Genesis 40:14

Summary

Joseph asks the cupbearer to remember him once things go well, requesting that he show chesed ("loyalty/kindness", H2617A) by mentioning him to Pharaoh so that he may be brought out of "this house." The verse is structured as a chain of requests tied together by sequential verb forms.

Key words

• ki 'im (H3588B + H0518B) — "that/if...except" — a combined conditional particle opening the clause; it introduces the condition under which Joseph wants to be remembered, often rendered as "but" or "if only" in translation.
• zekhartani ("you have remembered me", H2142) — qal perfect, 2nd masculine singular with 1st singular suffix — describes a simple act of remembering, tied to the future circumstance introduced by ka'asher ("when", H0834D).
• chesed ("loyalty", H2617A) — masculine singular noun, the specific quality Joseph requests be shown to him, paired with the interjection na' ("please", H4994).
• hizkartani ("you will bring me to remembrance", H2142) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, 2nd masculine singular with 1st singular suffix — same root as zekhartani but in the causative stem, shifting from "remember" to "cause to be remembered" (i.e., mention) before Pharaoh.
• hotzeitani ("you will bring me out", H3318H) — hiphil sequential perfect, 2nd masculine singular with 1st singular suffix — causative form expressing the final result Joseph seeks, extraction from "the house."

What the text says

The sentence opens with the double particle ki 'im, a conditional construction that frames the whole request as contingent — "if/when" the addressee's situation improves. The verb zekhartani (qal, "you have remembered me") is linked to the temporal clause ka'asher yitav lakh ("when it goes well for you", using yitav, H3190, imperfect), setting the future moment for the remembering to take effect.

The request then moves through three sequential perfects joined by the narrative vav (H9001): ve'asita... chesed ("and you will do... kindness"), vehizkartani ("and you will mention me"), and vehotzeitani ("and you will bring me out"). This chain shows a progression of actions Joseph expects to follow one another: an act of loyalty, verbal mention to Pharaoh, and physical removal from the bayit ("house", H1004B) — the term used here for the place of confinement rather than a dedicated word for "prison."

Notably, the root zakhar ("to remember") appears twice with different stems: qal in zekhartani (a personal, private remembering) and hiphil in hizkartani (a causative act — bringing Joseph's case to someone else's attention, specifically Pharaoh). This morphological shift marks a movement from internal memory to external speech.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew bayit ("house", H1004B) is rendered by the LXX as ochyroma ("fortress/stronghold") and by the Vulgate as carcere ("prison"), both specifying a place of confinement more explicitly than the Hebrew term itself. The Hebrew chesed ("loyalty/kindness") is translated in the LXX as eleos ("mercy") and in the Vulgate as misericordiam ("mercy"), narrowing the semantic range of the Hebrew term toward compassion rather than covenantal loyalty.