Genesis 39:8

Summary

The verse narrates Joseph's refusal and his verbal response to his master's wife, in which he states that his master has no knowledge concerning affairs "with him" in the house, because everything the master owns has been placed in Joseph's hand.

Key words

• yema'En ("he refused", H3985) — piel narrative verb; the piel stem gives an intensive nuance to the refusal, and the narrative form marks it as the first event in the sequence ("and then he refused").
• hen ("here!", H2005) — interjection introducing Joseph's speech, drawing attention to the statement that follows.
• yada' ("he knows", H3045) — qal perfect, negated by lo' ("not", H3808); the perfect indicates a completed/settled state of not-knowing rather than an ongoing process.
• yesh ("there [is]", H3426) — existential particle used with the preposition l- ("to/belonging to") plus suffix "him" to express possession: "all that is his."
• natan ("he has given", H5414H) — qal perfect; expresses the completed act of entrusting, paired with be-yadi ("in my hand", H3027H construct + suffix "my") to specify the recipient.

What the text says

The verse opens with two chained narrative verbs, va-yema'En ("and he refused") and va-yo'mer ("and he said"), both marking sequential past action. The piel form of yema'En gives the refusal a marked, intensive quality rather than a simple negation. The speech that follows is introduced by the interjection hen ("here!"), a Hebrew device that draws the listener's attention before the main clause.

The core statement is built on a negated qal perfect, lo'-yada' ("he does not know"), governing the phrase iti ("with me", H0854 + suffix) — literally "my master does not know with me," meaning the master has no personal knowledge or concern regarding what happens in the house while Joseph is present. The construct chains 'eshet 'adonav ("wife of his masters", using the plural form of 'adon with singular meaning as an honorific) and kol 'asher yesh-lo ("all that is to him," i.e., "everything he owns") use standard Hebrew possessive constructions built on the existential particle yesh plus the preposition le-. The final clause, natan be-yadi ("he has given into my hand"), uses the qal perfect to state a completed transfer of authority, with yad ("hand") functioning idiomatically for control or charge.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the negated clause as a conditional/interrogative construction (Εἰ ὁ κύριός μου οὐ γινώσκει..., "if my master does not know..."), differing from the Hebrew's direct declarative hen...lo'-yada' ("here, [my master] does not know"). The Vulgate's ignorat quid habeat in domo sua ("he does not know what he has in his house") shifts the object of ignorance from "with me" (Hebrew iti) to "what he has," a rendering closer to the LXX's phrasing (οὐδὲν ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ αὐτοῦ, "nothing in his house") than to the Hebrew's more personal iti construction.