🌱WEB · Genesis 50:15
What does Genesis 50:15 mean?
"When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all the evil which we did to him.”"
— Genesis 50:15 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
His sons did to him just as he commanded them,
for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, as a possession for a burial site, from Ephron the Hittite, near Mamre.
Joseph returned into Egypt—he, and his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all the evil which we did to him.”
They sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded before he died, saying,
‘You shall tell Joseph, “Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
Explanation
Genesis 50:15 captures a moment of raw fear among Joseph's brothers immediately after their father Jacob's death and burial. The brothers reasoned among themselves that Joseph's kindness toward them during Jacob's lifetime might have simply been a performance for their father's sake. Now that Jacob was gone, they worried that Joseph would finally unleash the vengeance they believed he had been suppressing, repaying them measure for measure for selling him into slavery decades earlier.
To understand this verse, it helps to recall the larger story. Joseph was Jacob's favored son, whom his jealous brothers sold into slavery in Egypt around seventeen years old. Through a remarkable series of providential events, Joseph rose to become second-in-command over all of Egypt. When famine struck the region, his brothers came to Egypt seeking grain, not recognizing him. Joseph eventually revealed his identity, wept over them, and forgave them, inviting the entire family to settle in Egypt's land of Goshen under his protection. The book of Genesis was traditionally attributed to Moses, written for the Israelites to understand their origins and God's covenant faithfulness to their patriarchs. This final chapter closes the Genesis narrative and sets the stage for Exodus, explaining how Israel came to be in Egypt.
Theologically, this verse reveals the persistent power of guilt and the difficulty of trusting forgiveness fully. Despite years of Joseph's demonstrated grace, the brothers still doubted whether that grace
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