Genesis 41:8
וַיְהִי בַבֹּקֶר וַתִּפָּעֶם רוּחוֹ וַיִּשְׁלַח וַיִּקְרָא אֶת־כָּל־חַרְטֻמֵּי מִצְרַיִם וְאֶת־כָּל־חֲכָמֶיהָ וַיְסַפֵּר פַּרְעֹה לָהֶם אֶת־חֲלֹמוֹ וְאֵין־פּוֹתֵר אוֹתָם לְפַרְעֹֽה׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיְהִ֤י בַבֹּ֙קֶר֙ וַתִּפָּ֣עֶם רוּח֔וֹ וַיִּשְׁלַ֗ח וַיִּקְרָ֛א אֶת־כָּל־חַרְטֻמֵּ֥י מִצְרַ֖יִם וְאֶת־כָּל־חֲכָמֶ֑יהָ וַיְסַפֵּ֨ר פַּרְעֹ֤ה לָהֶם֙ אֶת־חֲלֹמ֔וֹ וְאֵין־פּוֹתֵ֥ר אוֹתָ֖ם לְפַרְעֹֽה׃
ἐγένετο δὲ πρωὶ καὶ ἐταράχθη ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἀποστείλας ἐκάλεσεν ἐκάλεσεν πάντας τοὺς ἐξηγητὰς Αἰγύπτου καὶ πάντας τοὺς σοφοὺς αὐτῆς, καὶ διηγήσατο αὐτοῖς Φαραὼ τὸ ἐνύπνιον· καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὁ ἀπαγγέλλων αὐτὸ τῷ Φαραώ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
et facto mane, pavore perterritus, misit ad omnes conjectores Ægypti, cunctosque sapientes, et accersitis narravit somnium, nec erat qui interpretaretur.
A la mañana siguiente, el faraón amaneció muy preocupado, así que mandó llamar a todos los adivinos y sabios de Egipto. Les contó sus sueños, pero no hubo nadie que se los pudiera interpretar.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y acaeció que á la mañana estaba agitado su espíritu; y envió é hizo llamar á todos los magos de Egipto, y á todos sus sabios: y contóles Faraón sus sueños, mas no había quien á Faraón los declarase.
In the morning his spirit was troubled, so he summoned all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse describes Pharaoh's reaction the morning after his dreams: his spirit was troubled, so he summoned all the diviner-priests and wise men of Egypt. He recounted his dream(s) to them, but none of them could interpret it for him.
Key words
- ti.Pa.'em ("it was troubled", H6470) — niphal (passive/reflexive) verb form, indicating that the ru.Ch ("spirit", H7307G) was acted upon rather than acting; the subject undergoes agitation rather than causing it.
- ru.Ch ("spirit", H7307G) — feminine singular noun in construct with the suffix o ("his", H9023), giving "his spirit," the grammatical subject of the troubling.
- char.tu.Mei ("[the] diviner priests of", H2748) — masculine plural construct, linking directly to mitz.Ra.yim ("Egypt", H4714G): "diviner-priests of Egypt."
- y.sa.Per ("he recounted", H5608A) — piel (intensive) stem, suggesting a fuller or more deliberate act of narration than a simple qal "to tell" would convey.
- po.Ter ("[was one who] interpreted", H6622) — qal active participle, masculine singular, used with the negative existential 'ein- ("there not", H0369) to form the phrase "there was no one interpreting," describing an ongoing absence rather than a single failed event.
What the text says
The verse is built as a chain of narrative vav-forms (va-, H9001) attached to verbs, a typical Biblical Hebrew storytelling structure where each clause is introduced by "and then": va-yehi ("and it was"), va-tippa'em ("and it was troubled"), va-yishlach ("and he sent"), va-yiqra ("and he summoned"), va-yesapper ("and he recounted"). This creates a rapid sequence of actions without subordinating conjunctions, typical of Hebrew narrative prose.
The phrase va-tippa'em ruch-o uses the niphal stem for pa'em (H6470), marking the spirit as the entity that is troubled — grammatically passive, not something Pharaoh does to himself but something that happens to his ru.Ch ("spirit", H7307G). The double object markers 'et- (H0853, untranslated) before kol-chartummei mitzrayim and kol-chakhamei-ha show that both groups — the diviner-priests and the wise men — are marked as direct objects of va-yiqra ("he summoned"), placing them grammatically on equal footing as recipients of the summons.
The closing clause ve-'ein poter otam le-far'oh uses a participial construction (poter, H6622) rather than a finite verb, which in Hebrew often expresses a state or ongoing condition — here, the continued absence of anyone capable of interpretation, rather than a single failed attempt.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew chalom-o ("his dream", H2472, singular with suffix o) is rendered as singular in the LXX (τὸ ἐνύπνιον, "the dream") and Vulgate (somnium, "dream"), while the Spanish RV1909, BSB, and SBLIBRE render it as plural ("sueños"/"dreams"), reflecting the two dreams narrated earlier in the chapter rather than the grammatical singular found in this verse's Hebrew text.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.