Psalms 105:17
He sent a man before them— Joseph, sold as a slave.
BSB
ASV
He sent a man before them; Joseph was sold for a servant:
KJV
He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
Not nature but foolishness makes the slave. Not manumission but learning makes a person free. Esau was born free, but he became a slave; Joseph was sold into slavery, but he was raised to power8 so that he might rule those who had purchased him. Yet he did not slight his obligation to work zealously; he clung to the heights of virtue; he preserved the liberty of innocence, the stronghold of blamelessness. So the psalmist beautifully says, "Joseph had been sold into slavery. They had bound his feet with fetters."
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Genesis 50:20As 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.
leads to
And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
It was good for me to be afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.
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.
Now Joseph’s brothers saw him in the distance, and before he arrived, they plotted to kill him.
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.
Through
Acts 7:9Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him
leads to
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near me.” And they did so. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt!
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
And the LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.
Through
Genesis 39:1Meanwhile, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, where an Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
leads to
So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.