Genesis 39:1

וְיוֹסֵף הוּרַד מִצְרָיְמָה וַיִּקְנֵהוּ פּוֹטִיפַר סְרִיס פַּרְעֹה שַׂר הַטַּבָּחִים אִישׁ מִצְרִי מִיַּד הַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִים אֲשֶׁר הוֹרִדֻהוּ שָֽׁמָּה׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְיוֹסֵ֖ף הוּרַ֣ד מִצְרָ֑יְמָה וַיִּקְנֵ֡הוּ פּוֹטִיפַר֩ סְרִ֨יס פַּרְעֹ֜ה שַׂ֤ר הַטַּבָּחִים֙ אִ֣ישׁ מִצְרִ֔י מִיַּד֙ הַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר הוֹרִדֻ֖הוּ שָֽׁמָּה׃

Greek (Septuagint)

ἸωσὴΦ δὲ κατήχθη εἰς Αἴγυπτον· καὶ ἐκτήσατο αὐτὸν ΠετεΦρῆς ὁ εὐνοῦχος Φαραὼ ὁ ἀρχιμάγειρος, ἀνὴρ Αἰγύπτιος, ἐκ χειρῶν Ἰσμαηλει τῶν,οἳ κατήγαγον αὐτὸν ἐκεῖ.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Igitur Joseph ductus est in Ægyptum, emitque eum Putiphar eunuchus Pharaonis, princeps exercitus, vir ægyptius, de manu Ismaëlitarum, a quibus perductus erat.

Spanish

Cuando José fue llevado a Egipto, un egipcio llamado Potifar, que era funcionario del faraón y capitán de la guardia, se lo compró a los ismaelitas que lo habían llevado hasta allá.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y LLEVADO José á Egipto, comprólo Potiphar, eunuco de Faraón, capitán de los de la guardia, varón Egipcio, de mano de los Ismaelitas que lo habían llevado allá.

English

Meanwhile, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, where an Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse reports that Joseph was brought down to Egypt and that Potiphar, an Egyptian official of Pharaoh, purchased him from the Ishmaelites who had transported him there. The sentence establishes both Joseph's arrival in Egypt and the identity and rank of his new owner.

Key words

hurad ("he had been brought down", H3381) — hophal perfect, a causative-passive form indicating Joseph did not act on his own; someone else caused his descent into Egypt.
yikneHU ("he bought him", H7069) — qal narrative form with the vav-consecutive, marking the next sequential event in the story; the suffix -hu ("him") points back to Joseph.
seris ("official of", H5631) construct + par'oh ("Pharaoh", H6547H) — construct chain identifying Potiphar's court position relative to Pharaoh.
sar ("commander of", H8269) construct + hattabbachim ("the bodyguards", H2876) — a second construct chain giving Potiphar's specific title over the guard/bodyguard corps.
horiduHU ("they had brought down him", H3381) — hiphil perfect, the causative active counterpart to hurad, now naming the Ishmaelites as the agents who caused the transport, closing the clause introduced by asher ("who", H0834A).

What the text says

The verse opens with the conjunction ve ("and", H9002) attached to the subject Yosef ("Joseph", H3130G), followed immediately by hurad ("he had been brought down", H3381) — a hophal perfect. The hophal stem is passive and causative: it expresses that Joseph underwent the action of being brought down without specifying who did it at this point in the sentence. The directional he suffix on mitzraymah ("Egypt" + "towards", H4714G/H9011) reinforces the sense of movement toward Egypt as destination.

The narrative then shifts with va-yikneHU ("and he bought him", H7069), a qal verb with vav-consecutive, the standard form for advancing narrative action. The subject is delayed until Potiphar (H6318) is named, followed by two stacked construct chains describing his position: seris par'oh ("official of Pharaoh", H5631/H6547H) and sar hattabbachim ("commander of the bodyguards", H8269/H2876). Construct chains in Hebrew link nouns without a possessive particle, so the relationship "official of Pharaoh" is expressed purely through word order and vocalization.

The final clause, introduced by the relative asher ("who", H0834A), returns to the causative verb root yrd ("to go down"), this time in hiphil — horiduHU ("they had brought down him", H3381) — with the Ishmaelites as explicit grammatical subject, clarifying who caused Joseph's earlier, agentless descent (hurad) into Egypt.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders sar hattabbachim ("commander of the bodyguards") as ὁ ἀρχιμάγειρος, a term tied to kitchen/slaughtering officials, while the Vulgate uses princeps exercitus ("chief of the army"), shifting the sense toward a military command rather than a guard or culinary function implied by the Hebrew tabbachim ("bodyguards/slaughterers", H2876).

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