Genesis 50:16 (DRB)

Passage

And they sent a message to him, saying: Thy father commanded us before he died,

Nearby Context

Genesis 50:14 And Joseph returned into Egypt with his brethren, and all that were in his company, after he had buried his father.

Genesis 50:15 Now he being dead, his brethren were afraid, and talked one with another: Lest perhaps he should remember the wrong he suffered, and requite us all the evil that we did to him.

Genesis 50:16 And they sent a message to him, saying: Thy father commanded us before he died,

Genesis 50:17 That we should say thus much to thee from him: I beseech thee to forget the wickedness of thy brethren, and the sin and malice they practised against thee: we also pray thee, to forgive the servants of the God of thy father this wickedness. And when Joseph heard this, he wept.

Genesis 50:18 And his brethren came to him; and worshipping prostrate on the ground, they said: We are thy servants.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "sent", "message", "saying", "father", "commanded", "before", and "died". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "sent" and "message", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 15's "Now he being dead his brethren were..." into verse 17's "That we should say thus much to...", so "sent" and "message" belong inside that flow. In Genesis context, the local focus is creation, human rebellion, covenant promise, and God's providence.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "sent" and "message" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.