Joseph’s Patriarchal Blessing
Genesis 49:22, 26
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall . . .
26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
Elder LeGrand Richards said:
“I would now like to refer to the blessings given to the twelve sons of Jacob, or Israel. Jacob called his sons together and told them that he would tell them that which would befall them in the latter days [see Gen. 49:1]. I will pass over all of them except Joseph’s blessing. Jacob said that Joseph was a fruitful bough whose branches would run over the wall (and we have always understood that the wall referred to the great waters)—and where was he to go over the wall? Unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills [see Gen. 49:22, 26]. Is there any theologian in this world who can tell us where those everlasting hills are to which the Lord, through the father of Joseph, promised Joseph that he and his people would go?
“He further said that his blessings would prevail above the blessings of his progenitors [see Gen. 49:26] and his progenitors were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Can you imagine that God would have in store for that chosen one blessings greater than those of his progenitors, and then not provide that a record should be kept of the fulfillment of those promises unto that great branch of the house of Israel?
“The Book of Mormon tells us where that land is. It tells us how the Lord moved upon one, Lehi, and led him with his family and others to this land of America. He promised them that it would be a land choice above all other lands [see 1 Ne. 2:20]. He commanded them that they should keep records, and for a period of a thousand years the records were handed down from one prophet to another until they were finally buried in the earth, waiting to come forth in these latter days.”
(In Conference Report, Apr. 1967, 19–20.)
