Genesis 40:22

Summary

The verse reports that Pharaoh hanged the chief baker, exactly as Joseph had interpreted for the two officials in his earlier reading of their dreams. The sentence closes the account of the dream interpretations by confirming that the baker's fate matched Joseph's prediction.

Key words

• sar ("[the] chief of", H8269) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking directly to "bakers" to form the title "chief of the bakers."
• ha'oFim ("the bakers", H0644) — masculine plural noun with the definite article, the group from which the "chief" is drawn.
• taLah ("he hanged", H8518) — Qal perfect, third person masculine singular; the perfect aspect marks a completed action, and the subject (Pharaoh) is understood from the surrounding narrative rather than stated in this clause.
• ka'asher ("as", H0834D) — relative particle combined with the preposition ka ("just"), introducing a comparison between the outcome and the earlier interpretation.
• paTar ("he had interpreted", H6622) — Qal perfect, third person masculine singular, describing Joseph's prior act of interpretation as a completed event relative to the hanging.

What the text says

The clause opens with the object marker 'Et (H0853) attached to sar ha'oFim, showing that "the chief of the bakers" is the grammatical object of the verb taLah, "he hanged." The verb itself carries no explicit subject noun in this verse; Hebrew perfect verbs often rely on context, and here the subject (Pharaoh) is supplied by the preceding narrative rather than repeated in this sentence. The construct phrase sar ha'oFim — literally "chief of the bakers" — functions as a title, paralleling the construction used earlier in the chapter for the "chief of the cupbearers."

The second half of the verse, introduced by ka'asher ("as"), forms a comparative clause: the hanging occurred ka'asher paTar lahem Yosef, "as Joseph had interpreted for them." The preposition la with the suffix hem ("for them") indicates the recipients of Joseph's interpretation — the two officials from the earlier dream account. The perfect verb paTar here denotes an action prior to the hanging, giving the clause a pluperfect nuance in translation ("had interpreted"), even though Hebrew perfect forms do not grammatically mark tense distinctions the way English does; the sequence of events is understood from context and the comparative particle.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate's alterum suspendit in patibulo, ut conjectoris veritas probaretur ("he hanged the other on a gibbet, so that the truth of the interpreter might be proved") diverges notably from the Hebrew. It replaces the title sar ha'oFim ("chief of the bakers") with the vaguer alterum ("the other one"), and rephrases the comparative clause ka'asher paTar lahem Yosef as a purpose clause about proving the interpreter's veracity, rather than a simple statement that the outcome matched Joseph's interpretation. The LXX's ἀρχισιτοποιὸν... καθὰ συνέκρινεν αὐτοῖς Ἰωσήφ stays closer to the Hebrew structure, rendering sar ha'oFim as ἀρχισιτοποιόν ("chief bread-maker") and paTar as συνέκρινεν ("interpreted/compared").