What Does Genesis 47:12 Mean?

And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their dependents. The provision of food "according to the number of their dependents" is the administrative formula for distributed provisions from the state grain reserves. Joseph is feeding his family from the same resources he has been using to provision all of Egypt and all who come to Egypt. The phrase "according to the number of their dependents" reflects the census-based distribution system that Joseph administers: households register their members; grain is distributed proportionally.

The provision of the family from the state grain reserves is both the fulfillment of God's promise ("I will provide for you": Genesis 45:11) and the climax of the entire Joseph narrative's providential arc: the grain that Joseph stored during seven abundant years, that feeds Egypt and all the earth during the famine, specifically feeds the family that sold Joseph into Egypt. The grain stored by the man who was sold for twenty silver pieces feeds the brothers who sold him; the resources of the office God placed Joseph in through their betrayal now sustain the very family whose betrayal set the trajectory in motion.

"All his father's household": the comprehensive provision includes the entire seventy-person household, from the patriarch at the center to the youngest member of the family. The provision is not selective or merit-based; it covers everyone. Joseph provides for his family not based on who among them was innocent (Benjamin and perhaps Simeon) versus guilty (the brothers who planned the sale) but based on family membership. The grace-provision mirrors the theological absolution of Genesis 45:5 to 8: all are covered, none are withheld from.