translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: GEN

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “fell on.” The expression describes Joseph’s unrestrained sorrow over Jacob’s death; he probably threw himself across the body and embraced his father.


text: Heb “his servants the physicians.”


text: Heb “and forty days were fulfilled for him, for thus are fulfilled the days of embalming.”


text: Heb “wept.”


text: Heb “weeping.”


text: Heb “the house of Pharaoh.”


text: Heb “in the ears of Pharaoh.”


text: Heb “saying.”


text: The imperfect verbal form here has the force of a command.


text: Heb “he made you swear on oath.”


text: Or “dignitaries”; Heb “elders.”


text: Heb “camp.”


text: Heb “and they mourned there [with] very great and heavy mourning.” The cognate accusative, as well as the two adjectives and the adverb, emphasize the degree of their sorrow.


text: Heb “this is heavy mourning for Egypt.”


text: The verb has no expressed subject and so it may be translated as passive.


text: The imperfect tense could be a simple future; it could also have a desiderative nuance.


text: The infinitive absolute makes the statement emphatic, “repay in full.”


text: Or “evil.”


text: The verb means “command,” but they would hardly be commanding him. It probably means they sent their father’s instructions to Joseph.


text: Heb “and Joseph wept when they spoke to him.”


text: Heb “For am I.”


text: Heb “you devised against me evil.”


text: Heb “God devised it for good in order to do, like this day, to preserve alive a great nation.”


text: Heb “spoke to their heart.”


text: Heb “he and the house of his father.”


text: Heb “saw Ephraim, the children of the third.”


text: Heb “they were born on the knees of Joseph.” This expression implies their adoption by Joseph, which meant that they received an inheritance from him.


text: The verb פָּקַד ( paqad ) means “to visit,” i.e., to intervene for blessing or cursing; here Joseph announces that God would come to fulfill the promises by delivering them from Egypt. The statement is emphasized by the use of the infinitive absolute with the verb: “God will surely visit you.”


text: The words “to give” are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “son of a hundred and ten years.”


text: Heb “he.”