When that year was ended … following year this may be rendered, for example, “At the end of a year,” “The next year,” or “A year later.”

We will not hide from my lord … all spent: although the speakers are plural, they address Joseph as my lord, not “our lord,” as we might expect. Note that Good News Translation shifts to “you, sir.” Money is literally “silver.”

And the herds of cattle are my lord’s: this may be rendered “our herds [cattle] all belong to you, sir” or “all our animals are in your hands.”

There is nothing left in the sight of my lord: that is, “there is nothing left that we can exchange with you for food.” This is sometimes expressed as a rhetorical question: “What can we give you now for our food?”

But our bodies and our lands: bodies may need to be expressed as “ourselves” and lands as “our fields,” “our farms,” or “our gardens.” In some languages this may be expressed as “nothing but our backs and our soil” or “we have only ourselves and our land left.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .