Commentaire sur La Genèse 37:11

שמר את הדבר OBSERVED THE MATTER — He awaited and looked forward to the time when this would come to pass. In the same sense we have (Isaiah 26:2) “that watch (שומר) for faithfulness” (i.e., for the performance of a promise) and (Job 14:16) — “לא תשמור for my sin” — which means “thou dost not wait for my sin”.

ואביו שמר את הדבר. Why did the Torah bother to write this line? The reason is that when the brothers returned from Egypt and reported about Joseph’s position there, and Yaakov did not believe them that Joseph was still alive, he saw the carriages which Pharaoh had sent to transport him in (45,27) and realised that such an honour could only be bestowed by a king, and that seeing that the King of Egypt had no reason to honour him in such a manner, the carriages, though sent with the approval of Pharaoh, must have been sent by someone in an almost equally high position, i.e. his son Joseph, who had dreamed of attaining such stature. It was the recollection of the dream Joseph had told him about which then prompted Yaakov to exclaim רב,עוד יוסף בני חי, וכי הוא מושל בכל בארץ מצרים, “it is too much! Not only is my son Joseph still alive, but he is the ruler of the whole land of Egypt!” (45,28 combined with 26)

ויקנאו בו אחיו, they attributed such aspirations by Joseph to the fact that their father had appointed them as senior to them, otherwise he would not have dared tell such dreams even in his father’s presence.