Genesis 50

⁶⁶ Although faith, not works, is the basis of our salvation and our acceptance by God, true faith is always accompanied by works pleasing to God. If our lives are not characterized by love and good works, then our faith is not true faith (Galatians 5:5–6; James 2:14–26).

For further discussion on the subjects of faith, righteousness and salvation, see Word List: Faith, Righteousness, Salvation. Also see comments on Romans 3:21–31; Galatians 2:15–21; Ephesians 2:1–10; General Article: The Way of Salvation, in The Applied New Testament Commentary.

⁶⁷ In verse 13, four hundred is a round number. According to Exodus 12:40, the Hebrews spent 430 years in Egypt.

⁶⁸ In Abram’s time, a generation was considered to last one hundred years.

⁶⁹ Abram was not guiltless in the matter; like Sarai, he also displayed a lack of faith. But Abram did believe that Hagar’s child was the one God had promised.

⁷⁰ An angel is a spiritual being in human form. The Hebrew word for angel means “messenger.” It is uncertain whether the Lord was actually present in the angel or whether the Lord only sent the angel. In either case, the Lord spoke through the angel, and Hagar recognized that it was the Lord speaking (verse 13). Some Christians believe that the angel was a pre-incarnate manifestation of Jesus Christ. For further discussion, see comment on Genesis 18:1–8 and footnote to comment.

⁷¹ The Hebrew word for God Almighty is “El-Shaddai.” This is one of several names God used for Himself in the Old Testament. It expresses His power and all-sufficiency.

⁷² In the Bible, God’s future actions are often described in the past tense. When God says He will do something in the future, His word is so certain that we can look on it as if it had already happened. Whatever God says, He always accomplishes.

⁷³ “Gentile” is the Jewish term for anyone who is not a Jew. Note that the terms “Jew,” “Hebrew” and “Israelite” all refer to members of the same race: the descendants of Abram through his grandson Jacob (also called Israel).

⁷⁴ Circumcision is the cutting off of the excess skin at the tip of the penis. All male descendants of Abraham were required to be circumcised; newborns were to be circumcised on the eighth day of life (verse 12). Circumcision was the outward sign of being a Jew. Today most people undergo circumcision for health reasons, not religious reasons.

Circumcision was practiced by other ancient people in Abraham’s day; usually it was performed at puberty as an initiation rite. But no other people practiced circumcision as a sign of a covenant with God.

⁷⁵ The names Sarai and Sarah both mean “princess.”

⁷⁶ The name Isaac means “he laughs.”

⁷⁷ Those bought from a foreigner (verse 27) were slaves or bond servants of other nationalities; they may have been captured in battle, or they may have sold themselves into slavery to pay off debts. Wealthy people like Abraham usually possessed a number of slaves and servants of this sort.

⁷⁸ The three men may have been three angels, or they may have been two angels plus the angel of the LORD (Genesis 16:7)—that is, the Lord Himself. The Lord can appear in any form He chooses—including a smoking firepot with a blazing torch (Genesis 15:17) or even a burning bush (Exodus 3:2). The Lord can appear as one man, two men, or three men. The point is that when Abraham saw the three men, he recognized that the Lord was appearing before him.

⁷⁹ Some Christians believe that this third visitor was a manifestation of the pre-incarnate Christ. See footnote to comment on Genesis 16:7–10.

⁸⁰ Homosexual behavior was prevalent in Sodom; from Sodom comes the English word “sodomy.”

⁸¹ In Abraham’s time, adultery was punishable by death; so no one-even a king-wanted to commit adultery. It was safer to simply murder the husband; then adultery would not be an issue.

⁸² Dreams were a common means of receiving divine revelation in biblical times, and this continues to be true today, especially in areas where people have less access to God’s written word.

⁸³ The term fear of God (verse 11) is often used to signify a sincere religious belief that leads one to act rightly. Such “fear” indicates an openness to the Lord’s leading. It is often the first manifestation of a beginning faith.

To “fear the Lord” doesn’t just mean to be afraid of Him. The fear of the Lord is the foundation of human intelligence; it is the beginning of knowledge and of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). For further discussion, see Deuteronomy 6:1–3; Proverbs 1:7 and comments.

⁸⁴ Included among the gifts were a thousand shekels of silver. Originally a shekel was a unit of weight (about 12 grams); later it became the name of the main Jewish coin.

