Genesis 39:22

וַיִּתֵּן שַׂר בֵּית־הַסֹּהַר בְּיַד־יוֹסֵף אֵת כָּל־הָאֲסִירִם אֲשֶׁר בְּבֵית הַסֹּהַר וְאֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר עֹשִׂים שָׁם הוּא הָיָה עֹשֶֽׂה׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיִּתֵּ֞ן שַׂ֤ר בֵּית־הַסֹּ֙הַר֙ בְּיַד־יוֹסֵ֔ף אֵ֚ת כָּל־הָ֣אֲסִירִ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֖ר בְּבֵ֣ית הַסֹּ֑הַר וְאֵ֨ת כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֤ר עֹשִׂים֙ שָׁ֔ם ה֖וּא הָיָ֥ה עֹשֶֽׂה׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ ἔδωκεν ὁ ἁ δεσμοφύλαξ τὸ δεσμωτήριον διὰ χειρὸς ἸωςὴΦ καὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀπηγμένους ὅσοι ἐν τῷ δεσμωτηρίῳ, καὶ πάντα ὅσα ποιοῦσιν ἐκεῖ.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Qui tradidit in manu illius universos vinctos qui in custodia tenebantur: et quidquid fiebat, sub ipso erat.

Spanish

El jefe de la cárcel puso a José a cargo de todos los presos que estaban allí, de modo que José era responsable de todo lo que se hacía en la cárcel.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y el principal de la casa de la cárcel entregó en mano de José todos los presos que había en aquella prisión; todo lo que hacían allí, él lo hacía.

English

And the warden put all the prisoners under Joseph ’s care, so that he was responsible for all that was done in the prison.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse states that the chief officer of the prison placed all the prisoners under Joseph's authority, and that whatever activity took place in the prison, Joseph himself carried out or oversaw.

Key words

sar ("commander of", H8269) — construct noun, identifying the official as "chief of" the prison-house, not a personal name but a title.
yad ("hand of", H3027H) — construct noun; the idiom "into the hand of Joseph" expresses transfer of control or custody.
'asirim ("prisoners", H0615) — masculine plural noun with definite article attached via kol-ha-'asirim, "all the prisoners," marking the totality of those under supervision.
'osim ("doing", H6213A) — qal participle plural, describing ongoing activity ("whatever they were doing there").
hayah ("he was", H1961) + 'oseh ("doing", H6213A) — perfect verb followed by participle, together with the independent pronoun hu' ("he", H1931): a periphrastic construction expressing a continuous or habitual state in past time.

What the text says

The sentence divides into two clauses joined by the narrative vav on yitten ("and he gave", H5414H). The first clause has sar beit ha-sohar ("the commander of the house of the prison") as subject, with the verb natan ("to give") governing two direct objects marked by 'et: "all the prisoners who were in the house of the prison" and "all that they were doing there." Both objects are placed "into the hand of Joseph" (be-yad-Yosef), an idiom denoting that authority or custody was transferred to him.

The second clause, hu' hayah 'oseh ("he himself was doing/being the doer"), uses the independent pronoun hu' for emphasis, followed by the perfect of hayah ("to be") and the participle 'oseh ("doing"). This pronoun-plus-perfect-plus-participle pattern is a periphrastic construction indicating a continuous or repeated state extending through past time — Joseph was habitually the one responsible for whatever was done there, rather than performing a single completed act.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders sar beit ha-sohar as ὁ δεσμοφύλαξ ("the prison-keeper"), a single functional title, where the Hebrew uses a construct phrase "commander of the house of the prison." The Vulgate omits an explicit subject for the verb ("Qui tradidit," "who delivered"), linking the sentence to the previous verse's subject rather than repeating the official's title as the Hebrew and LXX do. For the closing clause, the Hebrew's periphrastic hu' hayah 'oseh ("he was doing") is rendered by the Vulgate as "sub ipso erat" ("it was under him"), shifting the emphasis from Joseph's active doing to his authority/oversight, a nuance also reflected in the English BSB's "he was responsible for."

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