What Does Genesis 50:16 Mean?

So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died." The brothers' strategy: cite Jacob to influence Joseph. They send a message (through intermediaries: they are too afraid to approach Joseph directly) claiming that Jacob gave a specific command before his death. The message will be elaborated in the next verse: that Jacob commanded Joseph to forgive his brothers. Whether Jacob actually gave this command is not verified in the text: it may have been a real instruction not previously recorded, or it may be what the brothers say Jacob said in order to use the patriarch's authority as protection from feared retaliation.

The use of Jacob as protection: "your father gave this command": is the brothers' instinctive resort to the same authority structure they relied on during the Egypt negotiations. Throughout Genesis 42 to 45, it was Jacob's preferences and Jacob's authority that structured the negotiations: Jacob did not want Benjamin to go; Jacob eventually relented; Jacob's well-being was the constant theme of Judah's speech. Now Jacob is dead and the brothers cite Jacob's authority posthumously as a shield.

The sending of a message rather than a direct approach shows how fearful the brothers are. They are not going to Joseph personally to ask forgiveness or express their fear; they are sending an intermediary with a message. The same indirect communication (intermediaries, written language) that characterized the early Egypt negotiations before the revelation is back: fear of direct encounter with Joseph producing the use of mediating distance. The brothers who are afraid of Joseph's face are not yet ready to stand before him with the vulnerability of direct appeal.