What Does Genesis 50:15 Mean?
And when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and will surely return upon us all the evil we did to him."
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 when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.THE KEY
The line turns guilt into a forecast of retaliation: “requite” is their fear that the harm they dealt will return to them.
THE MEANING
When guilt is active, possible rejection can feel like certain payback. The mind turns harm into a mirror, expecting the same measure to return from the person it has injured. That certainty is fear speaking ahead of any declared intent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Guilt does not give you knowledge of another person’s intent: a feared return of harm can feel certain without being promised.
THE ROOT
הָשֵׁב יָשִׁיב
hāshēv yāshīv
GROWS FROM
שוב
shuv
Turn back, return.
“return upon” in this verse is hāshēv yāshīv. The phrase’s literal shape is “returning, he will surely return,” with the return verb doubled for emphasis. “Requite” carries the image of harm circling back as repayment.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn, return.
שׁוּב
The root makes the feared repayment a return: what they did to Joseph comes back toward them.
hēshīv: Bring back, restore, or return something.
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form gives the fear its shape: Joseph will send the harm back upon them.
יִשְׂטְמֵנוּ
yistemēnû
GROWS FROM
שׂטם
śāṭam
Bear a grudge or hold enmity.
“will hate us” in this verse is yistemēnû. The word reaches beyond a passing flash of anger to hostility held against someone. The brothers fear a lasting grudge in Joseph, though the verse gives his intent only as their suspicion.
ALSO GROWS
vayistom: He bore enmity.
וַיִּשְׂטֹם
This form describes Esau’s grudge against Jacob, showing the root’s force of sustained hostility.
vayistmehu: They bore him hatred.
וַיִּשְׂטְמֵהוּ
The same root describes the archers’ hostility toward Joseph, linking hatred with an ongoing threat.
גָּמַלְנוּ אֹתוֹ
gāmalnû ʾōtô
GROWS FROM
גמל
gamal
Deal with someone, render treatment, or recompense.
“did unto him” in this verse is gāmalnû ʾōtô. The brothers describe not just an abstract wrong but how they dealt with Joseph. This root can also name recompense, so their fear turns their past treatment into a debt they expect to be returned.
ALSO GROWS
gāmal: Deal with, treat, or repay.
גָּמַל
This verb underlies “did unto him,” placing their wrongdoing in the language of treatment given to another.
gemul: Recompense, reward, or repayment.
גְּמוּל
This related noun makes explicit the return-of-treatment logic that fills their fear.
THE PATTERN
The expectation that past harm must return as matching harm is interrupted by a response that refuses retaliation.
As for you, you planned evil against me, but God planned it for good, to make it as it is this day, to keep a great people alive.And he said to David, You are more aligned than I, for you have repaid me good, and I have repaid you evil.Give back to no one evil for evil. Look ahead to what is beautiful in the eyes of all people.THE THREAD
As for you, you planned evil against me, but God planned it for good, to make it as it is this day, to keep a great people alive.Genesis 50:20 repeats רָעָה (raʿah, evil or harm) from this verse. It keeps the wrongdoing named as evil while opening a future beyond the brothers’ imagined payback.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us