Genesis 49:25-26

49:25 because of the God of your father,

who will help you, ¹ 

because of the sovereign God, ² 

who will bless you ³ 

with blessings from the sky above,

blessings from the deep that lies below,

and blessings of the breasts and womb. ⁴ 

49:26 The blessings of your father are greater

than ⁵  the blessings of the eternal mountains ⁶ 

or the desirable things of the age-old hills.

They will be on the head of Joseph

and on the brow of the prince of his brothers. ⁷ 

Genesis 28:4

28:4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham ⁸  so that you may possess the land ⁹  God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident.” ¹⁰ 

Genesis 39:5

39:5 From the time ¹¹  Potiphar ¹²  appointed him over his household and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed ¹³  the Egyptian’s household for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything that he had, both ¹⁴  in his house and in his fields. ¹⁵ 

[49:25]  ¹ tn Heb “and he will help you.”

[49:25]  ² tn Heb “Shaddai.” See the note on the title “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1. The preposition אֵת (’et) in the Hebrew text should probably be emended to אֵל (’el, “God”).

[49:25]  ³ tn Heb “and he will bless you.”

[49:25]  ⁴ sn Jacob envisions God imparting both agricultural (blessings from the sky above, blessings from the deep that lies below) and human fertility (blessings of the breasts and womb) to Joseph and his family.

[49:26]  ⁵ tn Heb “have prevailed over.”

[49:26]  ⁶ tn One could interpret the phrase הוֹרַי (horay) to mean “my progenitors” (literally, “the ones who conceived me”), but the masculine form argues against this. It is better to emend the text to הַרֲרֵי (harare, “mountains of”) because it forms a better parallel with the next clause. In this case the final yod (י) on the form is a construct plural marker, not a pronominal suffix.

[49:26]  ⁷ tn For further discussion of this passage, see I. Sonne, “Genesis 49:24-26,” JBL 65 (1946): 303-6.

[28:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “and may he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you.” The name “Abraham” is an objective genitive here; this refers to the blessing that God gave to Abraham.

[28:4]  ¹⁰ tn The words “the land” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[28:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the land of your sojournings,” that is, the land where Jacob had been living as a resident alien, as his future descendants would after him.

[39:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “and it was from then.”

[39:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Potiphar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[39:5]  ¹⁵ sn The Hebrew word translated blessed carries the idea of enrichment, prosperity, success. It is the way believers describe success at the hand of God. The text illustrates the promise made to Abraham that whoever blesses his descendants will be blessed (Gen 12:1-3).

[39:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in the house and in the field.” The word “both” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[39:5]  ¹⁷ sn The passage gives us a good picture of Joseph as a young man who was responsible and faithful, both to his master and to his God. This happened within a very short time of his being sold into Egypt. It undermines the view that Joseph was a liar, a tattletale, and an arrogant adolescent.