Genesis 40:1

Summary

The verse opens a new narrative unit with the formula "it happened after these things," reporting that the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt committed an offense against their master, the king.

Key words

• va-yehi ("and it was", H1961/H9001) — the narrative vav prefixed to the qal verb "to be" is the standard formula opening a new story segment, often untranslated but functioning as "then it happened."
• ha-devarim ("the things/words", H1697I) — masculine plural noun, definite; the same root can mean "words" or "matters," left ambiguous here as it modifies the general phrase "after these things."
• chat'u ("they sinned", H2398) — qal perfect, third person plural. The plural form agrees with the two-part compound subject (cupbearer + baker) that follows, even though each noun individually is singular.
• mashqeh melekh-mitzrayim ("cupbearer of the king of Egypt", H4945A/H4428G/H4714G) — a construct chain: "cupbearer of" governs "king of," which governs "Egypt," producing a nested possessive relationship.
• la-adonei-hem ("to their master(s)", H0113/H9028) — the noun adonei is grammatically plural (masculine plural construct) but takes the third-person plural suffix "their"; despite the plural form, the referent is the single king named in the following phrase.

What the text says

The verse is built as a single sentence chain. The opening va-yehi... achar ha-devarim ha-eleh ("and it was after these things") sets a temporal frame without specifying how much time passed — only that it follows some prior events. The main clause places the verb chat'u ("they sinned") before its subjects, a common Hebrew word order (verb-subject), and the plural verb form covers the compound subject: "cupbearer of the king of Egypt" (mashqeh melekh-mitzrayim) and, joined by the conjunction ve-, "the baker" (ha-opheh).

The final phrase adds two prepositional expressions in sequence: la-adoneihem ("to their master") and lemelekh mitzrayim ("to the king of Egypt"). The second phrase functions in apposition to the first, clarifying that "their master" refers specifically to the king of Egypt named earlier in the verse — the construct chain plural noun adonei here designates a single figure of authority despite its plural morphology.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate introduces the phrase duo eunuchi ("two eunuchs"), a specification not present in the Hebrew text, which only names "cupbearer" and "baker" without describing them as eunuchs or stating their number explicitly. The LXX renders the Hebrew plural verb chat'u ("they sinned") with the singular Greek verb ἥμαρτεν ("he sinned"), treating the compound subject differently than the Hebrew's plural agreement. The Vulgate's domino suo ("to their master") omits the repetition of "king of Egypt" found in the Hebrew's closing appositional phrase lemelekh mitzrayim.