What Does Genesis 50:16 Mean?
And they commanded Joseph, saying, "Your father commanded before he died, saying,"
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 they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,THE KEY
The Hebrew verb behind “sent a messenger” and “did command” comes from the same root, so the message carries a command within a command.
THE MEANING
A message can reach you carrying another voice inside it: one speaker speaks under a command attributed to someone else. The verse keeps the layers visible, the brothers speak to Joseph, then place their words inside what they say Jacob commanded. Its force travels through both the message and the voice named within it.
THE ROOT
וַיְצַוּוּ
vayetsavvu
GROWS FROM
צוה
tsavah
to command or charge
“commanded” in this verse is vayetsavvu. The Hebrew verb behind both the brothers’ opening action and the father’s instruction comes from this root. English gives you a messenger followed by a command; the repeated root lets you hear the whole relay reverberate with command.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: commandment, instruction
מִצְוָה
The command in this verse belongs to the same word-family as a commandment: it is speech carrying an obligation.
tsav: directive, command
צַו
This branch keeps the force of the message in view: what travels to Joseph is framed as an instruction to be carried out.
לֵאמֹר
lemor
GROWS FROM
אמר
’amar
to say or speak
The verse uses לֵאמֹר, “saying,” twice: one report encloses another. This root’s branches include both utterance and decree, showing how speech here carries more than information, it carries an instruction.
ALSO GROWS
imrah: utterance, saying
אִמְרָה
The verse’s repeated “saying” makes each spoken layer audible.
ma’amar: statement, decree
מַאֲמָר
This branch shows how an utterance can carry the force of an order, as the reported words do here.
יוֹסֵף
Yosef
GROWS FROM
יסף
yasaf
to add or increase
Joseph’s name carries the root “to add,” recalling the naming phrase, “the LORD shall add to me another son.” Here the named recipient receives an added layer of speech: a report carrying a father’s reported command.
ALSO GROWS
hosif: he added, increased
הוֹסִיף
This verb form makes the name’s root meaning explicit.
mosaf: addition, supplement
מוֹסָף
This branch echoes the extra layer of voice added to the brothers’ message.
THE PATTERN
A speaker can carry words received from another, letting authority travel through a human voice.
I raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers, like you, and I set my words in his mouth, and he speaks to them all that I command him.For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father who sent me has given me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.So we are sent in the place of the Anointed One, as though God were urging you through us. We beg you in his place. Be exchanged back to God.THE THREAD
So you shall say to Joseph, "Release, I pray you now, the rebellion of your brothers, and their falling short, for they did you evil. And now, we pray you, release the rebellion of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept as they spoke to him.The same root אמר (’amar, “say”) that frames both reports in 50:16 opens the next instruction: “So shall ye say.” The reported command then carries a request to סָלַח (salaḥ, “forgive, release”), so the repeated speech frame delivers a plea for release.
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