Genesis 45:7

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the eretz, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.

King James Version
And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Lexham English Bible
And God sent me before you all to preserve for you a remnant in the land and to keep alive among you many survivors.

New Century Version
So God sent me here ahead of you to make sure you have some descendants left on earth and to keep you alive in an amazing way.

New English Translation
God sent me ahead of you to preserve you on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Amplified Bible
"God sent me [to Egypt] ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on the earth, and to keep you alive by a great escape.

New American Standard Bible
"So God sent me ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Wherefore God sent me before you to preserue your posteritie in this land, & to saue you aliue by a great deliuerance.

Legacy Standard Bible
So God sent me before you to establish for you a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive for a great remnant of survivors.

Contemporary English Version
But God sent me on ahead of you to keep your families alive and to save you in this wonderful way.

Complete Jewish Bible
God sent me ahead of you to ensure that you will have descendants on earth and to save your lives in a great deliverance.

Darby Translation
So God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.

Easy-to-Read Version
So God sent me here ahead of you so that I can save your people in this country.

English Standard Version
And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.

George Lamsa Translation
And God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant on the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Good News Translation
God sent me ahead of you to rescue you in this amazing way and to make sure that you and your descendants survive.

Christian Standard Bible®
God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.

Literal Translation
And God sent me before you to put a remnant in the land for you, and to keep alive for you a great deliverance.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But God sent me hither before you, yt he might let you remayne vpon earth, and to saue youre lyues by a greate delyueraunce.

American Standard Version
And God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.

Bible in Basic English
God sent me before you to keep you and yours living on earth so that you might become a great nation.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Wherfore God sent me before you, to preserue you a posteritie in the earth, and to saue your liues by a great deliueraunce.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And God sent me before you to give you a remnant on the earth, and to save you alive for a great deliverance.

King James Version (1611)
And God sent me before you, to preserue you a posteritie in the earth, and to saue your liues by a great deliuerance.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For God sent me before you, that there might be left to you a remnant upon the earth, even to nourish a great remnant of you.

English Revised Version
And God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.

Berean Standard Bible
God sent me before you to preserve you as a remnant on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and God bifor sente me, that ye be reserued on erthe, and moun haue metis to lyue.

Young's Literal Translation
and God sendeth me before you, to place of you a remnant in the land, and to give life to you by a great escape;

Update Bible Version
And God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.

Webster's Bible Translation
And God sent me before you, to preserve for you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

World English Bible
God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.

New King James Version
And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

New Living Translation
God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors.

New Life Bible
God sent me before you to make sure that your people will keep living on the earth. Now many of you will be saved.

New Revised Standard
God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So then God sent me before you, to plant for you a remainder in the earth, - and to save you alive, by a great deliverance,

Douay-Rheims Bible
And God sent me before, that you may be preserved upon the earth, and may have food to live.

Revised Standard Version
And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.

Contextual Overview

¹Joseph couldn't hold himself in any longer, keeping up a front before all his attendants. He cried out, "Leave! Clear out—everyone leave!" So there was no one with Joseph when he identified himself to his brothers. But his sobbing was so violent that the Egyptians couldn't help but hear him. The news was soon reported to Pharaoh's palace. ³ Joseph spoke to his brothers: "I am Joseph. Is my father really still alive?" But his brothers couldn't say a word. They were speechless—they couldn't believe what they were hearing and seeing. ⁴"Come closer to me," Joseph said to his brothers. They came closer. "I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt. But don't feel badly, don't blame yourselves for selling me. God was behind it. God sent me here ahead of you to save lives. There has been a famine in the land now for two years; the famine will continue for five more years—neither plowing nor harvesting. God sent me on ahead to pave the way and make sure there was a remnant in the land, to save your lives in an amazing act of deliverance. So you see, it wasn't you who sent me here but God. He set me in place as a father to Pharaoh, put me in charge of his personal affairs, and made me ruler of all Egypt. ⁹"Hurry back to my father. Tell him, ‘Your son Joseph says: I'm master of all of Egypt. Come as fast as you can and join me here. I'll give you a place to live in Goshen where you'll be close to me—you, your children, your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and anything else you can think of. I'll take care of you there completely. There are still five more years of famine ahead; I'll make sure all your needs are taken care of, you and everyone connected with you—you won't want for a thing.' ¹²"Look at me. You can see for yourselves, and my brother Benjamin can see for himself, that it's me, my own mouth, telling you all this. Tell my father all about the high position I hold in Egypt, tell him everything you've seen here, but don't take all day—hurry up and get my father down here." ¹⁴Then Joseph threw himself on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. He then kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Only then were his brothers able to talk with him.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

to preserve you a posterity: Heb. to put for you a remnant, to save. Judges 15:18, 1 Chronicles 11:14, Psalms 18:50, Psalms 44:4, Acts 7:35

Reciprocal: Genesis 41:35 - gather Genesis 45:5 - God Genesis 49:24 - the shepherd Deuteronomy 26:5 - ready Job 5:20 - famine Psalms 105:17 - He sent John 19:11 - Thou

Cross-References

Judges 15:18
Now he was suddenly very thirsty. He called out to God , "You have given your servant this great victory. Are you going to abandon me to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" So God split open the rock basin in Lehi; water gushed out and Samson drank. His spirit revived—he was alive again! That's why it's called En Hakkore (Caller's Spring). It's still there at Lehi today.

