Genesis 37:14

Summary

Jacob instructs his son (unnamed here but identified as Joseph from context) to go check on the welfare of his brothers and the flock, and to report back. The verse then narrates that he was sent from the valley of Hebron and arrived at Shechem.

Key words

• lekh ("go", H1980G) — qal imperative, a direct command form addressed to "you" (masculine singular).
• na' ("please", H4994) — an interjection softening the imperative; it turns "go" into a more polite request rather than a bare order.
• shelom ("[the] welfare of", H7965I) — construct-form noun, meaning it must attach to what follows ("welfare of your brothers," "welfare of the flock"); it appears twice, each time governing a different following noun.
• hashiveni ("bring to me", H7725G) — hiphil (causative) imperative of the root meaning "to return," here causative "cause to return" = "bring back," with the pronominal suffix -ni ("me") attached directly to the verb.
• dabar ("word", H1697G) — plain masculine singular noun, object of the causative verb, literally "return to me a word."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav-consecutive construction vayyo'mer ("and he said," H0559), the standard way Biblical Hebrew advances a story through reported speech. The speaker gives two paired imperatives, lekh ("go") and re'eh ("see"), each followed by the object marker 'et (H0853, untranslated) plus the construct noun shelom. Because shelom is in construct state, it cannot stand alone grammatically — it must be bound to "your brothers" ('acheikha) and "the flock" (hatzon) respectively, producing the sense "the welfare/well-being of X." This construct chain is repeated identically for both objects, creating a balanced parallel structure: "see the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flock."

The final imperative, hashiveni davar, uses the hiphil (causative) stem of the verb for "return," attaching the object suffix -ni directly to the verb rather than using a separate pronoun. Literally this construction says "cause to return to me a word," rendered idiomatically as "bring me back word/a report."

The remainder of the verse shifts to narrative past tense through three successive vayyiqtol forms (vayishlachehu, "and he sent him"; vayyavo, "and he came"), tracking the journey: departure from 'emeq Chevron ("valley of Hebron," H6010K construct + H2275H) and arrival at Shechem, the directional suffix -ah (H9011) on Shechemah indicating motion "toward" that place rather than static location.

Differences between versions

The LXX inserts the subject "Ἰσραήλ" (Israel) explicitly at the start of the speech, where the Hebrew leaves the speaker unnamed (relying on preceding context). The LXX also renders shelom ("welfare") with the verb "ὑγιαίνουσιν" ("are healthy/well"), shifting from a noun-based construction to a verbal one asking "whether your brothers and the flocks are well," rather than the Hebrew's noun-phrase "welfare of." The Vulgate similarly names no explicit subject but opens with "Præsto sum" ("I am here"), an addition not present in the Hebrew text at this point, and translates shelom as "si cuncta prospera sint" ("whether everything is prosperous"), again converting the construct-noun idiom into a conditional clause.