⁸⁵ See footnote to comment on Genesis 16:7–10.

⁸⁶ The name Ishmael means “God hears.”

⁸⁷ The land of the Philistines was located along the Mediterranean Sea in the western part of Canaan.

⁸⁸ “Testing” is not the same as “tempting.” God tests us in order to prove whether our faith and commitment are real. Satan tempts us in order to lead us into sin. God never tempts us (James 1:13); rather, by testing us, God strengthens our faith and helps keep us from sinning (Exodus 20:20).

⁸⁹ After Ishmael was sent away, Isaac was Abraham’s only son.

⁹⁰ The burnt offering was a common type of offering in Old Testament times, in which a sacrificed animal was burned on an altar.

⁹¹ The name Moriah means the Lord will provide (see verses 8,14).

⁹² In the Hebrew language, The LORD Will Provide is “Jehovah-Jireh.” This is one of the names for God used in the Old Testament; it highlights His role as the provider of all our needs.

⁹³ “I swear by myself,” said the Lord (verse 16), there being no one greater that one could swear by (Hebrews 6:13).

⁹⁴ In the cities of the ancient Middle East, business and legal transactions were usually carried out in a special meeting place near the main city gate.

⁹⁵ Because the servant’s mission had to do with ensuring the continuation of Abraham’s line through Isaac, the servant was told to place his hand near Abraham’s organ of procreation while taking the oath.

⁹⁶ We have noted earlier that a similar struggle was going to take place between the descendants of Canaan and Shem, sons of Noah, and between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac, sons of Abraham. All this struggling came about because of man’s sinful nature. However, as the book of Genesis reveals, this human struggling would not prevent God’s purposes from being fulfilled.

⁹⁷ “Grasping the heel” became a saying that signified deceiving or cheating, because later Jacob would cheat Esau out of his birthright (verse 33) and also out of his father’s blessing (Genesis 27:35–36).

⁹⁸ According to ancient custom, the younger of two sons remained subservient to the older; since Jacob now possessed the birthright of eldest son, Esau would have to be subservient to him. This subservience continued into future generations: for much of Old Testament history the descendants of Esau (the Edomites) lived in subjection to the descendants of Jacob (the Israelites).

⁹⁹ See comment on Genesis 25:26–28 and footnote to comment.

¹⁰⁰ See comment on Genesis 4:13–16 and first footnote to comment.

¹⁰¹ Jesus may have had Jacob’s dream in mind when He referred to Himself as a stairway between earth and heaven on which angels were ascending and descending (John 1:51). Indeed Jesus is the one “stairway,” the one mediator between men on earth and God in heaven (John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5).

¹⁰² It is important to emphasize that the covenant promises were not given only for the benefit of Abraham and his flesh-and-blood descendants; the covenant promises were given so that all people on earth might be blessed. Later on, the Jews began to lose sight of their calling to be a blessing to non-Jews; partly as a result of this, they forfeited the covenant blessings. Today we Christians are in danger of losing sight of our own missionary calling to bring to the whole world the good news of Jesus Christ, the offspring of Abraham, through whom all peoples are to be blessed.

¹⁰³ Bethel was located twelve miles north of Jerusalem; it would later become an important place in Israel’s history.

¹⁰⁴ God never approved of a man having more than one wife, and He approved even less of a man keeping a concubine—an “unofficial wife”—which was what Bilhah was. God’s ideal from the beginning was that a man have only one wife (Genesis 2:24). Anything more than that comes from man’s sinful desires and schemings.

¹⁰⁵ God hadn’t forgotten Rachel. When God is said to “remember” someone, it means that He has decided to act on that person’s behalf (see Genesis 8:1).

¹⁰⁶ God did give Rachel a second son, but it was at the cost of her life: she died in childbirth (Genesis 35:16–18).

¹⁰⁷ For a discussion of the various manifestations of God, see comments on Genesis 16:7–10; 18:1–8 and footnotes to comments.

¹⁰⁸ The dietary restriction mentioned in verse 32 is not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible. It is not certain exactly which tendon is referred to.