Psalms 44:4
You're my King, O God— command victories for Jacob! With your help we'll wipe out our enemies, in your name we'll stomp them to dust. I don't trust in weapons; my sword won't save me— But it's you, you who saved us from the enemy; you made those who hate us lose face. All day we parade God's praise— we thank you by name over and over.

Acts 7:35
"This is the same Moses whom they earlier rejected, saying, ‘Who put you in charge of us?' This is the Moses that God, using the angel flaming in the burning bush, sent back as ruler and redeemer. He led them out of their slavery. He did wonderful things, setting up God-signs all through Egypt, down at the Red Sea, and out in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to his congregation, ‘God will raise up a prophet just like me from your descendants.' This is the Moses who stood between the angel speaking at Sinai and your fathers assembled in the wilderness and took the life-giving words given to him and handed them over to us, words our fathers would have nothing to do with. "They craved the old Egyptian ways, whining to Aaron, ‘Make us gods we can see and follow. This Moses who got us out here miles from nowhere—who knows what's happened to him!' That was the time when they made a calf-idol, brought sacrifices to it, and congratulated each other on the wonderful religious program they had put together. "God wasn't at all pleased; but he let them do it their way, worship every new god that came down the pike—and live with the consequences, consequences described by the prophet Amos: Did you bring me offerings of animals and grains those forty wilderness years, O Israel? Hardly. You were too busy building shrines to war gods, to sex goddesses, Worshiping them with all your might. That's why I put you in exile in Babylon. "And all this time our ancestors had a tent shrine for true worship, made to the exact specifications God provided Moses. They had it with them as they followed Joshua, when God cleared the land of pagans, and still had it right down to the time of David. David asked God for a permanent place for worship. But Solomon built it. "Yet that doesn't mean that Most High God lives in a building made by carpenters and masons. The prophet Isaiah put it well when he wrote, "Heaven is my throne room; I rest my feet on earth. So what kind of house will you build me?" says God. "Where I can get away and relax? It's already built, and I built it." "And you continue, so bullheaded! Calluses on your hearts, flaps on your ears! Deliberately ignoring the Holy Spirit, you're just like your ancestors. Was there ever a prophet who didn't get the same treatment? Your ancestors killed anyone who dared talk about the coming of the Just One. And you've kept up the family tradition—traitors and murderers, all of you. You had God's Law handed to you by angels—gift-wrapped!—and you squandered it!" At that point they went wild, a rioting mob of catcalls and whistles and invective. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, hardly noticed—he only had eyes for God, whom he saw in all his glory with Jesus standing at his side. He said, "Oh! I see heaven wide open and the Son of Man standing at God's side!" Yelling and hissing, the mob drowned him out. Now in full stampede, they dragged him out of town and pelted him with rocks. The ringleaders took off their coats and asked a young man named Saul to watch them. As the rocks rained down, Stephen prayed, "Master Jesus, take my life." Then he knelt down, praying loud enough for everyone to hear, "Master, don't blame them for this sin"—his last words. Then he died.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And God sent me before you,.... This he repeats to impress the minds of his brethren with a sense of the good providence of God in bringing him to Egypt before them, to make provision for their future welfare, and to alleviate their grief, and prevent an excessive sorrow for their selling him into Egypt, when by the overruling hand of God it proved so salutary to them:

to preserve you a posterity in the earth; that they and theirs might not perish, which otherwise, in all human probability, must have been the case; and that the promise of the multiplication of Abraham's seed might not be made of none effect, but continue to take place, from whence the Messiah was to spring:

and to save your lives by a great deliverance; from the extreme danger they were exposed unto, through the terrible famine, and in which deliverance were to be observed the great wisdom, goodness, power, and providence of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

- Joseph Made Himself Known to His Brethren

10. גשׁן gôshen, Goshen, Gesem (Arabias related perhaps to גשׁם geshem “rain, shower”), a region on the borders of Egypt and Arabia, near the gulf of Suez.

The appeal of Judah is to Joseph irresistible. The repentance of his brothers, and their attachment to Benjamin, have been demonstrated in the most satisfactory manner. This is all that Joseph sought. It is evident, throughout the whole narrative, that he never aimed at exercising any supremacy over his brothers. As soon as he has obtained an affecting proof of the right disposition of his brothers, he conceals himself no longer. And the speech of Judah, in which, no doubt, his brothers concurred, does equal credit to his head and heart.

