One way to read this chapter is as a model patriarchal blessing. How would knowing his lineage back to Joseph of Egypt affect young Joseph? There are “exceedingly great and precious promises” that can come from our heritage (1 Pet 1:2, 4). What does it mean to you to know, from your patriarchal blessing, that you are a child of Abraham & Sarah? What blessings are yours to claim? (see Gen 12:2, 3; Abr 2:11)
1 in the days of my greatest sorrow did thy mother bear thee, see note on 2 Ne 2:1-2
2 consecrate also unto thee this land, consecrate is not a gift of ownership. It suggests at most stewardship, but more fundamentally the idea that what Joseph and his seed do on the land be consecrated for their good and the good of others (see 2 Ne 32:9).
3 thy seed shall not utterly be destroyed, this must have been important given so many were just destroyed in Jerusalem. This becomes the theme of Lehi’s blessing for Joseph. The name ‘Joseph’ means ‘he will increase,’ suggesting a large posterity (see more below in note on v15).
4-5 great were the covenants…unto Joseph…he obtained a promise…righteous branch…to be broken off…remembered…that the Messiah should be made manifest unto them, Lehi applies this prophecy, found in JST Gen 50:24-38, to his family, who were the seed of Joseph, broken off from Jerusalem, and whom the Messiah would visit in the meridian of time.
As to the JST, the book of Genesis ends at Genesis 50:26 after a one verse prophecy of Joseph of Egypt in v24. Joseph Smith restored essentially 15 verses to this prophecy—see Gen 50:24, then fn 24a, then the JST Gen 50:24-38 in the back of the LDS Bible.
6 A choice seer, much of this prophecy applies to Joseph Smith, but Lehi contemplates a fulfillment in his day (see v5 “our day”). At first, he seems to be applying it to his son Joseph, but later he says the seer’s father’s name would also be Joseph; and yet, perhaps he is saying his ‘forefather’ Joseph (v15). Either way, Lehi suggests that his son Joseph will fulfill this prophecy, as either the father of the seer or the seer himself.
Joseph Smith is a latter-day fulfillment (see D&C 98:32; 132:30). His father, Joseph Smith Sr., gave a remarkable patriarchal blessing to his prophet son:
I bless thee with the blessings of thy fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and even the blessings of thy father Joseph, the son of Jacob. Behold he looked after his posterity in the last days, when they should be scattered and driven by the Gentiles, and wept before the Lord; he sought diligently to know from whence the son should come who should bring forth the word of the Lord, by which they might be enlightened and brought back to the true fold, and his eyes beheld thee, my son; his heart rejoiced and his soul was satisfied and he said; As my blessings are to extend to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills; as my father’s blessing prevailed over the blessings of his progenitors; and as my branches are to run over the wall, and my seed are to inherit the choice land whereon the Zion of God shall stand in the last days; from among my seed, scattered from the Gentiles, shall a choice Seer arise … whose heart shall meditate great wisdom, and whose intelligence shall circumscribe and comprehend the deep things of God, and whose mouth shall utter the law of the just … and he shall feed upon the heritage of Jacob his father. ‘Thou (Joseph Smith, Jr.) shall hold the keys of this ministry, even the Presidency of this Church, both in time and in eternity, and thou shalt stand on Mount Zion when the tribes of Jacob come shouting from the north, and with thy brethren, the Sons of Ephraim, crown them in the name of Jesus Christ.
See Joseph Smith Papers
7-8 he shall do a work…even to the bringing of them to the knowledge of the covenants… [and] he shall do none other work, see D&C 24:8-9 where the same is said of the prophet Joseph Smith. Thus, as Joseph of Egypt physically saved his brethren from famine, so this latter-day Joseph will spiritually save his brethren by “the bringing of them to the knowledge of the covenants.” (D&C 1:29, 30; 42:6; 132:7; 135:3)
9-10 Moses, of whom Joseph of Egypt also prophecies. Note the Moses 1:41 prophecy. Thus, Joseph of Egypt was given two prophecies (as is evident in Gen 50), one of Moses and the other one like unto Moses—Joseph Smith. Note these Joseph/Moses parallels:
- (1) Both saw and spoke with Jehovah.
