By the God of your father who will help you: by, which opens the first two lines of verse 25, appears to continue the addition of names of the God who enables Joseph in verse 24. However, it is better not to link verse 25 to verse 24 but to begin a new sentence as in Good News Translation; for example, “The God your father worships will help you,” or as a prayer, “May the God … help you.” It may be clearer here to switch to “My God….”

God Almighty who will bless you: God Almighty translates ʾEl Shaddai. See 17.1. This may also be expressed as a prayer, “May the Almighty God bless you with….”

With blessings of heaven above: these are the typical blessings of fertility, asking for abundant crops that come about from dew, rain, and sunshine, as in 27.39. See Good News Translation.

Blessings of the deep that couches beneath: this is expressed as in Deut 33.13. The reference is to the water beneath the earth, which supplies springs and rivers. See the discussion and translation of deep in 1.2. The verb for couches refers to the state of lying down at rest, being stretched out in a relaxed way, and is sometimes used of wild animals at rest but ready to act; it was used to describe the nearness and danger of sin in 4.7. Here it is a poetic way of picturing the waters that are stretched out under the earth, ready to be applied for the good of people according to God’s blessings. See Good News Translation for a simple way of stating the blessing in translation.

Blessings of the breast and of the womb: interpreters take this to refer to the reproduction of animals and humans. Good News Translation says “cattle and children.” Bible en français courant asks for “blessings of fertility for women and for animals.” If the more literal translations are not clear, we may also say, for example, “May you have many offspring, and may your animals give birth to many young ones.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .