Genesis 41:46

Summary

The verse states Joseph's age (thirty years) at the moment he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and then narrates that Joseph departed from Pharaoh's presence and passed through the entire land of Egypt.

Key words

• ben ("son of", H1121L) — construct noun used idiomatically with a number of years to express age: "a son of thirty years" = thirty years old.
• 'a.me.D ("stood", H5975H) — qal infinitive construct with the preposition be (H9003, "when/in"), forming a temporal clause: "in his standing" = "when he stood."
• o (H9043) — pronominal suffix "his" attached to the infinitive, specifying the subject of the standing (Joseph).
• i.ye.Tze' ("he went out", H3318G) — qal narrative (wayyiqtol) form, marked by the narrative va (H9001), advancing the story sequentially: "and then he went out."
• i.ya'.Vor ("he passed", H5674A) — qal narrative form, again chained with narrative va, continuing the sequence of actions after Joseph leaves Pharaoh's presence.

What the text says

The verse divides into two grammatical movements. The first is a temporal clause built around the infinitive construct 'a.me.D ("standing," H5975H) governed by the preposition be ("when," H9003) and carrying the pronominal suffix o ("his," H9043): literally "in his standing before the face of Pharaoh." This construction — infinitive plus suffix — is a common Biblical Hebrew way of expressing "when he stood," without a finite verb or explicit subject pronoun, since the suffix itself encodes the subject. Joseph's age is expressed through the construct phrase ben-she.lo.Shim shanah ("son of thirty years," H1121L + H7970 + H8141), a formula that presents age as a state of "belonging" to a number of years rather than using a verb "to be."

The second movement is narrated through two consecutive wayyiqtol (narrative past) verbs: i.ye.Tze' ("he went out," H3318G) and i.ya'.Vor ("he passed," H5674A), each introduced by the narrative va (H9001). This verbal chain marks sequential action: first Joseph exits from before Pharaoh (mi-li-fnei Par'oh, "from before Pharaoh's face"), then he crosses through kol 'Eretz Mitzrayim ("all the land of Egypt," H3605 + H0776G + H4714G). The repetition of fnei ("face/before," H6440G) in both halves of the verse — first when Joseph stands before Pharaoh, then when he leaves that same presence — creates a symmetrical structure marking entry into and departure from the royal presence.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) omits the initial conjunction and the name "Joseph" in the first clause, beginning directly with "triginta autem annorum erat" ("he was thirty years old"), and its second clause uses circuivit omnes regiones ("he went around all the regions"), a different verb choice (circuivit, "to go around") compared to the Hebrew ya'Vor ("passed through," H5674A) and the LXX's simple mention of "all the land of Egypt" without an explicit verb for the second action in the Greek text as given. The LXX also renders the temporal clause with ὅτε ἔστη ("when he stood"), matching the Hebrew infinitive construction's sense, but restructures the sentence as "Ἰωσὴφ δὲ ἦν ἐτῶν τριάκοντα" ("Joseph was of thirty years"), using a finite verb "was" rather than the Hebrew's construct-noun age formula.