Bible Strands
Genesis 50:20
As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Joseph addresses his brothers in Egypt following Jacob's death, responding to their fear of retribution.
The words — חֲשַׁבְתֶּם (ḥashavtem) and חָשַׁב (ḥashav) both carry the literal sense of "planned" or "intended," directly contrasting the brothers' malicious design with God's counter-design.
The thread — The structural pattern of human evil being redirected for preservation appears in Genesis 45:5 and is theologically summarized in Romans 8:28.
Why it lands — The text states that God's sovereign planning actively overrides human malice to achieve preservation, requiring the reader to accept divine agency without diminishing human accountability.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Romans 8:28 And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
- Psalms 119:71 It was good for me to be afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.
- Genesis 45:5 And now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves that you sold me into this place, because it was to save lives that God sent me before you.
- Genesis 37:18 Now Joseph’s brothers saw him in the distance, and before he arrived, they plotted to kill him.
- Psalms 105:16 He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food.
- Acts 2:23 He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.
- Acts 3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus. You handed Him over and rejected Him before Pilate, even though he had decided to release Him.
- Genesis 37:4 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
- Acts 3:26 When God raised up His Servant, He sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”
- Psalms 56:5 All day long they twist my words; all their thoughts are on my demise.