- (2) Both were liberators who led multitudes in exodus for the sake of liberty from oppression.
- (3) Both were law-givers by divine inspiration.
- (4) Both were prophets and seers.
- (5) Both performed mighty miracles.
- (6) Both encountered opposition, from “friends” and enemies.
- (7) Both depended largely on a brother for success: Moses on Aaron; Joseph on Hyrum.
10 Moses will I raise up, but he doesn’t say from his seed, because Moses was not of Joseph’s lineage but of Levi.
11 power to bring forth my word, Lehi’s descendants, including his son Joseph, wrote the Book of Mormon; and Joseph Smith translated it. The Book of Mormon is the book that will bring Lamanite & Nephite, Jew & Gentile, even all mankind, to their God.
to the convincing them of my word which shall have already gone forth, the Book of Mormon will convince many that the Bible is true in its witness of Christ (1 Ne 13:40).
12 the fruit of thy loins shall write; and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write, the Book of Mormon is meant to “grow together” with the Bible (Ezek 37:15-20). It confounds false doctrines, it ends contentions, it establishes peace, and it brings people to a knowledge of the past and of God’s covenants.
“The stick or record of Judah–the Old Testament and the New Testament–and the stick or record of Ephraim–the Book of Mormon, which another testament of Jesus Christ– are now woven together in such a way that as you pore over one you are drawn to the other; as you learn from one you are enlightened by the other. They are indeed one in our hands. Ezekiel’s prophecy (Ez 37:15–19) now stands fulfilled.”
Boyd K. Packer, GC Oct 1982
“The Bible and the Book of Mormon are sagas of two groups of people separated by an ocean. Considering how many people in great pain and suffering have been transported across that ocean, it is a moving idea to say that scriptures on the two sides could grow together toward peace. Even scriptures need community. The Old Testament, New Testament, Pearl of Great Price, Koran, Torah, Book of Mormon, and all other scripture are meant to grow together to put down bad doctrine, establish peace, and increase knowledge. They are a community of scripture, created for the purpose of uniting us in a sense of the divine.”
Terryl Givens, 2nd Nephi, A Brief Theological Introduction
13 out of weakness he shall be made strong, in that day when my work shall commence, see D&C 1:19. There seems to be a clear latter-day context now, thus the application to Joseph Smith. God’s work, which will commence in the latter days with the publication of the BoM, is to restore the house of Israel to their former lands, prestige, and relationship with the Lord. In other words, there will be a reversal of the Exile. This is one way that the BoM defines “restoration.”
14-15 his name shall be called after me; and it shall be after the name of his father, actual father or forefather? In any event, Joseph Jr.’s father was Joseph Sr. This is one of five passages in the BoM that refer to Joseph Smith (2 Ne 27.9–23; 3 Ne 21:9–10; Morm 8:13–16, 25; Ether 1:5).
The etymology of the name Joseph is usually given as “the Lord addeth,” “may [God] add,” or “increaser,” but there are richer meanings in the Hebrew and Egyptian. In Genesis 30:24, where Rachel names her infant son Joseph, the Hebrew text reads Asaph, which means “he who gathers,” “he who causes to return,” or perhaps most appropriately, “God gathereth.” Also, Pharaoh had named Joseph of Egypt Zaphnath-paaneah, “he who reveals that which is hidden” (Gen. 41:45). (Dictionary of Proper Names and Places in the Bible, p. 40.) Thus his name reveals his mission.
“It was decreed in the counsels of eternity, long before the foundations of the earth were laid, that he, Joseph Smith, should be the man, in the last dispensation of this world, to bring forth the word of God to the people, and receive the fulness of the keys and power of the Priesthood of the Son of God.” The Lord had his eyes upon him, and upon his father, and upon his father’s father, and upon their progenitors clear back to Abraham, and from Abraham to the flood, from the flood to Enoch, and from Enoch to Adam. He has watched that family and that blood as it has circulated from its fountain to the birth of that man. He was fore-ordained in eternity to preside over this last dispensation.” (Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 108.)
Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 108
15 the thing which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand, namely, the Book of Mormon.
