Genesis 40:23

Summary

The verse states that the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. It closes the narrative unit of Genesis 40 with a double negative statement about the cupbearer's failure to act on Joseph's behalf.

Key words

• za.Khar ("he remembered", H2142) — qal perfect, third person masculine singular, marking a completed (non-)action: the negation lo'- ("not", H3808) directly precedes it, producing "he did not remember."
• sar- ("chief of", H8269) — masculine singular construct noun, grammatically bound to the following word, forming the title "chief of the cupbearers."
• mash.Kim ("cupbearers", H4945A) — hiphil participle, masculine plural, with the definite article ha. ("the", H9009) attached; the participle form denotes an ongoing occupation ("the ones who cause to drink" → cupbearers) rather than a simple noun.
• 'et- ("", H0853) — direct object marker, signaling that yo.Sef ("Joseph", H3130G) is the grammatical object of the verb za.Khar.
• i.yish.ka.Che.hu ("and he forgot him", H7911 + H9033) — qal verb with narrative vav (va, H9001) attaching the pronominal suffix hu ("him", H9033) directly to the verb, closing the sentence with the object built into the verb form itself.

What the text says

The verse is built as two clauses joined by the conjunction ve. ("and", H9002) and the narrative vav va (H9001). The first clause negates a specific verb of memory: lo'- za.Khar ("not he remembered") governs the subject sar- ha.mash.Kim ("chief of the cupbearers"), with 'et- marking yo.Sef as the direct object being forgotten. The construct chain sar- ha.mash.Kim links "chief" tightly to "the cupbearers," a hiphil participle functioning as a substantive for the professional role.

The second clause, va.yish.ka.che.hu ("and he forgot him"), uses the narrative vav construction typical of Hebrew sequential storytelling, attaching the pronominal suffix hu directly onto the verb shakach ("to forget", H7911) rather than using a separate object marker and pronoun as in the first clause. This creates a structural doubling: the same idea (failure to recall Joseph) is stated first negatively (what did not happen — remembering) and then positively (what did happen — forgetting), reinforcing the outcome through two grammatically distinct but semantically related verbs sharing the same object, Joseph.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the second verb's object with αὐτοῦ ("of him"), paired with ἐμνήσθη ("he remembered"), producing a reading closer to "he did not remember Joseph, but him," differing in construction from the Hebrew's two separate finite verbs (za.Khar / yish.kach). The Vulgate translates yo.Sef not as a proper name but as "interpretis sui" ("his interpreter"), diverging from the Hebrew text, which explicitly names yo.Sef (H3130G) as the object forgotten.