What Does Genesis 41:16 Mean in the King James?

And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.

Genesis 41:16 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The answer Pharaoh needs is not something Joseph owns; it is God’s shalom arriving through him.

THE MEANING

The answer does not originate in the self, and that does not leave the question empty. God’s response carries shalom: wholeness and well-being that reach beyond a calm reply. “It is not in me” names a limit without making the answer unavailable.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that an answer is impossible unless you can produce it yourself.

THE ROOT

שָׁלוֹם

shalom

GROWS FROM

שלם

sh-l-m

To be whole or complete; to make whole or restore.

English “peace” carries the sense of quiet, while shalom also carries well-being and wholeness. Its root links this answer to being made whole: God’s response reaches into Pharaoh’s welfare, not only the words he hears.

ALSO GROWS

shalem: Whole, complete.

שָׁלֵם

This branch makes the wholeness within shalom visible: the answer concerns a state of well-being, not just a quiet moment.

shillem: To repay, make good, or restore what is due.

שִׁלֵּם

The shared root links wholeness with making good; shalom can carry the sense of well-being restored.

THE PATTERN

Wisdom and speech arrive as gifts from God when the human speaker is not their source.

And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.

Genesis 40:8 · KJVJoseph locates the source of interpretation in God, even as he becomes the one who speaks it.

But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;

Daniel 2:28 · KJVHidden knowledge comes as a revelation from God and is then spoken through a human voice.

But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.

Matthew 10:19 · KJVThe words needed in the moment are given rather than held as the speaker’s possession.

THE THREAD

And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

Genesis 37:14 · KJV

The Hebrew word translated “well” here is shalom, the same word rendered “peace” in Joseph’s answer to Pharaoh. The thread follows Joseph from asking after his brothers’ well-being to speaking of God’s shalom for Pharaoh.

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