Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
Joseph is a fruitful bough ... - literally, 'the son of a fruitful tree (a vine) is Joseph; the son of a fruitful tree by a fountain, whose branches (daughters) mount upon a wall.' When Jacob arrived, in the course of his addresses, at Joseph, the thought of that favourite son imparted a sudden animation to the soul of the venerable patriarch; because his bosom seems to have heaved with emotion, and he pours out wishes for the personal welfare of Joseph, or foreshadows the future fortunes of his descendants with a flow of sentiment and a redundancy of expression which shows how fully the sympathies of the father went with the utterances of the prophet. The name "Joseph" imports addition, increase; and the image by which his history is represented at the outset conveys the idea of progressive growth and luxuriant productiveness in good fruits. In the East fruit-bearing trees, particularly vines, are frequently made to entwine on trellises around a well or spring; and 'in Persia the vine-dressers,' as Morier says, 'do all in their power to make the vine run up the wall, and curl over on the other side, which they do by tying stones to the extremity of the tendril.' The figure represents the rapid growth, the numerical extent, and political influence of the two tribes that sprang from Joseph (cf. Numbers 1:33-35; Josh. 16:17; Deuteronomy 33:17).