Genesis 41:45

Summary

Pharaoh gives Joseph an Egyptian name, Tzafenat Pa'neach ("Zaphenath-Paneah", H6847), and gives him Asenath, daughter of Potiphera priest of On, as a wife. The verse closes with Joseph going out over the land of Egypt.

Key words

• va-yiqra ("and he called", H7121H) — qal narrative form of the verb "to call/name"; the vav-narrative marks this as the next event in the story sequence, with Pharaoh as the implicit subject.
• shem ("name of", H8034) — construct noun, linking directly to Yosef ("Joseph", H3130G); the construct chain produces the sense "the name of Joseph," i.e., the name given to him.
• bat ("daughter of", H1323G) — construct noun linking Asenath to her father Potiphera, forming the genealogical identifier typical of formal introductions of a woman in narrative.
• kohen ("priest of", H3548) — construct noun linking to On ("On", H0204), identifying Potiphera's office and location together as one construct phrase.
• va-yetze ("and he went out", H3318G) — qal narrative verb, continuing the narrative chain; describes Joseph's movement "over" ('al, H5921A) the land of Egypt.

What the text says

The verse is built entirely on narrative vav-forms (va-yiqra, va-yiten, va-yetze), each advancing the story as a sequence of consecutive actions: Pharaoh names Joseph, then gives him a wife, then Joseph goes out. This chain structure is typical of Hebrew narrative prose, where each new verb form signals "and then this happened," without needing additional connectors.

The construct chains are dense here: shem-Yosef ("name of Joseph"), bat-Poti-Fera ("daughter of Potiphera"), and kohen On ("priest of On") each link two nouns to form a single conceptual unit — a name-bearer, a father-daughter relation, and an office-location pair. These are typical of how Hebrew narrative introduces new characters formally, by attaching genealogical and social markers directly onto the noun without a separate relative clause.

The object marker 'et (H0853) before Asenat signals that she is the grammatical object of va-yiten ("and he gave", H5414O) — Pharaoh is the one giving her, with Joseph as the indirect recipient marked by lo ("to him", H9033 attached to H9005). The final clause uses 'al ("over", H5921A) with 'Eretz Mitzrayim ("land of Egypt", H0776G + H4714G) to describe Joseph's position relative to the land, though the Hebrew verb itself only states motion ("he went out"), not administrative function.

Differences between versions

The LXX gives the Egyptian name as "ψουθομΦανήχ," a transliteration differing from the Hebrew Tzafenat Pa'neach. The Vulgate does not transliterate the name at all but translates its meaning as "Salvatorem mundi" ("Savior of the world"), a rendering not reflected in the Hebrew text, which simply records the name as a proper noun without stated meaning. For the final clause, the Hebrew says Joseph "went out over" ('al) the land of Egypt, while the BSB renders this as "took charge of," an interpretive expansion beyond the Hebrew verb "he went out" (va-yetze, H3318G).