent (Joseph’s brothers) has been specified in the translation for clarity; otherwise the reader might assume the Midianites had pulled Joseph from the cistern (but cf. NAB).
6 tn Heb “Joseph” (both here and in the following clause); the proper name has been replaced both times by the pronoun “him” in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Ishmaelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8 tn The disjunctive clause resumes the earlier narrative pertaining to Joseph by recapitulating the event described in 37:36. The perfect verbal form is given a past perfect translation to restore the sequence of the narrative for the reader.
9 sn Captain of the guard. See the note on this phrase in Gen 37:36.
10 tn Heb “from the hand of.”
11 tn Heb “dreamed a dream.”
12 tn Heb “a man his dream in one night.”
13 tn Heb “a man according to the interpretation of his dream.”
14 tn Heb “his spirit.”
15 tn Heb “he sent and called,” which indicates an official summons.
16 tn The Hebrew term חַרְטֹם (khartom) is an Egyptian loanword (hyr-tp) that describes a class of priests who were skilled in such interpretations.
17 tn The Hebrew text has the singular (though the Samaritan Pentateuch reads the plural). If retained, the singular must be collective for the set of dreams. Note the plural pronoun “them,” referring to the dreams, in the next clause. However, note that in v. 15 Pharaoh uses the singular to refer to the two dreams. In vv. 17-24 Pharaoh seems to treat the dreams as two parts of one dream (see especially v. 22).
18 tn “there was no interpreter.”
19 tn Heb “for Pharaoh.” The pronoun “him” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
20 tn Heb “And look.”
21 tn The word “cows” is supplied here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
22 tn The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. The Samaritan Pentateuch has a jussive form here, “and let [Pharaoh] do.”
23 tn Heb “and let him appoint.” The jussive form expresses Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh.
24 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.
25 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.
26 tn Heb “and the land will not be cut off in the famine.”
27 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Pharaoh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
28 tn Heb “and he caused him to ride in the second chariot which was his.”
29 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).
30 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).
31 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.
32 sn On (also in v. 50) is another name for the city of Heliopolis.
33 tn Heb “and he passed through.”
34 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
35 tn Heb “all the food.”
36 tn Heb “of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt and placed food in the cities.”
37 tn Heb “began to arrive.”
38 tn Heb “a father.” The term is used here figuratively of one who gives advice, as a father would to his children.
39 tn Heb “hurry and go up.”
40 tn After the imperatives in vv. 17-18a, the cohortative with vav indicates result.
41 tn After the cohortative the imperative with vav states the ultimate goal.
42 tn Heb “fat.”
43 tn The words “to say” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
44 tn Heb “according to this.”
45 tn Heb “the God.”
46 tn Heb “All the people who went with Jacob to Egypt, the ones who came out of his body, apart from the wives of the sons of Jacob, all the people were sixty-six.”
sn The number sixty-six includes the seventy-one descendants (including Dinah) listed in vv. 8-25 minus Er and Onan (deceased), and Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim (already in Egypt).
47 tn Heb “a possession,” or “a holding.” Joseph gave them a plot of land with rights of ownership in the land of Goshen.
48 sn The land of Rameses is another designation for the region of Goshen. It is named Rameses because of a city in that region (Exod 1:11; 12:37). The use of this name may represent a modernization of the text for the understanding of the intended readers, substituting a later name for an earlier one. Alternatively, there may have been an earlier Rameses for which the region was named.
49 tn The verb לַהַה (lahah, = לָאָה, la’ah) means “to faint, to languish”; it figuratively describes the land as wasting away, drooping, being worn out.
50 tn Or “in exchange.” On the use of the preposition here see BDB 90 s.v. בְּ.
51 tn Heb “house.”
52 tn Heb “all Egypt.” The expression is a metonymy and refers to all the people of Egypt.
53 tn The imperfect verbal form has a deliberative force here.
54 tn The Hebrew text connects this clause with the preceding one with a causal particle (כִּי, ki). The translation divides the clauses into two sentences for stylistic reasons.
55 tn The Hebrew text adds “upon them.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
56 tn On the term translated “statute” see P. Victor, “A Note on Hoq in the Old Testament,” VT 16 (1966): 358-61.
57 tn The words “which is in effect” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
58 tn Or “dignitaries”; Heb “elders.”
