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| DALL-E prompt: king vs tyrant renaissance style |
His brothers said to him, will you really reign over us? Will you really rule upon us? And they continued to hate him more on account of his dreams and on account of his words.
Why do the brothers make two statements that appear to be synonymous? Is there a difference between “will you really reign over us?” and “Will you really rule upon us?”
The Ramban presents the interpretations of Onkelos and Ibn Ezra:
המלוך תמלוך עלינו אם משול תמשול בנו – פירש ר' אברהם: אנחנו נשימך מלך עלינו, או אתה תמשול בנו בחזקה. ויותר נכון דעת אנקלוס, התהיה מלך עלינו או שלטון מושל בנו, כי לשניהם אדם משתחוה, לא יהיה לך עלינו לעולם לא מלכות ולא ממשלת.
SHALT THOU INDEED REIGN OVER US? OR SHALT THOU INDEED HAVE DOMINION OVER US? Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained: "Shall we voluntarily make you king over us, or will you rule over us by force?" The opinion of Onkelos appears to be more correct. He rendered it: "Shall you be king over us or some authority ruling us?" For people prostrate themselves before both. The verse thus means, "You will never be king or any kind of authority over us." (translated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo Publishing House, (New York, 1971-1976) (CC BY 3.0), digitized by Sefaria)
Ibn Ezra suggests that the first phrase was the brothers’ astonishment regarding the possibility that they would ever voluntarily submit to Yosef. The second phrase expressed their shock at the possibility that Yosef thought he might even rule over them by force.
Onkelos, on the other hand, says the brothers were expressing their incredulity that they would ever submit to Yosef–it was preposterous to think that he would be their king, as suggested by their first phrase, or any other kind of authority, as suggested by the second phrase.
Ramban states his preference for Onkelos’ translation.
Ramban, however, seems to have a different version of Onkelos. Our version says: His brothers said to him, Do you imagine that you will reign over us? Or do you maintain/think that you will rule over us? They hated him even more because of his dreams and his words. (English translation retrieved from AlHaTorah.org with some changes) Onkelos, noticeably adds the word “imagine” to the first phrase and “maintain/think” to the second phrase.
With these additions, Onkelos can very easily be understood to be in consonance with the Ibn Ezra. Rabbi Isaiah Berlin also known as Rav Yeshaye Pick (1719-1799) in his Minei Targuma[1], explains that Ibn Ezra and Onkelos are expressing the same idea. To imagine lacks certitude–Yosef can’t be sure the brothers will willingly submit themselves to him–does he imagine they will?! To maintain something (the word savir in Aramaic is used to express a decisive thought) is to be decisive–meaning, was Yosef ready to make his dominance decisive by forcing the brothers to submit to his rule?![2]
Based on Rabbi Berlin’s suggestion, I would like to suggest that according to Onkelos the brothers were not offering two logical possibilities. Rather, they were emotionally working through–or working up–what Yosef’s dream could mean. At first they thought he was making the laughable suggestion that they were going to make him their king. What a joker! What kind of imagination he must have! And then, like a slap in the face, they realized the true meaning might be much darker–perhaps his delusion was not regarding what the brothers would come to do–rather he decisively maintained that he would, indeed, rule them–by force if necessary.
The problem is that the brothers were interpreting through fear. They let their jealousy of Yosef lead their thoughts. They could only imagine the worst. They couldn’t entertain the possibility that Yosef’s dream might point to something more benevolent. All they could see was Yosef’s youthful arrogance and not his potential.
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[1] https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=39943&st=&pgnum=10
[2] Rabbi Berlin suggests that Ibn Ezra might have been compelled to give this explanation of the verse to make sense of the different prepositions used for each phrase, “Will you really reign over us (aleinu)? Will you really rule upon us (banu). Aleinu implies by the brothers’ good graces. Banu, on the other hand, implies by force. The Daat Mikra cites the Vilna Gaon's interpretation that malchut in general implies rule by the will of the people and moshail in general implies rule by force. Additionally, the Vilna Gaon points out that only the first phrase starts with a hey haTeima--meaning they were truly astonished/astounded by the suggestion that they would willingly make him their king because they hate him! (Daat Mikra citing Kol Eliyahu, p. 8)
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