Genesis 50:20

20 Ye thought evil of me, and God turned it into good, that he should enhance me, as ye see in this present time, and that he should make safe many peoples; (Ye thought to do evil to me, but God turned it into good, and he used what you did to me to advance me, as ye see at this present time, and by doing so he hath saved many people;)

Genesis 50:20 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 50:20

But as for you, ye thought evil against me
That must be said and owned, that their intentions were bad; they thought to have contradicted his dreams, and made them of none effect, to have token away his life, or however to have made him a slave all his days:

[but] God meant it unto good;
he designed good should come by it, and he brought good out of it: this shows that this action, which was sinful in itself, fell under the decree of God, or was the object of it, and that there was a concourse of providence in it; not that God was the author of sin, which neither his decree about it, nor the concourse of providence with the action as such supposes; he leaving the sinner wholly to his own will in it, and having no concern in the ataxy or disorder of it, but in the issue, through his infinite wisdom, causes it to work for good, as follows:

to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive;
the nation of the Egyptians and the neighbouring nations, as the Canaanites and others, and particularly his father's family: thus the sin of the Jews in crucifying Christ, which, notwithstanding the determinate counsel of God, they most freely performed, was what wrought about the greatest good, the salvation of men.

Genesis 50:20 In-Context

18 And his brethren came to him, and worshipped low to the earth (and bowed low to the ground before him), and said, We be thy servants.

19 To which he answered, Do not ye dread; whether we may against-stand God's will? (To whom he answered, Do not ye fear; for can we stand against God's will?)

20 Ye thought evil of me, and God turned it into good, that he should enhance me, as ye see in this present time, and that he should make safe many peoples; (Ye thought to do evil to me, but God turned it into good, and he used what you did to me to advance me, as ye see at this present time, and by doing so he hath saved many people;)

21 do not ye dread (do not ye fear), I shall feed you and your little children. And he comforted them, and spake sweetly and lightly to them;

22 and Joseph dwelled in Egypt, with all the house of his father (and Joseph lived in Egypt, with all of his father's household, or all of his father's family). And he lived an hundred [and ten] years,