Genesis 45 · a question people ask
What did Joseph mean by "don’t quarrel on the way"?
Joseph sends his brothers off with "See that you don’t quarrel on the way" (45:24). The Hebrew verb, ragaz, means "be agitated, quiver, quake, be excited, perturbed" (Brown-Driver-Briggs). Strong's says it is "to quiver (with any violent emotion, especially anger or fear)". It is used for fear, "The peoples have heard. They tremble" (Exodus 15:14), and for anger, "your raging against me" (Isaiah 37:28). So readers take Joseph's words two ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Don't blame each other
Those who hold this view, which the WEB's "quarrel" follows, think Joseph foresaw the brothers accusing one another over what they had done to him, as Reuben had once said, "Didn’t I tell you... and you wouldn’t listen?" (42:22).
Genesis 42:22
Don't be afraid
Those who hold this view note that the same verb describes trembling in fear, as when "The peoples have heard. They tremble" (Exodus 15:14). They read Joseph as reassuring brothers who had been "terrified" at his presence (45:3) and whose hearts had failed them on an earlier journey (42:28).
Exodus 15:14 · Genesis 45:3 · Genesis 42:28
The verses
“So he sent his brothers away, and they departed. He said to them, “See that you don’t quarrel on the way.””
“The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have taken hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.”
“But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me.”