Genesis 50:19

Easy-to-Read Version

Then Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. I am not God! I have no right to punish you.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Yosef said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I in the place of God?

King James Version
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?

Lexham English Bible
Then Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?

New Century Version
Then Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Can I do what only God can do?

New English Translation
But Joseph answered them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

Amplified Bible
But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? [Vengeance is His, not mine.]

New American Standard Bible
But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place?

Geneva Bible (1587)
To whome Ioseph sayde, Feare not: for am not I vnder God?

Legacy Standard Bible
But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place?

Contemporary English Version
But Joseph told them, "Don't be afraid! I have no right to change what God has decided.

Complete Jewish Bible
But Yosef said to them, "Don't be afraid! Am I in the place of God?

Darby Translation
And Joseph said to them, Fear not: am I then in the place of God?

English Standard Version
But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?

George Lamsa Translation
But Joseph said to them, Fear not; for I am a servant of God.

Good News Translation
But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid; I can't put myself in the place of God.

Christian Standard Bible®
But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

Literal Translation
And Joseph said to them, Do not fear. For am I in the place of God?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ioseph sayde vnto the: Feare ye not, for I am vnder God.

American Standard Version
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?

Bible in Basic English
And Joseph said, Have no fear: am I in the place of God?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
To whom Ioseph sayde: Feare not, am I God?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And Joseph said unto them: 'Fear not; for am I in the place of God?

King James Version (1611)
And Ioseph saide vnto them, Feare not: for am I in the place of God?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And Joseph said to them, Fear not, for I am God’s.

English Revised Version
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?

Berean Standard Bible
But Joseph replied, "Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
To whiche he answeride, Nyle ye drede; whether we moun ayenstonde Goddis wille?

Young's Literal Translation
And Joseph saith unto them, `Fear not, for [am] I in the place of God?

Update Bible Version
And Joseph said to them, Don't be afraid: for am I in the place of God?

Webster's Bible Translation
And Joseph said to them, Fear not: for [am] I in the place of God?

World English Bible
Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I in the place of God?

New King James Version
Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?

New Living Translation
But Joseph replied, "Don't be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you?

New Life Bible
But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

New Revised Standard
But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And Joseph said unto them - Do not fear, - although in place of God, I am.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he answered them: Fear not: can we resist the will of God?

Revised Standard Version
But Joseph said to them, "Fear not, for am I in the place of God?

THE MESSAGE
Joseph replied, "Don't be afraid. Do I act for God? Don't you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now—life for many people. Easy now, you have nothing to fear; I'll take care of you and your children." He reassured them, speaking with them heart-to-heart.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place?

Contextual Overview

¹⁵ After Jacob died, Joseph's brothers were worried. They were afraid that Joseph would still be mad at them for what they had done years before. They said, "Maybe Joseph still hates us for what we did." ¹⁶ So the brothers sent this message to Joseph: "Before your father died, he told us to give you a message. ¹⁷ He said, ‘Tell Joseph that I beg him to please forgive his brothers for the bad things they did to him.' So now Joseph, we beg you, please forgive us for the bad things we did to you. We are the servants of God, the God of your father." That message made Joseph very sad, and he cried. ¹⁸ His brothers went to him and bowed down in front of him. They said, "We will be your servants." ¹⁹ Then Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. I am not God! I have no right to punish you. ²⁰ It is true that you planned to do something bad to me. But really, God was planning good things. God's plan was to use me to save the lives of many people. And that is what happened. ²¹ So don't be afraid. I will take care of you and your children." And so Joseph said kind things to his brothers, and this made them feel better.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

fear not: Genesis 45:5, Matthew 14:27, Luke 24:37, Luke 24:38

for am I: It belongs to God to execute vengeance, and Joseph did not intend to usurp his prerogative. Thus he instructed his brethren not to fear him, but to fear God; to humble themselves before God, and to seek his forgiveness. Genesis 30:2, Deuteronomy 32:35, 2 Kings 5:7, Job 34:19-29, Romans 12:19, Hebrews 10:30

Cross-References

Genesis 30:2
Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, "I am not God. He is the one who has caused you to not have children."