Genesis 45:1-15

Joseph now reveals to his brothers the astonishing fact that he himself, their long-lost brother, stands before them. “He could not refrain himself.” Judah has painted the scene at home to the life; and Joseph can hold out no longer. “Have every man out from me.” Delicacy forbids the presence of strangers at this unrestrained outburst of tender emotion among the brothers. Besides, the workings of conscience, bringing up the recollections of the past, and the errors, to which some reference is now unavoidable, are not to be unveiled to the public eye. “He lifted up his voice in weeping.” The expression of the feelings is free and uncontrolled in a simple and primitive state of society. This prevails still in the East. And Mizraim heard. The Egyptians of Joseph’s house would hear, and report to others, this unusual utterance of deep feeling. “I am Joseph.” The natural voice, the native tongue, the long-remembered features, would, all at once, strike the apprehension of the brothers.

The remembrance of their crime, the absolute power of Joseph, and the justice of revenge, would rush upon their minds. No wonder they were silent and troubled at his presence. “Is my father yet alive?” This question shows where Joseph’s thoughts were. He had been repeatedly assured of his father’s welfare. But the long absence and the yearning of a fond heart bring the question up again. It was reassuring to the brethren, as it was far away from any thought of their fault or their punishment. “Come near unto me.” Joseph sees the trouble of his brothers, and discerns its cause. He addresses them a second time, and plainly refers to the fact of their having sold him. He points out that this was overruled of God to the saving of life; and, hence, that it was not they, but God who had mercifully sent him to Egypt to preserve all their lives. “For these two years.” Hence, we perceive that the sons of Jacob obtained a supply, on the first occasion, which was sufficient for a year. “To leave to you a remnant in the land.”

This is usually and most naturally referred to a surviving portion of their race. “Father to Pharaoh;” a second author of life to him. Having touched very slightly on their transgression, and endeavored to divert their thoughts to the wonderful providence of God displayed in the whole affair, he lastly preoccupies their minds with the duty and necessity of bringing down their father and all their families to dwell in Egypt. “In the land of Goshen.” This was a pasture land on the borders of Egypt and Arabia, perhaps at some distance from the Nile, and watered by the showers of heaven, like their own valleys. He then appeals to their recollections and senses, whether he was not their very brother Joseph. “My mouth that speaketh unto you;” not by an interpreter, but with his own lips, and in their native tongue. Having made this needful and reassuring explanation, he breaks through all distance, and falls upon Benjamin’s neck and kisses him, and all his other brothers; after which their hearts are soothed, and they speak freely with him.

Genesis 45:16-20

The intelligence that Joseph’s brethren are come reaches the ears of Pharaoh, and calls forth a cordial invitation to come and settle in Egypt. “It was good in the eyes of Pharaoh.” They highly esteemed Joseph on his own account; and that he should prove to be a member of a respectable family, and have the pleasure of again meeting with his nearest relatives, were circumstances that afforded them a real gratification. “The good of the land of Mizraim.” The good which it produces. Wagons; two-wheeled cars, fit for driving over the rough country, where roads were not formed. “Let not your eye care for your stuff;” your houses, or pieces of furniture which must be left behind. The family of Jacob thus come to Egypt, not by conquest or purchase, but by hospitable invitation, as free, independent visitors or settlers. As they were free to come or not, so were they free to stay or leave.

Genesis 45:21-24

The brothers joyfully accept the hospitable invitation of Pharaoh, and set about the necessary arrangements for their journey. “The sons of Israel;” including Joseph, who had his own part to perform in the proposed arrangement. “At the mouth of Pharaoh;” as he had authorized him to do. “Changes of raiment;” fine raiment for change on a high or happy day. To Benjamin he gives special marks of fraternal affection, which no longer excite any jealous feeling among the brothers, as the reasonableness of them is obvious. “Fall out.” The original word means to be stirred by any passion, whether fear or anger, and interpreters explain it as they conceive the circumstances and the context require. The English version corresponds with the Septuagint ὀργίζεσθε orgizesthe and with Onkelos. It refers, perhaps, to the little flashes of heat, impatience, and contention that are accustomed to disturb the harmony of companions in the East, who behave sometimes like overgrown children. Such ebullitions often lead to disastrous consequences. Joseph’s exile arose from petty jealousies among brethren.

Genesis 45:25-28

The returning brothers inform their father of the existence and elevation of Joseph in Egypt. The aged patriarch is overcome for the moment, but at length awakens to a full apprehension of the joyful news. His heart fainted; ceased to beat for a time, fluttered, sank within him. The news was too good for him to venture all at once to believe it. But the words of Joseph, which they recite, and the wagons which he had sent, at length lead to the conviction that it must be indeed true. He is satisfied. His only thought is to go and see Joseph before he dies. A sorrow of twenty-two years’ standing has now been wiped away.