and on the third day he said to them, “I fear God. So do this and you will live:
Parallel translations
- WEB Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this, and live, for I fear God.
- KJV And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God:
- NKJV Then Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this and live, for I fear God:
- NASB Now Joseph said to them on the third day, “Do this and live, for I fear God:
- NLT On the third day Joseph said to them, “I am a God-fearing man. If you do as I say, you will live.
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
On the third day Joseph offers a way to live, declaring "I fear God." His reverence for God shapes how he treats them, with justice tempered by mercy.
Overview
Joseph's softened terms reveal that his severity was never tyranny; he answers to God, not merely to Pharaoh. "I fear God" signals that even in pagan Egypt Joseph holds to the faith of his fathers, restraining the power he wields. His conduct models how a believer exercises authority under God, a foreshadowing of Christ who rules with both righteousness and compassion.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Lev 25:43You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.
- Neh 5:15The governors before me had heavily burdened the people, taking from them bread and wine plus forty shekels of silver. Their servants also oppressed the people, but I did not do this because of my fear of God.
- Gen 20:11Abraham replied, “I thought to myself, ‘Surely there is no fear of God in this place. They will kill me on account of my wife.’
- Luke 18:2“In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected men.
- Neh 5:9So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our foreign enemies?
- Luke 18:4For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 42:18 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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