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Psalm 105:17

He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a slave.

15“Don’t touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!”
16He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies.
17He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a slave.
18They bruised his feet with shackles. His neck was locked in irons,
19until the time that his word happened, and the LORD’s word proved him true.
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← Psalm 105:16Psalm 105:18 →
Notice

“He sent” and “Joseph was sold” describe the same event, confronting you with God’s purpose at work through a man’s loss of freedom.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What is hard for you about reading God’s sending and Joseph’s enslavement in the same verse?

Write on this

How do Joseph’s shackles in the next lines shape your understanding of being sent by God?

Write on this
Connect

Where else Scripture says this

5 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Acts 7:9“The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with himBoth passages recount Joseph’s sale into slavery and speak of God’s involvement in his life.
Genesis 39:1Joseph was brought down to Egypt. Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the hand of the Ishmaelites that …Joseph’s enslavement connects these accounts: the psalm names his sale, while Genesis names the man who bought him.
Genesis 37:36The Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard.Both texts recount Joseph being sold; Genesis identifies Egypt as his destination and Potiphar as his buyer.
Genesis 37:28Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The …Both passages name Joseph’s sale, with Genesis adding the pit, the merchants, and the price paid for him.
Genesis 50:20As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today.Both texts describe God’s purpose at work through the harm done to Joseph.
Where this verse fits

Injustice and anger. doubt. waiting.

What the Bible says about anger →What the Bible says about doubt →What the Bible says about patience →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read both sentences aloud, then write what each names.

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Encouragement

God’s sending did not make Joseph’s enslavement harmless. The next lines name his shackles; God’s purpose was at work while Joseph suffered.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 105:17. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 105 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).