Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt’s produce in the seven plenteous years.
- BSB Let Pharaoh take action and appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.
- NKJV Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiful years.
- NASB Let Pharaoh take action to appoint overseers in charge of the land, and let him take a fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt as a tax in the seven years of abundance.
- NLT Then Pharaoh should appoint supervisors over the land and let them collect one-fifth of all the crops during the seven good years.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He advises appointing overseers to collect a fifth of the harvest during the seven years of plenty.
Overview
Joseph proposes a concrete tax-and-storage plan to gather surplus grain during the abundant years. This wise administration would later preserve countless lives. The counsel shows God-given wisdom applied to real-world crisis management.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Prov 6:6–8Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
- Neh 11:9And Joel the son of Zichri was their overseer: and Judah the son of Senuah was second over the city.
- Prov 27:12A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.
- Luke 16:5So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?
- 2 Chr 34:12And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of musick.
- Prov 22:3A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.
- Num 31:14And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.
- Ps 33:19To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
- Job 5:20In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.
- 2 Kgs 11:11–12And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 41:34 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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