Genesis 45:5
Now don't be worried. Don't be angry with yourselves for what you did. It was God's plan for me to come here. I am here to save people's lives.

Genesis 50:19
Then Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. I am not God! I have no right to punish you.

Deuteronomy 32:35
I will punish them for the bad things they did. But I am saving that punishment for when they slip and do bad things. Their time of trouble is near. Their punishment will come quickly.'

2 Kings 5:7
When the king of Israel had read the letter, he tore his clothes to show he was sad and upset. He said, "Am I God? I don't have the power over life and death. So why did the king of Aram send a man sick with leprosy for me to heal? Think about it, and you will see that it is a trick. The king of Aram is trying to start a fight."

Matthew 14:27
But Jesus quickly spoke to them. He said, "Don't worry! It's me! Don't be afraid."

Romans 12:19
My friends, don't try to punish anyone who does wrong to you. Wait for God to punish them with his anger. In the Scriptures the Lord says, "I am the one who punishes; I will pay people back."

Hebrews 10:30
We know that God said, "I will punish people for the wrongs they do; I will repay them." And he also said, "The Lord will judge his people."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Joseph said unto them, fear not,.... That any hurt would be done by him to them, or that he would use them ill for their treatment of him:

for am I in the place of God? to receive such homage from you, that you should be my servants, as Saadiah Gaon gives the sense; or rather to take vengeance for injury done, which belongs to God alone: or, "am I not under God" u? subject to him, a servant of his, and why should you be mine? nor is it in my power, if I had a will to it, to change his purposes, to alter his providences, or contradict his will, and do hurt to those whom God hath blessed; and so may have regard to the late patriarchal benediction of his father, under the direction of the Holy Spirit: or, "am I in the place of God?" and under him a father of them, as he had been a provider for them, and a supporter of them, and still would be.

u התחת אלהים אני "annon enim sub Deo sum?" Vatablus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

- The Burial of Jacob

10. אטד 'āṭâd Atad, “the buck-thorn.”

11. מצרים אבל 'ābêl-mı̂tsrayı̂m, Abel-Mitsraim, “mourning of Mizraim,” or meadow of Mizraim.

This chapter records the burial of Jacob and the death of Joseph, and so completes the history of the chosen family, and the third bible for the instruction of man.

Genesis 50:1-3

After the natural outburst of sorrow for his deceased parent, Joseph gave orders to embalm the body, according to the custom of Egypt. “His servants, the physicians.” As the grand vizier of Egypt, he has physicians in his retinue. The classes and functions of the physicians in Egypt may be learned from Herodotus (ii. 81-86). There were special physicians for each disease; and the embalmers formed a class by themselves. “Forty days” were employed in the process of embalming; “seventy days,” including the forty, were devoted to mourning for the dead. Herodotus mentions this number as the period of embalming. Diodorus (i. 91) assigns upwards of thirty days to the process. It is probable that the actual process was continued for forty days, and that the body lay in natron for the remaining thirty days of mourning. See Hengstenberg’s B. B. Mos. u. Aeg., and Rawlinson’s Herodotus.

Genesis 50:4-6

Joseph, by means of Pharaoh’s courtiers, not in person, because he was a mourner, applies for leave to bury his father in the land of Kenaan, according to his oath. This leave is freely and fully allowed.

Genesis 50:7-14

The funeral procession is now described. “All the servants of Pharaoh.” The highest honor is conferred on Jacob for Joseph’s sake. “The elders of Pharaoh, and all the elders of the land of Mizraim.” The court and state officials are here separately specified. “All the house.” Not only the heads, but all the sons and servants that are able to go. Chariots and horsemen accompany them as a guard on the way. “The threshing-floor of Atari, or of the buck-thorn.” This is said to be beyond Jordan. Deterred, probably, by some difficulty in the direct route, they seem to have gone round by the east side of the Salt Sea. “A mourning of seven days.” This is a last sad farewell to the departed patriarch. Abel-Mizraim. This name, like many in the East, has a double meaning. The word Abel no doubt at first meant mourning, though the name would be used by many, ignorant of its origin, in the sense of a meadow. “His sons carried him.” The main body of the procession seems to have halted beyond the Jordan, and awaited the return of the immediate relatives, who conveyed the body to its last resting-place. The whole company then returned together to Egypt.

