Genesis 49 contains many of Jacob’s blessings to his sons as Jacob was passing away. Regarding Joseph, Jacob states in Genesis 49:22 that 

Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall.

The imagery is of a vine, planted by a fountain (and thus well-supplied with water), whose tendrils extend over the walls of the fountain. Thus Joseph is being called fruitful and his posterity is being said to be numerous.⁷⁹

Latter-day Saints have appealed to this verse as supportive of the Book of Mormon since Lehi, a descendant of Joseph (1 Nephi 5:14), crosses the “wall” of the ocean to get to the Americas. Latter-day Saints find support in this interpretation in the fact that the Book of Mormon as well as the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible contain prophecies of the biblical Joseph referring to the Latter-day Restoration (JST Genesis 50:24–38; 2 Nephi 3:6–18).

Mainstream academic biblical interpretation sees this verse as merely referring to the fruitfulness of Joseph’s posterity with no specific geographical fulfillment. That said, Latter-day Saint scholars have made some intriguing arguments regarding the interpretation of this verse that may lend biblical support to the Book of Mormon. Latter-day Saint Diane Worth wrote the following about this verse:

Throughout the scriptures, branches often refer to individuals in a genealogical sense (see for example Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15; Isaiah 11:1; Zechariah 3:8; and 2 Nephi 3:7). It is interesting to note that the people of pre-Columbian America also regarded the tree as an emblem of life and growth of a lineage or race.

When we examine Joseph’s symbolic blessing as given above, the pieces fall together when we see the well as representing the ocean. The descendants of Joseph—the branches—would cross the waters and multiply their seed in a land on the other side of the sea.

As it is in many cases with duo-symbolism of words, “branches,” in this case, may not only refer to members of a genealogical tree, but to a boat going over the wall of a well, or the sea. In the Egyptian Book of What is in the Underworld, the boat that travels in the waters of the underworld is called “Pa-khet” which, in English, translates as “branch” (E.A.W. Budge, The Egyptian Heaven and Hell London [1906], Vol. 1, pp. 47-48.) The duo-symbolism in this prophecy may therefore refer not only to the seed of Joseph, in a genealogical sense, but to a boat which his seed would use to cross the waters.

To support this hypothesis, we look to Moses to further amplify this prophecy. Moses said to Joseph’s seed that the land they were to inhabit would be “choice” and “bounteous.” He further indicated that it would be in the “ancient mountains” and “lasting hills” (Deuteronomy 33:13-17). The land they would be led to would be a land of plenty and it would contain an extensive mountain range. This description aptly applies to the Americas. The western hemisphere is not only rich in food and minerals, but it does contain lasting hills, namely the Rocky Mountains which run through the western part of North, Middle, and South America.⁸⁰

It should be emphasized that the mainstream academic interpretation of this verse is not incompatible with Latter-day Saint theology since the mainstream interpretation makes the verse merely about Joseph’s posterity of which Lehi can clearly be a part.

While we ultimately cannot be certain about the meaning of this verse, there are some tantalizing interpretive possibilities that are congruent with and supportive of the Book of Mormon. If the prophecy is indeed fulfilled by the Book of Mormon, then other religions who recognize the Bible has holy scripture are left wanting as to the unique and exclusive knowledge that the Book of Mormon offers them regarding this prophecy.