the Fourth Week after Easter
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New Living Translation
Genesis 50:19
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
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- TheParallel Translations
Yosef said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
Then Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
Then Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Can I do what only God can do?
But Joseph answered them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? [Vengeance is His, not mine.]
But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place?
To whome Ioseph sayde, Feare not: for am not I vnder God?
But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place?
But Joseph told them, "Don't be afraid! I have no right to change what God has decided.
But Yosef said to them, "Don't be afraid! Am I in the place of God?
And Joseph said to them, Fear not: am I then in the place of God?
Then Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. I am not God! I have no right to punish you.
But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?
But Joseph said to them, Fear not; for I am a servant of God.
But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid; I can't put myself in the place of God.
But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
And Joseph said to them, Do not fear. For am I in the place of God?
Ioseph sayde vnto the: Feare ye not, for I am vnder God.
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
And Joseph said, Have no fear: am I in the place of God?
To whom Ioseph sayde: Feare not, am I God?
And Joseph said unto them: 'Fear not; for am I in the place of God?
And Ioseph saide vnto them, Feare not: for am I in the place of God?
And Joseph said to them, Fear not, for I am God’s.
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
But Joseph replied, "Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
To whiche he answeride, Nyle ye drede; whether we moun ayenstonde Goddis wille?
And Joseph saith unto them, `Fear not, for [am] I in the place of God?
And Joseph said to them, Don't be afraid: for am I in the place of God?
And Joseph said to them, Fear not: for [am] I in the place of God?
Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God?
And Joseph said unto them - Do not fear, - although in place of God, I am.
And he answered them: Fear not: can we resist the will of God?
But Joseph said to them, "Fear not, for am I in the place of God?
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.
But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place?
Contextual Overview
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
Then Jacob became furious with Rachel. "Am I God?" he asked. "He's the one who has kept you from having children!"
But don't be upset, and don't be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives.
But Joseph replied, "Don't be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you?
I will take revenge; I will pay them back. In due time their feet will slip. Their day of disaster will arrive, and their destiny will overtake them.'
When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes in dismay and said, "Am I God, that I can give life and take it away? Why is this man asking me to heal someone with leprosy? I can see that he's just trying to pick a fight with me."
But Jesus spoke to them at once. "Don't be afraid," he said. "Take courage. I am here!"
Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, "I will take revenge; I will pay them back," says the Lord .
For we know the one who said, "I will take revenge. I will pay them back." He also said, "The Lord will judge his own 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 ×ת×ת ××××× ×× × "annon enim sub Deo sum?" Vatablus.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- The Burial of Jacob
10. ××× 'aÌtÌ£aÌd Atad, âthe buck-thorn.â
11. ×צר×× ××× 'aÌbeÌl-mıÌtsrayıÌm, Abel-Mitsraim, âmourning of Mizraim,â 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. âHis servants, the physicians.â 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. âForty daysâ were employed in the process of embalming; âseventy days,â 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 Hengstenbergâs B. B. Mos. u. Aeg., and Rawlinsonâs Herodotus.
Genesis 50:4-6
Joseph, by means of Pharaohâs 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. âAll the servants of Pharaoh.â The highest honor is conferred on Jacob for Josephâs sake. âThe elders of Pharaoh, and all the elders of the land of Mizraim.â The court and state officials are here separately specified. âAll the house.â 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. âThe threshing-floor of Atari, or of the buck-thorn.â 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. âA mourning of seven days.â 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. âHis sons carried him.â 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. âThey sent unto Joseph,â commissioned one of their number to speak to him. now that our common father has given us this command. âAnd Joseph weptâ 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. âAm I in Godâs stead?â 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. âThe children of the third generationâ - 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. âAnd Joseph took an oath.â He thus expressed his unwavering confidence in the return of the sons of Israel to the land of promise. âGod will surely visit.â 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 daysâ 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.
