Genesis 50:20 (WEB)
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today.
As quoted in the map (KJV)
Genesis 50:20 (KJV)
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Key words
- אַתֶּם חֲשַׁבְתֶּם עָלַי רָעָה אֱלֹהִים חֲשָׁבָהּ לְטֹבָהattem chashavtem alay ra'ah, Elohim chashavah letovah · Hebrew
- 'ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good' — the same verb, 'meant,' for the brothers' plot and God's plan.
- לְהַחֲיֹת עַם־רָבlehachayot am-rav · Hebrew
- 'to save much people alive' — Joseph's suffering becomes the salvation of Israel and the nations.
Why it matters
Joseph tells the brothers who sold him that God turned their evil to good, to save many. Pitre calls this the key to the whole Joseph story (p 139, where the book cites it as Genesis 37:20): precisely through his suffering Joseph becomes the saviour of the very brothers who rejected him. That is the shape of Jesus' passion, and it is why Joseph is one of the most striking biblical types of Christ.