Joseph is a fruitful bough; A fruitful bough by a well; [His] branches shoot over the wall.
Jacob's last words to his sons reach their high point with Joseph. He paints a tree planted where water never fails, so loaded that its fruit falls past the garden wall. Two questions follow. What feeds a life like that? And who gathers the fruit?
The ESV reads "by a spring"; the older translation these writers quote says "well." Either way, the phrase points to what feeds the fruit. One writer sees this holding true even in prison:
"A fruitful bough by a well": hidden sources of nourishment as well as of energy — the water of life springing from the wounded ground. Even if they lock him up, he is like a noble tree in a prison yard.
Joseph's fruit did not grow in easy conditions. One writer describes the spirit behind it, and who may gather from it:
Joseph is the picture of the martyr spirit, whose courage shows itself in endurance, in facing the consequences without flinching. In him, patience has its perfect work. So in the end he rises to mastery over everything around him, because he is master of himself first. He receives from God's hand; he does not take things into his own. How fruitful he is! And how the branches run over the wall! They yield their fruit inside no narrow enclosure, free for anyone to gather. For who may not gather such fruit? It takes no great wisdom, no bringing out of inner resources. It is simply "man's weakness waiting upon God" — and who may not wait on Him?
So who gathers the fruit? One writer explains what the wall stands for, and who stands on the other side:
Joseph speaks of Christ as the One who will secure all blessing in the Millennium, both for Israel and the nations. He is a fruitful bough by a well, drawing refreshment from the well of the Word of God. His branches run over the wall — the wall of separation between Israel and the Gentiles. His branches run over for the blessing of Gentiles.
Another writer starts from the meaning of Joseph's name:
Joseph means "Jehovah has added." That is exactly what the Lord Jesus has done in rejection and affliction (compare Genesis 41:51 and 52). His fruit has run out over the middle wall between Jew and Gentile in wonderful blessing (see Ephesians 2:14).
One writer finds the same picture in a Gospel scene. A tired Man sits by a well in Samaria and speaks with a woman there:
Take, for example, John 4:6. Why is it mentioned, "Now Jacob's well was there"? Surely to arrest our attention in some special way; and Genesis 49:22 discovers the secret... So in this weary Man, who sat by the well of Sychar in the midday heat, we see the true Joseph. Even as we look at Him, we see His branches running over the wall of Judaism, reaching this poor woman of Samaria with their good fruit.
The words about Joseph point past Joseph. One writer traces them to the risen Christ, and to what He has yet to spend:
And having said this of Joseph, the Spirit uses it as a figure of a Greater than Joseph... We have Christ in Joseph. Here we see the risen Christ as in a picture. All power is now His, in heaven and on earth. He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. His title to the resources of creation is sure, sealed by the dignity of the place He now fills. And the resources He now owns, He will in time use for Israel and for the whole earth, following the pattern of this mystery of Joseph.
- Well — Hidden water feeds the tree. That is why the bough kept bearing fruit even in a prison yard.
- Weakness — Joseph's fruit grew out of patience. He took what God gave instead of grabbing for himself, and anyone can wait on God like that.
- Wall — The branches cross the wall. Blessing passes the old line between Israel and the nations — the middle wall between Jew and Gentile.
- Well again — At Jacob's well in Samaria, the true Joseph sat weary in the midday heat. His fruit reached over the wall of Judaism to one Samaritan woman.
- Wealth — The risen Christ now holds every resource. He will spend it on Israel and the whole earth, on the pattern of Joseph.
The archers have provoked him, And shot at, and hated him;
Jacob is blessing Joseph, and the picture suddenly changes. A fruitful tree becomes a battlefield, and the blessed son is the target. Who were these archers, and what does the verse teach about being hated while God is blessing you?
The first archers were his own brothers. One writer sets Joseph's exile beside what his brothers were doing at home.
Here we see Joseph filling up the measure of his sorrow, while his brothers are filling up the measure of their sins. He is in exile, keeping his purity and separation to God, while they at home are defiling the covenant. God is with him, and man against him. He takes his place in the cloud of witnesses, suffering for righteousness' sake... The archers are grieving him deeply and shooting at him. But his bow stays strong, and the mighty God of Jacob makes the arms of his hands strong. He may be persecuted by men, but God will not forsake him.
The same writer adds that God used it all as training: "this trouble under God's hand was made to produce patience, and by it the crown was growing brighter for him."
The ESV says the archers attacked Joseph bitterly and harassed him severely; older translations say they "sorely grieved" him. One writer reads his restraint as strength held back: he had a bow, and chose not to use it on the men shooting at him.
"Joseph is a fruitful bough." It takes every rough blow without resentment, and gives back its own rich fruit... "The archers have sorely grieved him" — and this is not the calm of a man who feels nothing. They "shot at and hated him, but his bow stayed firm." He did not use it against them; he kept it for their enemies. And it "stayed firm in strength": this is the self-restraint of power, not the slackness of weakness.
Commentators read Joseph here as a picture of Christ. The arrows landed; God's answer was resurrection.
These verses give us a beautiful picture of "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." "The archers" have done their work; but God was stronger than they. The true Joseph was shot at and badly wounded in the house of His friends. But "the arms of His hands have been made strong" in the power of resurrection... Look at Joseph in the pit and in the prison, then as ruler over all the land of Egypt. You see the difference between the thoughts of God and the thoughts of men. Look at the cross, then at "the throne of the majesty in the heavens," and you see the same thing.
One writer points to where that steady bow came from. The strength was never Joseph's own, and never Christ's own either.
There is no strength without dependence. Strength is not found in us, but in Him whose strength never fails on our behalf. The Man Jesus Christ is the example of this. He looked for strength only in God; otherwise He would not have been the Perfect Man. Struck by the archers, His strength did not leave Him. When His weakness appeared to give way to the enemy's power, His bow remained strong — His strength was full.
