What Does Genesis 47:12 Mean?
And Joseph fed his father and his brothers, and all his father's house, with bread, according to the mouths of the little ones.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for “nourished” means sustained and maintained, so the bread here supports an entire household’s life.
THE MEANING
The verse shows provision reaching father, brothers, and the whole household together. Bread is apportioned according to their families, so the care meets the shape of their shared life. No part of the household is outside the act of sustaining.
THE ROOT
וַיְכַלְכֵּל
waykalkel
GROWS FROM
כלכל
The reduplicated Hebrew root כלכל (k-l-k-l) means to sustain, maintain, or provide for.
“fed” in this verse is waykalkel. The verse’s verb, וַיְכַלְכֵּל (waykalkel, “he sustained”), carries the sense of support that keeps life going. Here nourishment is more than a meal: it is provision sustaining the whole household.
ALSO GROWS
kilkel: to sustain, support, or provide for
כִּלְכֵּל
This verb shares the root’s consonants and names the sustaining action at the center of the verse.
kalkalah: support, maintenance, provision; also economy in modern usage
כַלְכָּלָה
This related noun carries the root’s sense of ongoing support, extending it from an act of care to the means that sustain life.
vekhilkalti: and I will sustain you
וְכִלְכַלְתִּי
In Genesis 45:11, Joseph uses this same root when he says he will sustain his father and household through the famine.
יוֹסֵף
Yosef
GROWS FROM
יסף
The three-consonant Hebrew root יסף (y-s-p) means to add, increase, or continue.
Joseph’s name יוֹסֵף (Yosef, “he adds” or “may he add”) carries the root יסף (y-s-p), “to add.” In this verse, his name stands beside provision extended to his father, brothers, and their whole household.
ALSO GROWS
yasaf: to add, increase, or continue
יָסַף
This verb is the root form beneath Joseph’s name, joining his name’s meaning to the provision described here.
hosif: to add or increase
הוֹסִיף
This related verb makes the root’s sense of addition explicit: Joseph’s provision reaches beyond one person to the whole household.
THE PATTERN
Provision sustains a community when it reaches everyone in proportion to their need.
And when they measured it with an omer, the one who gathered much had nothing over, and the one who gathered little had no lack. Each one gathered according to his eating.The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in its season.and set them down at the feet of the sent ones, and it was given out to each as anyone had need.THE THREAD
And there I will feed you, for there are still five years of hunger, lest you and your house and all that is yours be dispossessed.The verb translated “nourish” here comes from the same Hebrew root כלכל (k-l-k-l), “to sustain,” as the verb in Genesis 47:12. One verse names sustaining as a promise; the other shows that provision reaching the whole household through bread.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us