Discovery BoxGenesis 41:33-40 
Context41:33 “So now Pharaoh should look 1 for a wise and discerning man 2 and give him authority 3 over all the land of Egypt. 41:34 Pharaoh should do 4 this – he should appoint 5 officials 6 throughout the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt 7 during the seven years of abundance. 41:35 They should gather all the excess food 8 during these good years that are coming. By Pharaoh’s authority 9 they should store up grain so the cities will have food, 10 and they should preserve it. 11 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.” 12
41:37 This advice made sense to Pharaoh and all his officials. 13 41:38 So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find a man like Joseph, 14 one in whom the Spirit of God is present?” 15 41:39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has enabled you to know all this, there is no one as wise and discerning 16 as you are! 41:40 You will oversee my household, and all my people will submit to your commands. 17 Only I, the king, will be greater than you. 18
1 tn Heb “let Pharaoh look.” The jussive form expresses Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh.
2 tn Heb “a man discerning and wise.” The order of the terms is rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 tn Heb “and let him set him.”
4 tn The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. The Samaritan Pentateuch has a jussive form here, “and let [Pharaoh] do.”
5 tn Heb “and let him appoint.” The jussive form expresses Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh.
6 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.
7 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.
8 tn Heb “all the food.”
9 tn Heb “under the hand of Pharaoh.”
10 tn Heb “[for] food in the cities.” The noun translated “food” is an adverbial accusative in the sentence.
11 tn The perfect with vav (ו) consecutive carries the same force as the sequence of jussives before it.
12 tn Heb “and the land will not be cut off in the famine.”
13 tn Heb “and the matter was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants.”
14 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.
15 tn The rhetorical question expects the answer “No, of course not!”
16 tn Heb “as discerning and wise.” The order has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
17 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.
18 tn Heb “only the throne, I will be greater than you.”
