Kejadian 45:7

45:7 God sent me ¹  ahead of you to preserve you ²  on the earth and to save your lives ³  by a great deliverance.

Mazmur 40:2-4

40:2 He lifted me out of the watery pit, ⁴ 

out of the slimy mud. ⁵ 

He placed my feet on a rock

and gave me secure footing. ⁶ 

40:3 He gave me reason to sing a new song, ⁷ 

praising our God. ⁸ 

May many see what God has done,

so that they might swear allegiance to him and trust in the Lord! ⁹ 

40:4 How blessed ¹⁰  is the one ¹¹  who trusts in the Lord ¹² 

and does not seek help from ¹³  the proud or from liars! ¹⁴ 

[45:7]  ¹ 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).

[45:7]  ² tn Heb “to make you a remnant.” The verb, followed here by the preposition לְ (lÿ), means “to make.”

[45:7]  ³ tn The infinitive gives a second purpose for God’s action.

[40:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “cistern of roaring.” The Hebrew noun בּוֹר (bor, “cistern, pit”) is used metaphorically here of Sheol, the place of death, which is sometimes depicted as a raging sea (see Ps 18:4, 15-16). The noun שָׁאוֹן (sha’on, “roaring”) refers elsewhere to the crashing sound of the sea’s waves (see Ps 65:7).

[40:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “from the mud of mud.” The Hebrew phrase translated “slimy mud” employs an appositional genitive. Two synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

[40:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “he established my footsteps.”

[40:3]  ⁷ sn A new song was appropriate because the Lord had intervened in the psalmist’s experience in a fresh and exciting way.

[40:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he placed in my mouth a new song, praise to our God.”

[40:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “may many see and fear and trust in the Lord.” The translation assumes that the initial prefixed verbal form is a jussive (“may many see”), rather than an imperfect (“many will see”). The following prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) conjunctive are taken as indicating purpose or result (“so that they might swear allegiance…and trust”) after the introductory jussive.

[40:4]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[40:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “man.” See the note on the word “one” in Ps 1:1.

[40:4]  ¹² tn Heb “who has made the Lord his [object of] trust.”

[40:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “and does not turn toward.”

[40:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “those falling away toward a lie.”