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.
From the God of thy father, and he will help thee; And from the Almighty, and he will bless thee -- With blessings of heaven from above, With blessings of the deep that lieth under, With blessings of the breast and of the womb.
At the end of his life, Jacob traces Joseph's blessing back to two names. It comes from the God of his father, who helps, and from the Almighty, who blesses. The blessing then arrives from three places: the sky above, the deep below, and the body that gives life.
The title Jacob uses here is not a general word for God. Writers have never settled its exact force. And this blessing is the first place where the title stands alone, without the word God beside it.
Scholars do not agree about where the word shaddai comes from, or what it means. Some give it as "all bountiful," others "all sufficient," others "almighty," and so on. This is not surprising. Any name of God must be above mere human learning or definition. Yet it was the ground of faith to those who had the revelation. The name first occurs in Genesis 17:1; God said to Abraham, "I am God Almighty." This links it with the patriarchs: it is the name by which God was known to them. The title "the Almighty" without the name of God added occurs first in Jacob's address to his twelve sons before he died.
That name carried a promise long before Jacob used it.
The Name of the Almighty assured Abraham that God would do everything He had promised… Jacob uses the Name of the Almighty in Genesis 43:14; 48:3 and 49:25. He knew the all-powerful might of Him who had blessed him despite all his failures.
The verse looks up and then down. One writer takes the two directions as two companies of people blessed through the Messiah.
Verses 25-26 indicate the widespread fullness of the blessing of the Almighty resting upon the Lord Jesus. There are blessings of heaven above. That is a faint hint that He would have a heavenly company. He does have one today, "blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3). "Blessings of the deep that lies beneath" implies the blessing of Gentile nations through the Messiah of Israel (Rev. 17:15). The heavens speak of what is above Israel, and the deep of what is in a lower place, as the Gentiles rightly will be.
Commentators differ. Another writer reads the deep as the ocean floor itself, giving up its treasure.
There are the blessings of the deep that lies under. They are the precious things that come from the bed of the oceans to enrich God's earthly people. The twelve gates we have read of were "twelve pearls; each one of the gates was of one pearl." Where do the pearls come from? Are they included in the blessings of the deep that lies under?
The last pair in the verse turns from the land to the body.
The breasts speak of nourishment, and the womb of fruitfulness. This shows that the land will produce plenty. Israel's blessing in Christ will exceed what Jacob's ancestors, Abraham and Isaac, received. It will bring wide blessing on the earth, "to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills." This completes the three spheres of the great blessing connected with the Messiah: the heavens, the deep, and the hills of earth.
Jacob says plainly that what he is handing over outstrips what his own fathers received. The scale is the point.
The rejected but exalted Christ becomes the source of blessing far exceeding all known blessings, for He will bless "with the blessings of heaven above" in addition to the blessings of the deep "that lies under." This is blessing that will far exceed anything the nation has enjoyed in the past. What is more, the blessing will reach beyond the land "to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills."
The verses around this one set suffering and glory side by side.
These verses display "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." The archers have done their work, but God was stronger than they were. 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. Faith now knows Him as the basis of all God's purposes of blessing and glory.
What He now holds, He does not hold for Himself alone.
All power is now in Him, 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, after the pattern of this mystery of Joseph.
- Source. The blessing starts with a name: the Almighty. The patriarchs knew God by that name, and Jacob trusted it despite a lifetime of failures.
- Shape. From that name it comes down in three spheres: heaven above, the deep beneath, and the fruitfulness of breast and womb.
- Scale. Jacob measures it against what Abraham and Isaac received and calls it greater. It reaches past the land to the farthest hills.
- Cost. It comes through One the archers wounded; His arms were made strong in the power of resurrection.
- Crown. All power now belongs to Him, and one day He will use His resources for Israel and the whole earth.
The blessings of thy father surpass the blessings of my ancestors, Unto the bounds of the everlasting hills They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.
Jacob's last words to Joseph pile blessing on blessing. The blessing runs past Abraham and Isaac, out to the everlasting hills, and settles on the head of one man. Who is this brother who was set apart, and why does so much rest on him?