¹⁰⁹ To be “broken” by God is one of the deepest experiences of our Christian faith. We cannot be the kind of people God wants us to be without having been broken. God has to break us before we will surrender to Him; He has to break us before He can mold us and fill us with His Spirit. As self-centered human beings, we naturally resist such breaking; this was what Jacob was doing when he struggled with the angel. But God in His mercy did not let Jacob keep on struggling; He touched Jacob’s hip (verse 25). Suddenly all the things in Jacob’s earthly life were no longer so important: he had been touched by God. Instead of struggling for earthly blessings, Jacob now sought the highest blessing of all, God Himself: “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (verse 26). Each of us needs to pass through our own Peniel, where we can meet Jesus face to face and be transformed from self-willed strugglers to Spirit-filled channels of blessing to the world.

¹¹⁰ In verse 11, the Hebrew word for present used here can also mean blessing.

¹¹¹ Seir is also known as Edom. It is the desert land in which Esau settled after he left Canaan. Seir is situated southeast of Canaan.

¹¹² According to Old Testament law, if premarital intercourse occurred, the man had to pay a bride-price to the girl’s father; then the marriage could take place (Exodus 22:16–17).

¹¹³ Public decisions were made at the city gate in biblical times (Genesis 23:10).

¹¹⁴ In Hebrew, the word “beth” means “house” and the word “El” means “God.” Therefore, Bethel means “house of God” (Genesis 28:19). Here Jacob renamed the place El Bethel, the God of “Bethel.”

¹¹⁵ Though the preeminence passed to Judah, the legal rights of the firstborn passed to Joseph, the elder son of Rachel (1 Chronicles 5:1–2).

¹¹⁶ Joseph himself would become a victim of slander later on (Genesis 39:7–20). It commonly happens that the very sin we commit against others—such as slander—will later on be used against us.

¹¹⁷ The Ishmaelites were descendants of Ishmael, Abraham’s eldest son. But included among them were other tribes also, such as the Midianites (verse 36), who were descended from Midian, another of Abraham’s sons (Genesis 25:1–2).

¹¹⁸ Wearing coarse, scratchy sackcloth was a sign of mourning.

¹¹⁹ The Hebrew word for grave is “Sheol.” For further discussion, see Word List: Grave; General Article: What Happens After Death?

¹²⁰ The seal was a stamp used for placing one’s personal mark on a document or clay tablet.

¹²¹ Some Old Testament figures, such as Joseph, are considered “types” or forerunners of Christ, because their lives share some of the characteristics of His life. For further discussion on the subject of types, see General Article: “Types” and Predictive Events.

¹²² All kings of Egypt went by the title Pharaoh.

¹²³ Some people today believe that God speaks directly to them through their dreams and gives them guidance. But to act solely on the basis of such a dream is dangerous. Confirmation of the guidance is always necessary. One or more godly people are needed who can interpret the dream. Furthermore, such guidance must always be in accordance with Scripture. Only after such confirmation is obtained would it be safe to act on guidance from dreams.

¹²⁴ In verse 38, the word spirit is not capitalized, because a pagan such as Pharaoh would not have recognized the Holy Spirit. However, Pharaoh certainly did recognize something special in Joseph, a divine presence. It is well to ask ourselves: can others recognize the divine presence in us?

¹²⁵ The name Manasseh sounds like the Hebrew word for “forget.” Joseph chose that name because God had made him forget his troubles and the cruelty of his brothers.

¹²⁶ The name Ephraim sounds like the Hebrew word for “twice fruitful”; the name reflects the fact that Joseph now had two sons.

¹²⁷ In verse 32, it is said that the Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews—the descendants of Abraham. The word “Hebrew” comes from the name Eber, one of Abraham’s ancestors (Genesis 10:21). But it wasn’t only Hebrews who were the problem; the Egyptians disliked eating with any foreigners.

¹²⁸ Nowhere in this chapter are we told that Joseph actually practiced divination (see verse 15); the steward suggested the cup might be used for that purpose only in order to further alarm and frighten the brothers. Divination was expressly prohibited in the Jewish law (Deuteronomy 18:10–12), because it involved relying on spirits and idols instead of on the one true God.

¹²⁹ Repentance isn’t just feeling sorry for doing something wrong; it is turning from that wrong and, as far as possible, making things right. Repentance is proved by one’s deeds (Acts 26:20).

¹³⁰ Years earlier, God had revealed to Joseph that he would indeed be a ruler (Genesis 37:6–8).

