Genesis 41:49

49 Thus Joseph stored up grain in great abundance like the sand of the sea, until * he stopped measuring it, for it was beyond measure.

Genesis 41:49 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 41:49

And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much,
until he left numbering
At first he took an account of the quantities that were bought and laid up, how much there was in each granary, until it amounted to so much, that there was no end of numbering it; it was like the sand of the sea, an hyperbolical expression, denoting the great abundance of it: for [it was] without number;
not only the grains of corn, but even the measures of it, whatever were used; so Artapanus, an Heathen writer, says ^F16, Joseph, when governor of Egypt, got together the corn of seven years, an immense quantity.

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 23. p. 430.

Genesis 41:49 In-Context

47 During the seven years of plenty the land brought forth abundantly.

48 So he gathered all the food of these seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt and placed the food in the cities; he placed in every city the food from its own surrounding fields.

49 Thus Joseph stored up grain in great abundance like the sand of the sea, until he stopped measuring it, for it was beyond measure.

50 Now before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore to him.

51 Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, "For," he said, "God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household."

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "very much"
• [b]. Lit "numbering"
• [c]. Or "without number"