Genesis 41:12

 Genesis 41:12

And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each man according to his dream he did interpret.

a. NASB 1995: “Now a Hebrew youth was with us there, a servant of the captain of the bodyguard, and we related them to him, and he interpreted our dreams for us. To each one he interpreted according to his own dream.  [New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.]

b. NKJV: “Now there was a young Hebrew man with us there, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him, and he interpreted our dreams for us; to each man he interpreted according to his own dream.  [Scripture quotations marked "NKJV" are taken from the New King James Version®, Copyright© 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.]

c. Classic Amplified: And there was there with us a young man, a Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard and chief executioner; and we told him our dreams, and he interpreted them to us, to each man according to the significance of his dream.  [Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation]

d. Stone Edition Torah/Prophets/Writings: And there, with us, was a hebrew youth, a slave of the Chamberlain of the Butchers; we related to him, and he interpreted our dreams for us; he interpreted for each of us in accordance with his dream. [The Artscroll Series/Stone Edition, THE TANACH--STUDENT SIZE EDITION Copyright 1996, 1998 by Mesorah Publications, Ltd.]

e. ESV: A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream.  [Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

f. Unless otherwise stated, all Greek and Hebrew definitions are from Blue Letter Bible

1. “And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him…”

a. [And] there [was] [Strong: 8033 shâm, shawm; a primitive particle (rather from the relative pronoun, H834); there (transferring to time) then; often thither, or thence:—in it, thence, there (-in, of, out), thither, whither.]

b. with [us] [Strong: 854 ʼêth, ayth; probably from H579; properly, nearness (used only as a preposition or an adverb), near; hence, generally, with, by, at, among, etc.:—against, among, before, by, for, from, in(-to), (out) of, with. Often with another prepositional prefix.]

c. [a] young man [Strong: 5288 naʻar, nah'-ar; from H5287; (concretely) a boy (as active), from the age of infancy to adolescence; by implication, a servant; also (by interch. of sex), a girl (of similar latitude in age):—babe, boy, child, damsel (from the margin), lad, servant, young (man).]

d. [an] Hebrew [Strong: 5680 ʻIbrîy, ib-ree'; patronymic from H5677; an Eberite (i.e. Hebrew) or descendant of Eber:—Hebrew(-ess, woman).]

e. servant [Strong: 5650 ʻebed, eh'-bed; from H5647; a servant:—× bondage, bondman, (bond-) servant, (man-) servant.]

f. [to the] captain [Strong; 8269 sar, sar; from H8323; a head person (of any rank or class):—captain (that had rule), chief (captain), general, governor, keeper, lord,(-task-)master, prince(-ipal), ruler, steward.]

g. [of the] guard [Strong 2876 ṭabbâch, tab-bawkh'; from H2873; properly, a butcher; hence, a lifeguardsman (because he was acting as an executioner); also a cook (usually slaughtering the animal for food):—cook, guard.]

h. [and we] told [him] [Strong: 5608 çâphar, saw-far'; a primitive root; properly, to score with a mark as a tally or record, i.e. (by implication) to inscribe, and also to enumerate; intensively, to recount, i.e. celebrate:—commune, (ac-) count; declare, number, penknife, reckon, scribe, shew forth, speak, talk, tell (out), writer.]

2. “...and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each man according to his dream he did interpret.”

a. [and he] interpreted [to us][Strong: 6622  pâthar, paw-thar'; a primitive root; to open up, i.e. (figuratively) interpret (a dream):—interpret(-ation, -er).]

b. [Strong: 853 'eth ayth apparent contracted from 226 in the demonstrative sense of entity; properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely):--(as such unrepresented in English).]

c. [to us our] dreams [Strong: 2472 chălôwm, khal-ome'; or (shortened) חֲלֹם chălôm; from H2492; a dream:—dream(-er).]

d. [to each] man [Strong: 376 ʼîysh, eesh; contracted for H582 (or perhaps rather from an unused root meaning to be extant); a man as an individual or a male person; often used as an adjunct to a more definite term (and in such cases frequently not expressed in translation):—also, another, any (man), a certain, champion, consent, each, every (one), fellow, (foot-, husband-) man, (good-, great, mighty) man, he, high (degree), him (that is), husband, man(-kind), none, one, people, person, steward, what (man) soever, whoso(-ever), worthy.]

e. [according to his] dreams [Strong: 2472 chălôwm, khal-ome'; or (shortened) חֲלֹם chălôm; from H2492; a dream:—dream(-er).]

f. [he idd] interpret. [Strong: 6622 pâthar, paw-thar'; a primitive root; to open up, i.e. (figuratively) interpret (a dream):—interpret(-ation, -er).]

1). In accordance with his goodness, for God is a good and merciful God, God was giving Pharaoh a means of averting a disaster for Egypt through the dreams and giving Joseph the interpretation of the dreams. Henry Morris writes in his book The Genesis Record, it was not “for the purpose of embarrassing or dethroning the king of Egypt. As a matter of fact his own control over the country was destined to be strengthened by these events; but the underlying purpose of it all had to do rather with God’s plan for Israel. Therefore not only did God give Joseph the true interpretation of the dreams, but also an effective plan of action for Pharaoh.”

2). God giving dreams and their interpretation here is an example of the gifts of the Spirit, in particular, the word of wisdom, one of the gifts of the Spirit in operation. Kenneth E. Hagin writes in “Concerning Spiritual Gifts”: “The difference between the two gifts, the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom is that the revelation which the word of knowledge brings is always present tense or something which happened in the past. The word of wisdom always speaks of the future.” Here a 14 year plan to avert a disaster that would have come upon the known world. All the nations around Egypt suffered from this famine (Genesis 41:57), that was allowed by God to happen. He did not cause it, but in his goodness, mercy, and grace provided a means to endure through it.