Genesis 40:18

Summary

Joseph responds to the chief baker's dream by giving its interpretation: the three baskets he saw represent three days. The verse mirrors the structure used earlier for the cupbearer's dream, establishing a direct numerical equivalence between the dream image and its temporal meaning.

Key words

• va-ya'an ("and he answered", H6030B) — qal narrative form, marking the sequential action of Joseph responding, chained by the narrative vav to the preceding verse.
• pitrono ("its interpretation", H6623) — construct noun with 3rd person masculine singular suffix o ("its", H9023), directly linking the interpretation to the dream referred to in context.
• shelosheth ("three of", H7969) — appears twice (positions 9 and 12), each time in construct form, governing the nouns ha-sallim ("the baskets") and yamim ("days") respectively.
• ha-sallim ("the baskets", H5536) — definite plural noun, referring back to the specific baskets described in the baker's dream.
• hem ("they", H1992) — independent personal pronoun placed at the end of the clause, functioning as the copula-like predicate marker equating the baskets with the days.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure places the demonstrative zeh ("this", H2088) immediately after the double verb va-ya'an... va-yomer ("and he answered... and he said"), a common formula introducing direct speech. The core statement — zeh pitrono ("this [is] its interpretation") — has no explicit verb "to be"; the demonstrative pronoun and the construct noun with suffix carry the predicative force typical of Hebrew nominal clauses.

The equivalence between the baskets and the days is built through two parallel construct chains: shelosheth ha-sallim ("three of the baskets") and shelosheth yamim ("three of days"). Both use the same numeral shelosheth ("three of", H7969) in construct state, creating a grammatical parallelism that visually and syntactically mirrors the semantic equation Joseph is making. The final word hem ("they", H1992) closes the clause, functioning as the pronominal copula that links the two three-part construct phrases: "the three baskets, three days, they [are]." This construction — noun phrase + noun phrase + pronoun — is a standard way in Biblical Hebrew to express identity or equivalence without a verb "to be."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders shelosheth ha-sallim as τὰ τρία κανᾶ ("the three baskets") without a construct/possessive nuance, and translates the final clause with the verb εἰσίν ("they are"), making explicit the copula that the Hebrew leaves implicit through hem ("they", H1992). The Vulgate similarly supplies "sunt" ("are") and adds "adhuc" ("still/yet"), a temporal nuance not present in the Hebrew yamim ("days", H3117G) or in the LXX's ἡμέραι.