Psalms 105:16

"And he called for a famine upon the land;

He brake the whole staff of bread.

He sent a man before them;

Joseph was sold for a servant:

His feet they hurt with fetters:

He was laid in chains of iron,

Until the time his word came to pass,

The word of Jehovah tried him."

"He called for a famine" (Psalms 105:16). God's plan was to send all of Israel into Egyptian slavery, as he had prophesied through Abraham (Genesis 15); and the famine fitted into that purpose.

"He sent a man before them" (Psalms 105:17). The sale of Joseph by his brothers, somewhat earlier than the famine, was also part of God's plan, another instance of, "the wrath of man praising God."

"Feet hurt with fetters" (Psalms 105:18). This is a detail not found in Genesis; but the truth of it cannot be doubted.

"He was laid in chains of iron" (Psalms 105:18). An alternative reading is, "The iron entered into his soul." The RSV renders this, "His neck was put in a collar of iron."

"The word of Jehovah tried him" (Psalms 105:19). Dean Johnson believed that the implied promise to Joseph of preeminence above his brothers in those dreams which led to their hatred of him (Genesis 37) seemed utterly impossible of fulfilment during Joseph's imprisonment; and that, "This bitter contrast with what Joseph had expected is what tried or tested Joseph."[9] The opinion of this writer is that it was the temptation from the wife of Potiphar which was at least one of the ways in which the word of Jehovah tried him. It might have been both and also have included other tests.