Literary Devices – Bereshit 50

• The story of Yaakov’s relationship with Yosef begins with the 17 years that they lived together before Yosef was sold (37:2) and concludes with the 17 years that they spent together after being reunited in Egypt (47:28).¹ This implies a sense of resolution and closure that is achieved with their reunion, and the significance of their relationship as the defining backbone of their narratives.
• Sources – Radak notes that the frame also illustrates the reversal of roles that takes place over the course of life: “דרשו בו כמו שהיה יוסף בחיק יעקב שבע עשרה כן היה יעקב בחיק יוסף שבע עשרה שנה”

• Prof. Robert Alter notes that Sefer Bereshit begins with Hashem’s breath calling all life into being, and ends with the image of a body in a coffin. This represents the closure of the first stage of human history in the eyes of Tanakh. Sefer Shemot will open the next stage with a narrative of prolific birth.

• Articles
• See R. Alter, Genesis: Translation and Commentary, (New York, 1996).
• For discussion of how literary envelopes, be they inlcusios or inversions, might help a reader demarcate the boundaries of a story, see Prof. Yonatan Grossman's Narrative Demarcation (I) - "You Have Set an Inviolable Boundary".

Tanakh Lab demonstrates that the words that appear with greatest frequency in this chapter are אב, עלה, ארץ. The terms appear in two contexts -- the returning of Yaakov to be buried in the land of Israel and the promise that the nation of Israel will eventually return as well.² Thus Sefer Bereshit concludes by emphasizing the eternal link of the Patriarchs and their descendants to the Land.

The words that appear with greatest frequency in Bereshit 50 relative to the rest of Bereshit and the rest of Tanakh are “חנט”  (embalming) and “אֵבֶל” (mourning), reflecting the specific connection of this chapter to the period and practices of mourning.

• Though the root "פקד" appears only four times in the chapter, see the concordance that, with one exception, all appearances of the root (and the related noun פקיד) in Sefer Bereshit are found in the Yosef narratives,³ suggesting that the word might play an important role in the story.
• Articles – Prof. Yonatan Grossman, in his article Leitwort (III) discusses the repetition of the root, noting that it takes various forms with different meanings:: “פקד” (to take account or remember), “הפקיד” (appoint), and “פקיד” (agent) . The various usages and different contexts⁴ underscore the theme of dual causality that is central to the story of Yosef, playing with the question: “Who is the ruler? Who is the agent?”  (God or man?)