Pharaoh argued, Come let us be shrewd with Israel lest they multiply...The Hebrew word for multiply is Nosaf, which sounds the same as Yosef-Joseph. There is a dark pun here, Pharaoh was warning his people that if they don't act shrewdly with Israel, not only will Israel multiply, but they may bring forth another character

And Israel saw Joseph's sons and he said, "Who are these?" And Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons whom God has given me here." Was Jacob's poor eyesight the reason why he didn't recognize his grandsons? He failed to recognize them, Malbim explains, because to their grandfather they were foreign and culturally removed. To Jacob,

Judah approached Joseph and said, "Please, my lord, let your servant speak something in my lord's ears...Most view this verse as Judah's attempt to engage Joseph in quiet diplomacy. Rav Hirsch sees it differently. He claims that the expression, my lord's ears, encouraged Joseph to consider the matter with his head, and not just his heart.

It's not so much what you say, but also how you say it. Telling his brothers about his dream, Joseph says "Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, behold, my sheaf arose and actually stood up, and, behold, your sheaves drew round and bowed to my sheaf." "Behold" connotes vanity and smugness, yet in this verse, Joseph