Jacob names two things here. One is a comparison: this blessing goes "beyond the blessings of my parents." Older translations read "my ancestors." The other is a boundary: it reaches "the everlasting hills." One writer reads the comparison as Abraham and Isaac. The boundary he reads as the earth's own share in what Christ brings.
Israel's blessing in Christ will be greater than the blessings of Jacob's ancestors, Abraham and Isaac. It will bring wide earthly blessing, "to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills." This completes the three areas of the great blessing tied to the Messiah: the heavens, the deep, and the hills of earth.
The word behind "set apart from his brothers" later became the term for the Nazarite. A Nazarite was a person set apart for God by a vow. The word appears here for the first time in the Bible, and it is used of Joseph. Older translations render the phrase "him that was separated from his brethren." One writer asks what this separation really meant.
This word occurs 16 times in all in the Old Testament. The first time it appears, it refers to Joseph, "him that was separated from his brethren" (Gen. 49:26; Deut. 33:16). Joseph was, of course, not a Nazarite in the full sense, for the law had not yet been given. Still, his example shows very well what separation is really about. It is not separation as an end in itself. It is not a proud, self-righteous separation driven by the flesh either. It was a matter of separating from his brothers, who spoke evil of their father. Joseph stood on his father's side. His untroubled relationship with his father made it impossible for him to side with his brothers in this matter.
Jacob does not just say the blessings will come to Joseph. He says they will rest on his head, and on the crown of it. The blessing is worn like a crown. One writer sees in it a small preview of a far greater one.
Then the blessings of heaven and of the deep, of the breasts and of the womb, are multiplied on the head and on the crown of Joseph, the one separated from his brothers. All of this points ahead to the many crowns and the glory, in heaven and on earth, of the true Nazarite, the Lord Jesus, now sanctified in heavenly glory. And He far exceeds it.
One writer ties the size of the blessing to the size of what Joseph had endured.
So the blessing on Joseph is spiritual and hidden. It has the character of eternity, and it has no limits... These descended on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brothers. He had suffered a double rejection, from the world and from his brothers. So the blessing is emphasised twice over.
Joseph did not keep what came to him. In Egypt he shared it with the very brothers who had sold him. One writer follows that pattern forward: the one who suffered alone receives everything, and then hands it on.
All this blessing comes "on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers." Joseph, separated from his brothers, is a picture of the Lord Jesus. Through His lonely sufferings and death, He is the great Recipient of all blessing from God. Yet Joseph shared with his brothers the blessing that came to him in Egypt. In the same way, the Lord Jesus will share with Israel all these blessings that are called the portion of Joseph. Indeed, today He shares far more than this with the Church of God, giving her a heavenly inheritance.
If the phrase points to Christ, it also points back at the reader. Separation does not come from trying to be different. It comes from following someone.
In many ways we all fail. Only Jesus, the true Nazarite, never failed... Pure and holy, He could say, Satan "has nothing in Me." May He be the pattern of our own separation to God — "He that was separated [a Nazarite] from his brethren." (Gen. 49:26; Deut. 33:16.) Then, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we shall follow Him. We will follow at a distance, no doubt, as Israel followed the ark two thousand cubits behind. But we shall follow Him still, and to follow Him is to grow in His likeness.
- Separated. The word for "set apart" appears here first, and it is used of Joseph. He stood on his father's side against his brothers — separation for someone, not just from something.
- Suffering. Joseph suffered a double rejection, from the world and from his own family. The weight of blessing answers the weight of rejection.
- Crowned. The blessing does not just arrive. It rests on his head like a crown — a small picture of the many crowns of the true Nazarite, Jesus.
- Surpassing. It goes beyond even Abraham's and Isaac's portion. It stretches to the everlasting hills, taking in heaven, the deep and the earth.
- Shared. As Joseph shared his blessing with the brothers who sold him, so the One who suffered alone receives all blessing — and hands it on to Israel and to the Church.