¹³¹ There are various explanations for the numbers used in verses 8–27; the totals vary according to which individuals are included in the different calculations. For example, sometimes Jacob and Joseph are included, sometimes not. The same is true for Er and Onan (verse 12), who died before the family went to Egypt (Genesis 38:7,9–10). Furthermore, the name Ohad (verse 10) is a scribal duplication of the name Zohar in the same verse (see Numbers 26:12–13) and should be omitted in order to bring the total of Leah’s descendants to thirty-three (verse 15). Numbers and names in the Old Testament are sometimes difficult to interpret and reconcile, because of incomplete information.

¹³² In Acts 7:14, Stephen says that seventy-five people were in Jacob’s family at that time. He was basing his number on the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint), which adds to the total five grandsons and great-grandsons of Joseph.

¹³³ God can create something out of nothing, but He can’t “multiply” something that does not exist. We may think that our labor or our offering is insignificant, but it is not insignificant to God; He will multiply it. But He will not multiply what we do not offer Him.

¹³⁴ Today in many parts of the world, tenant farmers get to keep only half the produce for themselves.

¹³⁵ Manasseh and Ephraim would be just like Reuben and Simeon (verse 5), Jacob’s two oldest sons. Indeed, because of earlier sins, Reuben and Simeon had lost their position as “oldest sons.” Now Manasseh and Ephraim—through Joseph—would have the privilege of being “oldest.” Generations later, the descendants of Manasseh and Ephraim would become two of Israel’s most important tribes.

¹³⁶ Jacob’s father Isaac had also been blind when he was deceived into giving Jacob the blessing that had been meant for Jacob’s older brother Esau (Genesis 27:1,21–24).

¹³⁷ In biblical times, to be at the right hand was to be in the position of honor and blessing (Matthew 25:32–33).

¹³⁸ In giving the primary blessing to Ephraim, Jacob was acknowledging that Ephraim’s descendants would become greater than Manasseh’s descendants (verse 19). And this indeed proved true. The tribe of Ephraim became the major tribe of the northern kingdom after Israel was divided following the reign of King Solomon.

¹³⁹ Seth was chosen over Cain, Shem over Japheth, Isaac over Ishmael, and Jacob over Esau.

¹⁴⁰ In verse 21, the Hebrew words you and your are plural, indicating that these words were directed not only to Joseph but also to Manasseh and Ephraim and their descendants.

¹⁴¹ Jacob said, “Cursed be their anger . . . and their fury” (verse 7). He didn’t pronounce a curse on Simeon and Levi directly; he cursed their sinful nature. This is a reminder for us that we are to hate the sin but love the sinner. Yet at the same time, the sinner must bear his punishment, as did Simeon and Levi.

¹⁴² The name Judah means praise.

¹⁴³ People in Old Testament times, of course, did not recognize that verse 10 was a prophecy regarding Jesus; they assumed it referred to King David, Israel’s greatest king, also a descendant of Judah and forerunner of Jesus. During his reign, David subdued many of the nations surrounding Israel; thus it could be said that the obedience of the nations was his.

¹⁴⁴ In the blessing given to Judah (verses 8–12), the name Judah stands mainly for the descendants of Judah. The same is true of the other blessings that follow.

¹⁴⁵ An example of the treachery of the Danites is found in Judges 18:27–28.

¹⁴⁶ After Israel was divided into northern and southern kingdoms following Solomon’s reign, the northern kingdom was commonly referred to as “Ephraim.”

¹⁴⁷ The twelve tribes were derived from Jacob’s twelve sons. But the “tribe of Joseph” was really two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, making a total of thirteen. However, the Levites were not considered an ordinary tribe ; they had no territory allotted to them because they were the priests of Israel. So the total number of tribes remained twelve.

¹⁴⁸ Embalming was an Egyptian custom. It was carried out in Jacob’s case in order to prevent his body from putrefying during the long journey to Canaan. Later, Joseph’s own body would be embalmed so that it could be transported to Canaan (verses 25–26).

¹⁴⁹ Threshing “floors” were flat, open areas of hard earth or rock where the harvested wheat or barley was threshed and winnowed. The best-known threshing floor in the Bible was the one bought by King David, which later became the site of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 24:18–25).