In verses 5-8 Joseph reassures his brothers by giving his tragedy a religious meaning that they can now appreciate.
And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves: distressed translates a verb meaning to be pained or grieved. Joseph does not want his brothers to be grieved or upset, or to suffer for what they had done to him.
Angry with yourselves is literally “blaze up in your eyes.” Although the sense of this expression is as in Revised Standard Version, the idea is that they should not reproach or blame themselves. See Good News Translation. In some languages “blame yourselves” is expressed as “don’t punish your own hearts” or “don’t make your own thoughts suffer.”
Because you sold me here: Joseph does not hide or avoid the brothers’ guilt. According to 37.28 it was a group of traveling traders who bought Joseph and took him to Egypt; and according to 37.36 they sold Joseph to Potiphar. See discussion there. In our present verse the words you sold remind the brothers of what they had done many years before. This would have brought home to them their responsibility and guilt for their actions; however, in some languages it is necessary to express what they had done as causing or allowing Joseph to be sold as a slave in Egypt. Examples of renderings that do this are “you sold me, so that I became a slave of the people here,” “you let those traders buy me as a slave, and they brought me to Egypt,” and “you sold me to those other people who brought me here to this country.”
For God sent me before you to preserve life: this statement, which acknowledges that God had a saving purpose in the cruel events in Joseph’s life, is part of the saving theme that runs throughout the book of Genesis. Some translations express the element of purpose by saying “It happened like that because God….”
Sent me before you: that is, “sent me ahead of you [plural]” or “sent me to Egypt ahead of you.”
God is named here as the one responsible for Joseph’s being in Egypt. In this sense God is in contrast with the brothers; accordingly Good News Translation and others say “It was really God [not you all] ….” Some translations bring this out more directly by saying “This was not your doing, it was God’s doing; he sent me….”
To preserve life: this translates a Hebrew noun that has the meaning of the preservation or saving of life, but which can most often be expressed as an action, as in Good News Translation “to save people’s lives.”
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 .