Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
Parallel translations
- WEB “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His branches run over the wall.
- BSB Joseph is a fruitful vine—a fruitful vine by a spring, whose branches scale the wall.
- NKJV “Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a well; His branches run over the wall.
- NASB ¶“Joseph is a fruitful branch, A fruitful branch by a spring; Its branches hang over a wall.
- NLT “Joseph is the foal of a wild donkey, the foal of a wild donkey at a spring— one of the wild donkeys on the ridge.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Joseph is portrayed as a fruitful vine by a spring whose branches climb over the wall.
Overview
The flourishing, ever-spreading vine pictures Joseph's abundant fruitfulness and the growth of his descendants beyond all bounds. Nourished 'by a spring,' Joseph's blessing flows from God's sustaining grace. His fruitfulness amid hardship pictures the life that draws on God as its source, a theme fulfilled in Christ the true Vine (John 15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Gen 41:52And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
- Ps 128:3Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
- Ps 1:1–3Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
- Josh 16:1–10And the lot of the children of Joseph fell from Jordan by Jericho, unto the water of Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that goeth up from Jericho throughout mount Bethel,
- Gen 46:27And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.
- Gen 30:22–24And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.
- Josh 17:14–17And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the LORD hath blessed me hitherto?
- Ps 128:1Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways.
- Gen 48:1And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
- Deut 33:13–17And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,
- Ezek 19:11And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.
- Num 32:1–42Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle;
- Gen 48:5And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.
- Gen 48:16The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
- Gen 48:19–20And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 49:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.