Genesis 50:15-21

His brethren supplicate Joseph for forgiveness. “They sent unto Joseph,” commissioned one of their number to speak to him. now that our common father has given us this command. “And Joseph wept” at the distress and doubt of his brothers. He no doubt summons them before him, when they fall down before him entreating his forgiveness. Joseph removes their fears. “Am I in God’s stead?” that I should take the law into my own hands, and take revenge. God has already judged them, and moreover turned their sinful deed into a blessing. He assures them of his brotherly kindness toward them.

Genesis 50:22-26

The biography of Joseph is now completed. “The children of the third generation” - the grandsons of grandsons in the line of Ephraim. We have here an explicit proof that an interval of about twenty years between the births of the father and that of his first-born was not unusual during the lifetime of Joseph. “And Joseph took an oath.” He thus expressed his unwavering confidence in the return of the sons of Israel to the land of promise. “God will surely visit.” He was embalmed and put in a coffin, and so kept by his descendants, as was not unusual in Egypt. And on the return of the sons of Israel from Egypt they kept their oath to Joseph Exodus 13:19, and buried his bones in Shekem Joshua 24:32.

The sacred writer here takes leave of the chosen family, and closes the bible of the sons of Israel. It is truly a wonderful book. It lifts the veil of mystery that hangs over the present condition of the human race. It records the origin and fall of man, and thus explains the co-existence of moral evil and a moral sense, and the hereditary memory of God and judgment in the soul of man. It records the cause and mode of the confusion of tongues, and thus explains the concomitance of the unity of the race and the specific diversity of mode or form in human speech. It records the call of Abraham, and thus accounts for the preservation of the knowledge of God and his mercy in one section of the human race, and the corruption or loss of it in all the rest. We need scarcely remark that the six days’ creation accounts for the present state of nature. It thus solves the fundamental questions of physics, ethics, philology, and theology for the race of Adam. It notes the primitive relation of man to God, and marks the three great stages of human development that came in with Adam, Noah, and Abraham. It points out the three forms of sin that usher in these stages - the fall of Adam, the intermarriage of the sons of God with the daughters of men, and the building of the tower of Babel. It gradually unfolds the purpose and method of grace to the returning penitent through a Deliverer who is successively announced as the seed of the woman, of Shem, of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. This is the second Adam, who, when the covenant of works was about to fall to the ground through the failure of the first Adam, undertook to uphold it by fulfilling all its conditions on behalf of those who are the objects of the divine grace.

Hence, the Lord establishes his covenant successively with Adam, Noah, and Abraham; with Adam after the fall tacitly, with Noah expressly, and with both generally as the representatives of the race descending from them; with Abraham especially and instrumentally as the channel through which the blessings of salvation might be at length extended to all the families of the earth. So much of this plan of mercy is revealed from time to time to the human race as comports with the progress they have made in the education of the intellectual, moral, and active faculties. This only authentic epitome of primeval history is worthy of the constant study of intelligent and responsible man.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Genesis 50:19. Am I in the place of God? — These words may be understood either as a question, or an affirmative proposition. How should I take any farther notice of your transgression? I have passed it by, the matter lies now between God and you. Or, in the order of Divine providence I am now in God's place; he has furnished me with means, and made me a distributor of his bounty; I will therefore not only nourish you, but also your little ones, Genesis 50:21: and therefore he spake comfortably unto them, as in Genesis 45:8, telling them that he attributed the whole business to the particular providence of God rather than to any ill will or malice in them, and that, in permitting him to be brought into Egypt, God had graciously saved their lives, the life of their father, the lives of the people of Canaan, and of the Egyptians: as therefore God had honoured him by making him vicegerent in the dispensations of his especial bounty towards so many people, it was impossible he should be displeased with the means by which this was brought about.