Genesis 50:16

16 And (so) they sent (a message) to him, and said, Thy father commanded to us, before that he died,

Genesis 50:16 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 50:16

And they sent a messenger unto Joseph
Not Bilhah, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, nor her sons, Dan and Naphtali, as Jarchi, grounding it on ( Genesis 37:1-36 ) though it is not improbable that some from among themselves were deputed, who were most interested in Joseph; since it is not very likely they would commit such an affair to a stranger or to a servant; and the most proper persons to be sent on such an errand seem to be Judah and Benjamin, the latter as having had no concern in the affair of selling him, and was his own brother by father and mother's side, and very dear to him; and the former, because he saved his life, when the rest, excepting Reuben, were for shedding his blood, and had endeared himself also to Joseph, by his tender concern both for his father and his brother Benjamin; however, they thought fit first to sound Joseph by a messenger, how he stood affected to them, before they appeared in a body in person, to whom they gave a charge, as the words may be rendered, "they commanded unto Joseph" ^F20; that is, they commanded those that were deputed by them to him:

saying, thy father did command before he died;
some think, this was no better than a lie, which their fear prompted them to; and that they framed the following story, the more to work upon the mind of Joseph, and dispose it in their favour; seeing it is a question whether Jacob ever knew anything of the affair of their ill usage to Joseph; since otherwise it would have been, in all likelihood, taken notice of in his last dying words, as well as the affair of Reuben, and that of Simeon and Levi; and besides, had he been apprised of it, he knew such was the clemency and generosity of Joseph, that he had nothing to fear from him, nor could he entertain any suspicion of a malevolent disposition in him towards his brethren, or that he would ever use them ill for former offences:

saying,
as follows:

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 (Powy-la wwuyw) "et mandaverunt ad Joseph", Montanus; "nuntio misso", Pagninus; "aliquos ad Josephum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Genesis 50:16 In-Context

14 And Joseph turned again into Egypt with his brethren and all the fellowship, when his father was buried. (And after his father was buried, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers, and with all of his fellowship.)

15 And when their father was dead, the brethren of Joseph dreaded, and spake together, (and said,) Lest peradventure he be mindful of the wrong which he suffered, and yield to us all the evil, that we did. (And now that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers were afraid, and spoke together, and said, Perhaps he shall remember all the wrong, or all the harm, which he suffered because of us, and give back to us all the evil that we did to him, and so we must ask him for mercy.)

16 And (so) they sent (a message) to him, and said, Thy father commanded to us, before that he died,

17 that we should say to thee these things by his words; I beseech thee, that thou forget the wickedness of thy brethren, and the sin, and [the] malice that they haunted against thee; also we pray thee, that thou forgive this wickedness (which we did) to thy father, the servant of God. When these things were heard, Joseph wept. (that we should say these words of his to thee; My son, I beseech thee, that thou forget the wickedness of thy brothers, and the sin, and the malice that they did against thee; and we also pray thee, that thou forgive our wickedness, for we, like thee, be servants of the God of thy father. And when Joseph heard this message, he wept.)

18 And his brethren came to him, and worshipped low to the earth (and bowed low to the ground before him), and said, We be thy servants.