Exodus 1:5

Summary

The verse states that the total number of persons descended from Jacob was seventy, while Joseph was already in Egypt. The sentence uses a narrative formula to introduce the count, then shifts to a separate clause noting Joseph's prior location.

Key words

• vayehi ("it was", H1961) — narrative vav + qal verb, the standard formula opening a new narrative statement, here introducing the total count.
• nefesh ("person", H5315J) — feminine singular construct, used twice (lines 4 and 9): first in the chain "every person of," then as the counted unit "seventy persons." Hebrew nefesh denotes an individual living being, not merely a body count.
• yotze'ei yerekh ("[who] came out of [the] thigh of", H3318M + H3409) — a qal participle construct chained to a noun construct, forming the idiom "those coming out of the loin/thigh of [Jacob]," a way of expressing biological descent.
• shiv'im ("seventy", H7657) — cardinal number, masculine plural, giving the total figure of persons in the construct chain.
• ve-Yosef hayah ("and Joseph was", H9002 + H1961) — conjunction with qal perfect (completed action), forming a disjunctive clause that shifts focus from the general count to Joseph's specific, already-established situation in Egypt.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a double construct chain: kol-nefesh ("every person of") is immediately followed by yotze'ei yerekh-Ya'aqov ("those coming out of the thigh of Jacob"), so that the participle yotze'ei and the noun yerekh together modify nefesh, producing the sense "every person among those descended from Jacob." This entire phrase functions as the subject of the number shiv'im nafesh ("seventy persons"), which is not marked by a verb of counting but simply placed in apposition, a common Hebrew construction for stating totals.

The second half of the verse, ve-Yosef hayah be-Mitzrayim ("and Joseph was in Egypt"), uses the conjunction ve with a perfect verb (hayah) rather than continuing the narrative vav pattern. This shift from narrative-vav syntax to a vav + perfect clause sets Joseph's situation apart from the group being counted, marking it as a distinct, already-existing state rather than a new event in the sequence.

Differences between versions

The LXX gives the total as pente kai hebdomēkonta ("five and seventy" = seventy-five), diverging from the Hebrew shiv'im ("seventy", H7657). The LXX also places the clause about Joseph first ("Joseph was in Egypt; and all the souls from Jacob were seventy-five"), reversing the order found in the Hebrew and in the Vulgate, which follows the Hebrew both in word order and in the number "seventy" (septuaginta).