Bible Strands
Genesis 47:12
Joseph also provided his father and brothers and all his father’s household with food for their families.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Joseph’s administrative actions during the severe famine, detailing how he distributes sustenance to his father, brothers, and extended family after settling them in the district of Rameses.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַ/יְכַלְכֵּ֤ל (va/y.khal.Kel) literally means “and he provided for,” while כָּל\־ (kol-) translates to “all,” emphasizing the comprehensive scope of the distribution.
The thread — This distribution of food runs parallel to the administrative actions in Genesis 47:1 and Genesis 47:21, where Joseph manages the arrival of his family and the subsequent economic restructuring of the region.
Why it lands — The text states that Joseph physically sustains his household before the narrative shifts to the exhaustion of the surrounding lands, requiring the reader to note the practical mechanics of survival without attributing theological fulfillment to the passage.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.
Cross-references
- Genesis 45:11 And there I will provide for you, because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise, you and your household and everything you own will come to destitution.’
- Genesis 47:1 So Joseph went and told Pharaoh: “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.”
- Genesis 47:21 and Joseph reduced the people to servitude from one end of Egypt to the other.
- Genesis 47:24 At harvest time, you are to give a fifth of it to Pharaoh, and four-fifths will be yours as seed for the field and food for yourselves and your households and children.”
- Exodus 20:12 Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
- Ruth 4:15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
- Matthew 15:4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
- Mark 7:10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
- 1 Thessalonians 2:7 On the contrary, we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother caring for her children.
- 1 Timothy 4:8 For physical exercise is of limited value, but godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for the present life and for the one to come.