Discovery BoxGenesis 42:15 
Context42:15 You will be tested in this way: As surely as Pharaoh lives, 1 you will not depart from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
Genesis 45:7
Context45:7 God sent me 2 ahead of you to preserve you 3 on the earth and to save your lives 4 by a great deliverance.
1 tn Heb “[By] the life of Pharaoh.”
sn As surely as Pharaoh lives. Joseph uses an oath formula to let the brothers know the certainty of what he said. There is some discussion in the commentaries on swearing by the life of Pharaoh, but since the formulation here reflects the Hebrew practice, it would be hard to connect the ideas exactly to Egyptian practices. Joseph did this to make the point in a way that his Hebrew brothers would understand. See M. R. Lehmann, “Biblical Oaths,” ZAW 81 (1969): 74-92.
2 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).
3 tn Heb “to make you a remnant.” The verb, followed here by the preposition לְ (lÿ), means “to make.”
4 tn The infinitive gives a second purpose for God’s action.
