Genesis 37:25

וַיֵּשְׁבוּ לֶֽאֱכָל־לֶחֶם וַיִּשְׂאוּ עֵֽינֵיהֶם וַיִּרְאוּ וְהִנֵּה אֹרְחַת יִשְׁמְעֵאלִים בָּאָה מִגִּלְעָד וּגְמַלֵּיהֶם נֹֽשְׂאִים נְכֹאת וּצְרִי וָלֹט הוֹלְכִים לְהוֹרִיד מִצְרָֽיְמָה׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

Tap a word to see its entry

✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיֵּשְׁבוּ֮ לֶֽאֱכָל־לֶחֶם֒ וַיִּשְׂא֤וּ עֵֽינֵיהֶם֙ וַיִּרְא֔וּ וְהִנֵּה֙ אֹרְחַ֣ת יִשְׁמְעֵאלִ֔ים בָּאָ֖ה מִגִּלְעָ֑ד וּגְמַלֵּיהֶ֣ם נֹֽשְׂאִ֗ים נְכֹאת֙ וּצְרִ֣י וָלֹ֔ט הוֹלְכִ֖ים לְהוֹרִ֥יד מִצְרָֽיְמָה׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἐκάθισαιν δὲ φαγεῖν ἄρτον· καὶ ἀναβλέψαντες τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἴδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ὁδοιπόροι Ἰσμαηλεῖται ἤρχοντο ἐκ Γαλαὰδ, καὶ οἱ κάμηλοι αὐτῶν ἔγεμον θυμιαμάτων καὶ ῥιτίνης καὶ στακτῆς· ἐπορεύοντο δὲ καταγαγεῖν εἰς Αἴγυπτον.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Et sedentes ut comederent panem, viderunt Ismaëlitas viatores venire de Galaad, et camelos eorum portantes aromata, et resinam, et stacten in Ægyptum.

Spanish

Luego se sentaron a comer, y al levantar la vista, vieron venir de Galaad una caravana de ismaelitas. Sus camellos venían cargados de especias, bálsamo y mirra, que llevaban a Egipto.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y sentáronse á comer pan: y alzando los ojos miraron, y he aquí una compañía de Ismaelitas que venía de Galaad, y sus camellos traían aromas y bálsamo y mirra, é iban á llevarlo á Egipto.

English

And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to Egypt.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The brothers sit down to eat bread, then lift their eyes and see a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels loaded with spice, balm, and myrrh, traveling to bring the goods down to Egypt. The verse marks a narrative pause in the Joseph story, shifting attention from the pit to the approaching traders.

Key words

va-yesh'vu ("they sat down", H3427) — qal narrative verb, opening the scene with a sequential "and then" action.
le-ekhol ("to eat", H0398) — qal infinitive with prefixed le ("to"), expressing purpose: sitting down in order to eat.
hinneh ("there!", H2009) — interjection marking a sudden shift in perception, introducing what the brothers notice.
orchat Yishme'elim ("caravan of Ishmaelites", H0736 + H3459) — construct chain "caravan of," identifying the group by gentilic name (plural, "sons of a people").
ba'ah ("was coming", H0935) — qal feminine singular participle, agreeing with the feminine noun orchat ("caravan"), describing ongoing motion rather than a completed act.

What the text says

The verse is built on a chain of narrative vav-verbs — va-yesh'vu ("they sat"), va-yis'u ("they lifted"), va-yir'u ("they saw") — each advancing the story step by step. This chain is broken by ve-hinneh ("and there!"), a device in Biblical Hebrew that shifts from narration to the characters' own perception: the reader sees the caravan exactly as the brothers see it, unexpectedly.

The caravan is described through a construct chain, orchat Yishme'elim ("caravan of Ishmaelites"), followed by the feminine participle ba'ah ("coming"), which agrees grammatically with orchat rather than with the plural "Ishmaelites" — grammatically the caravan itself is the subject in motion, not the people. The camels are then introduced with their own construct phrase, gemallei-hem ("their camels"), followed by the masculine plural participle nos'im ("carrying"), listing three goods — nekhot ("spice", H5219), tzeri ("balm", H6875), and lot ("myrrh", H3910) — joined by simple conjunctions. The final clause uses the infinitive le-horid ("to take down", hiphil, causative) plus the place name Mitzrayemah, where the suffixed he directional marker indicates motion "toward" Egypt, reinforcing the sense of a journey in progress rather than a completed arrival.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the three goods as θυμιαμάτων ("incense/spices"), ῥιτίνης ("resin"), and στακτῆς ("myrrh-oil"), which do not map one-to-one onto the Hebrew terms nekhot, tzeri, and lot; the Vulgate uses aromata, resinam, and stacten, following a similar but not identical set of equivalents. The LXX also describes the travelers as ὁδοιπόροι Ἰσμαηλεῖται ("wayfarers, Ishmaelites") rather than translating the construct "caravan of Ishmaelites" directly, and states they "were coming" (ἤρχοντο) without a grammatical link to a feminine "caravan" noun as in the Hebrew.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.