16 I will preserve thy seed forever, this promise of the preservation of seed is what began Lehi’s blessing to Joseph (v3, ‘thy see shall not utterly be destroyed’). Lehi knew the ‘Nephites’ would be destroyed, so the promise is important to him. As Joseph of Egypt preserved ancient Israel (the family of Jacob) ‘a posterity’ (Gen 45:7), so Joseph Smith the Seer preserves modern, covenant Israel a posterity.
17 I will give power unto him in a rod…I will write unto him my law, by the finger of mine own hand, when Moses was called by God, he was afraid that his words would not be believed and he protested that he was “slow of speech.” God responded by granting Moses power to perform miracles though a rod and by appointing Aaron as his spokesman (Ex 4.1–17). The BoM adds to the biblical account the observation that, despite his weakness in speech, Moses would nevertheless be a judicious writer, drawing on the tradition that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch. Ironically, Nephi views his own abilities as opposite those of Moses—he sees himself as mighty in speaking but weak in writing (2 Ne 33:1).
18 a spokesman, Oliver Cowdery the scribe? Sidney Rigdon the preacher (D&C 100:9-11)? Alternatively, could the verse refer to Mormon and Moroni as writers and Joseph as spokesperson/ translator?
19-20 as if the fruit of thy loins had cried unto them from the dust, Lehi’s son Joseph’s seed, or Nephites, are those who made the record and prayed that their words would be preserved (see Enos). The crying from the dust metaphor is one of my favorites in the Book of Mormon, though it comes from Isaiah’s prophecy (Is 29:4; see 2 Ne 33:13; Morm 8:23; Moro 10:27). In a different vein, authors Salleh & Hemming (For The Least of These) suggest that there are many voices crying from the dust—voices of Americans who have been oppressed or ‘ground into the dust,’ as it were. How can we be their spokespersons?
21 because of their faith, again see Enos, and later BofM prophets.
22-23 thy seed shall not be destroyed, back to where we started. Thematic bookends.
24 there shall rise up one mighty among them, who shall do much good…unto the bringing to pass much restoration, certainly applies to Joseph Smith; but also to Mormon, Moroni, and all the holy prophets of the Book of Mormon, as well as latter-day prophets.
25 thou art little…hearken unto Nephi, how little was he at this time? Perhaps too young to really understand what he’d been told, so Lehi made it a point that he just needed to follow Nephi and all would be well.
4:1-2 the prophecies of which my father hath spoken concerning Joseph who was carried into Egypt…he truly prophesied concerning all his seed. And…wrote, these verses should be included with ch 3. We of course don’t have the writings mentioned by Lehi in v2, but Joseph did have some of these writings, which he says were on some of the papyrus scrolls with the mummies from which he received the Book of Abraham:
“The record of Abraham and Joseph, found with the mummies, is beautifully written on papyrus, with black, and a small part red, ink or paint, in perfect preservation. The characters are such as you find upon the coffins of mummies—hieroglyphics, etc.; with many characters of letters like the present (though probably not quite so square) form of the Hebrew without points. The records were obtained from one of the catacombs in Egypt, near the place where once stood the renowned city of Thebes, by the celebrated French traveler, Antonio Lebolo, in the year 1831…Thus I have given a brief history of the manner in which the writings of the fathers, Abraham and Joseph, have been preserved, and how I came in possession of the same a correct translation of which I shall give in its proper place.”
HC 2:348-51
Joseph translated the book of Joseph but it was never published. Note this from Joseph Fielding Smith, however:
The detail of the knowledge had by the ancient Joseph is remarkable. As an illustration, Joseph Smith, in blessing Oliver Cowdery, said that Oliver would be blessed “according to the blessings of the prophecy of Joseph in ancient days, which he said should come upon the seer of the last days and the scribe that should sit with him, and that should be ordained with him, by the hands of the angel in the bush, unto the lesser priesthood, and after [he should] receive the holy priesthood under the hands of those who had been held in reserve for a long season, even those who received it under the hands of the Messiah, while he should dwell in the flesh upon the earth, and should receive the blessings with him, even the seer of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saith he, even Joseph of old.
Joseph Fielding Smith, IE Oct 1904
It may well be that the ancient Joseph knew more of our day than we do.
Holy Envy 