The fruitful branches and the archers stand side by side. One writer finds both at Jacob's well, where a tired traveller reached a Samaritan woman.
In this tired Man, who sat by the well of Sychar in the noonday heat, we see the true Joseph. Even while we look at Him, we see His branches running over the wall of Judaism, reaching this poor woman of Samaria with their good fruit. Not in fact, but morally, the archers had grieved Him deeply, shot at Him and hated Him. Yet His bow stayed firm. You can see it in the deliverance He worked that day for this poor captive of Satan.
One writer turns this into a rule for anyone under fire.
As for ourselves, fellow Christians, our bow will stay whole on one condition. We must put our confidence in God, who gives us His strength... Nothing is weaker than a Christian who has given up Christ as his strength... Let us not weep over our weakness as though we had no resources: that would not be faith, nor confidence in Christ.
- Shot at. The first archers were Joseph's own brothers — hatred aimed at the man God had chosen to bless.
- Grieved. The wounds were real. Joseph's calm was not numbness but power held back; he refused to shoot back.
- Held. His bow stayed firm on borrowed strength. The hands of the mighty God of Jacob kept his arms strong.
- Fruitful. The arrows never stopped the fruit; branches kept running over the wall even while he was the target.
- Exalted. Pit and prison gave way to the throne, as the cross gave way to glory — God proving stronger than the archers.
But his bow abideth firm, And the arms of his hands are supple By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel
Jacob is dying, and he blesses Joseph — the son his brothers tried to kill — as a man whose bow held firm under fire. Mid-sentence he then names a Shepherd and a Stone, and writers read that break as the turn from Joseph to Someone greater.
The verse credits Joseph's steady bow to the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. One writer notes how often Joseph's own hands turn up in his story.
In Joseph's own history we have already seen a preliminary forecast of Jacob's blessing. His brothers hated him and shot at him. But the mighty God of Jacob stood behind him and made his hands strong. So he became a blessing to the civilised world of his day. The language of verse 24 is remarkable when you notice how often the history mentions Joseph's hands — see Genesis 39:3-4, 6, 22; Genesis 41:42. Here we see the secret spring of Joseph's skill. Upon the hands of Joseph rested the hands of the mighty God.
Jacob has already named his other sons. The strength here is not Joseph's own.
The power and might are not those of unstable Reuben, or cruel Simeon and Levi, but the strength of Jehovah Himself, the excellent power of God shown in the Man of His purpose.
The short phrase "from there" is the hinge. Writers take it as pointing back to the place of the shooting.
But the One rejected by His own is made strong by the mighty God of Jacob, and "from there" is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. "From there" — from the place of weakness — He is exalted to a place of strength. From the place of death, where He was "shot at," He is brought again from the dead, just as Joseph was brought up out of the pit. So He becomes the "great Shepherd of the sheep" (Hebrews 13:20). And "the stone which the builders cast away as worthless, the same is made the head of the corner" (1 Peter 2:7).
Another writer sets the wounds beside the strength that followed. He quotes an older translation of the verse:
The archers have done their work; but God was stronger than they. The true Joseph has been shot at and badly wounded in the house of his friends. But "the arms of his hands have been made strong" in the power of resurrection. Faith now knows Him as the basis of all God's purposes of blessing and glory for the Church, Israel, and the whole creation.
Shepherd and Stone are not one picture repeated. Each brings its own scene.
The word "Stone" is a title of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherever it comes up, building is in the mind of the Spirit. When He is called the Shepherd, a flock is in view. As the Stone, however, He Himself is part of the structure. He is the most important and pre-eminent part, yet still part of the building. The Shepherd is different: He is distinct from the sheep, though He cares for them and sees that not one of the flock will perish (John 10).
This half-line is the opening entry in a long biblical thread. Writing on Nebuchadnezzar's dream and the stone cut out without hands, one commentator traces it back here:
The first prophetic reference to the Lord Jesus as the Stone is in Genesis 49:24, when old Jacob, in blessing his sons, made a parenthetic exclamation, "from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel." Under this figure He again appears in Isaiah 28:16, and so on into the New Testament.
Worth noting: unlike Judah and Shiloh earlier in the chapter, the tie between Joseph and the Coming One here is not one of ancestry.
It is very fitting that the promise of the Messiah, in His patient and passive character, should be tied to Joseph in this way. It is all the more striking because the connection is only moral, not by descent, as it is with Judah and Shiloh.
Jacob is blessing the tribes of Israel. The hope in these words has not yet arrived.
That nation will never be right until it is gathered round the true Shepherd and under His care. It must also stand on the foundation Stone that can never be moved.
One writer sets the verse beside the prophet Elisha, who laid his hands on a king's hands as the king shot an arrow.
The king was a passive instrument. Yet in his surrender he was so joined to Elisha's strength that the act of shooting was his own. This is the only way the bow of any servant of the Lord can stay firm. It was so with Joseph. POWER, PRESERVATION, PERMANENCE. The might of God directs us in our warfare. The Shepherd of Israel keeps us safe in every danger. The unmovable Rock holds us firm. All of this is there for the one who gives up any strength he thought he had, and yields himself wholly to God.
- Attack. The archers did their work, but God was stronger. The wounds are real, and the bow still holds.
- Strength. Other hands rested on Joseph's capable hands. The secret spring of his skill was not himself.
- From there. Out of weakness and death comes the exaltation. The pit gives back a ruler, and the rejected stone becomes the cornerstone.
- Shepherd and Stone. Shepherd puts a flock in view, with One who never loses a sheep. Stone puts a building in view, with Him as its chief part.
- Surrender. Power, preservation and permanence belong to the one who gives up his own strength.