Read Genesis 49:22-26 at Bible Gateway.
Hebrew paragraph division
Gen 49:22-26 {p} Joseph’s blessing
Joseph is related to fruitful in the blessing. The first occurrence of the name:
Then God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” So she called his name Joseph,[h] saying, “Yehovah add to me another son.” Gen 30:22-24
The footnote in my Bible says, h. Literally, He Will Add.
Original Hebrew
Joseph is Strong’s H3130, Yosaph, a proper name meaning “Yehovah will add,” from the future of Strong’s H3254 יסף, yasaph, a primitive root meaning “to add.” The ancient pictographs are the yud + sin + pey:
yud י = the closed hand, thus work, throw, worship
sin ס = the thorn, thus grab, hate, protect
pey פ , ף = the mouth, thus open, blow, scatter, edge
We previously learned one of the sin + pey cognates, according to the Ancient Hebrew Lexicon, is “bowl.” To understand why, we learned that the sin sometimes carried the meaning of turning, since if one encounters a thorn along the way, one turns away from it to avoid it. Now a bowl is made when clay is turned (sin) on the potter’s wheel so that a lip or edge (pey) is formed along the top rim. Bowls are vessels used to gather contents of something together. The yud is a contracted form of Yehovah, יהוה who fills the vessel (sin + pey) to the full.
Fruitful is Strong’s H6509 פרה parah, a primitive root meaning “to bear fruit.” The ancient pictographs are pey + resh + hey:
pey פ , ף = the mouth, thus open, blow, scatter, edge
resh ר = the head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
hey ה = the man with upraised arms, thus look, reveal, wonder, worship, breath
To understand the story, we have to know something about threshing grain in ancient days:
“The heads of grains are scattered on the threshing floor, a smooth, hard and level surface. An ox is led around the floor crushing the heads, opening them to reveal the seed inside.” – Ancient Hebrew Lexicon
The story the pictographs are telling is of opening (pey) the head (resh) of grain which reveals (hey) the seed inside; i.e. acquiring seed. Thus one of the nouns derived from this root is fruit, as that which the seed thus acquired produces.
Help is Strong’s H5826 עזר azar, a primitive root meaning “to help, to surround.” The ancient pictographs are ayin + zayin + resh:
ayin ע = the eye, thus watch, know, shade
zayin ז = the mattock, thus tool, food, cut, nourish
resh ר = the head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
This is the same root as is found in ezer k’negdo, the comparable helper of Gen 2:18. There the pictographs tell the story of the wife, as having sight (insight, ayin) to be used as a tool (zayin) by the man (resh). The sense of surrounding, succoring, as it is found here, is from watching over (ayin) what is necessary (zayin, as a tool is used to accomplish a needed end) for the man (resh).
Bless is Strong’s H1288 ברך barak, a primitive root meaning “to bless.” The ancient pictographs are bet + resh + kaph (final form):
bet ב = the house, thus house, household, family, in, within
resh ר = the head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
kaph ך , כ = the open palm, thus bend, open, allow, tame
The story the ancient pictographs are telling is of the family (bet) of heads (resh), an idiom for ripened grain; we still call the top of a ripened stalk of wheat a seed head. By extension the meaning is to fill, to make fat, and also to slaughter (as cattle were fattened for slaughter by taking them off grass and feeding them on grain). To bless, then, is to fill (bet + resh) the palm (kaph) – the blessing fills the palm, the upturned hands, of the one being blessed, with good things; and also, the father filled his palm with his sons’ heads when conferring the blessing.
Blessings is Strong’s H1293, berakah, a concrete noun meaning “blessing,” from Strong’s H1288 above.
Gen 49:22-26 chiastic structure
A summary of the blessings up to Gen 49:26
Joseph as one of the two witnesses
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