Genesis 41:49

49 And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, ¹like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured.

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 plentiful years the earth produced abundantly,

48 and he gathered up all the food of these seven years, which occurred in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities. He put in every city the food from the fields around it.

49 And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured.

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

51 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. "For," he said, "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house."

Cross References

• 1. Genesis 22:17; Judges 7:12; 1 Samuel 13:5; Psalms 78:27