What Does Genesis 50:17 Mean?
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.
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
So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.THE KEY
The Hebrew asks Joseph to lift the breach away, so forgiveness appears as release of a real wrong, not denial that it happened.
THE MEANING
When harm done to you is named as evil, a request for release does not make it harmless. Joseph weeps as the words reach him; release and grief occupy the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Forgiving someone means pretending what they did was not evil or showing no grief; the verse names the harm as evil and leaves Joseph’s tears in view.
THE ROOT
שָׂא
śāʾ
GROWS FROM
נשׂא
To lift, carry, or bear.
The verb rendered “forgive” is an imperative to lift or bear the breach. The plea makes release possible without calling the deed harmless; the same sentence names it evil.
ALSO GROWS
maśśāʾ: A burden or load.
מַשָּׂא
The related word for a burden makes the image of carrying explicit: the plea concerns what the wrongdoing has placed between them.
nāsûy: Lifted, borne; used of a forgiven transgression.
נָשׂוּי
This form appears in Psalm 32:1, where a transgression is described as borne away, joining forgiveness to the same lifting image.
פֶּשַׁע
pešaʿ
GROWS FROM
פשע
To rebel or break away.
“Trespass” carries the force of rebellion or a break in relationship. The plea does not blur the breach into a vague mistake; it names what the brothers did as a real rupture.
ALSO GROWS
pāšaʿ: To rebel or break away.
פָּשַׁע
The verb gives the noun its force: the offense is a breaking away that must be released.
pōšēaʿ: A rebel, one who breaks away.
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This branch names the person by the act of rupture, showing how deeply the breach reaches into the relationship.
חַטָּאתָם
ḥaṭṭāʾtām
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss, fail, or do wrong.
“Their sin” is paired with “their rebellion,” giving two angles on the same harm: a breaking away and a missing. The language names the wrong directly while keeping it distinct from the act of releasing it.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss or do wrong.
חָטָא
The verb carries the sense of failure or missing that lies beneath the noun in this verse.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Wrongdoing; also an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
This form can name both the wrong and an offering that addresses it, keeping the focus on the failure that needs to be dealt with.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents forgiveness as the release or removal of a real trespass, not a claim that no trespass occurred.
As far as the east is from the west, so far he puts our rebellions from us.For if you release people's false steps, your heavenly Father will also release yours.And he set his knees down, and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not make this shortcoming stand against them. And saying this, he fell asleep.THE THREAD
Guarding faithful love for thousands, carrying crookedness, rebellion, and falling short, and who by no means leaves the guilty clean, visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation.Exodus uses the same nāśāʾ verb for “forgiving” and names pešaʿ and ḥaṭṭāʾ, the same rebellion and missing named here. It holds release alongside the statement that guilt is not simply cleared, keeping the wrong visible as the language of bearing it opens this plea further.
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