Genesis 42:19

Summary

Joseph proposes a condition to his brothers: if they are indeed ken ("honest", H3651A) men, one of them will remain confined while the rest return home carrying grain to relieve the famine affecting their households. The verse is structured as a conditional clause followed by two imperative instructions.

Key words

• 'im ("if", H0518A) — introduces the condition governing the whole verse; everything that follows depends on this clause being true.
• ke.Nim ("[are] honest", H3651A) — masculine plural adjective describing the addressees; it functions as the predicate of the conditional clause ("if honest are you").
• ye.'a.Ser ("let him be imprisoned", H0631) — niphal imperfect, a passive/reflexive form indicating that the subject (one brother) undergoes the action rather than performing it; the imperfect aspect allows for an ongoing or future imprisonment.
• le.Khu ("go", H1980G) and ha.Vi.'u ("take", H0935P) — both qal/hiphil imperatives, second person masculine plural, giving direct commands to the remaining brothers.
• ba.tei.Khem ("your households", H1004M + H9026) — construct plural noun with pronominal suffix, marking multiple houses/families collectively affected by the famine.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conditional particle 'im followed by the adjective ke.Nim and the pronoun 'a.Tem ("you", H0859D), forming the clause "if honest are you all." This condition is not restated later in the verse — the consequence flows directly from it. The consequence itself splits into two parts, marked by contrasting subjects: first, 'e.Chad ("one", H0259) brother — introduced through the construct chain 'a.chi.Khem ("brother of you all") — undergoes the niphal verb ye.'a.Ser, placing him grammatically as the one acted upon, confined be.Veit mish.mar.Khem ("in the house of custody of you all"), a construct chain literally meaning "house of your guarding."

The second half shifts to the plural subject 'a.Tem again, now paired with two masculine plural imperatives, le.Khu and ha.Vi.'u, commanding the rest to go and bring back She.ver ("grain of", H7668), itself in construct with ra.'a.Von ("hunger of", H7459), forming "grain of the hunger" — i.e., grain meant to address hunger — modifying ba.tei.Khem ("households of you all"). The chain of construct nouns (She.ver → ra.'a.Von → ba.tei.Khem) compresses into a single phrase what a translation must unfold as "grain to relieve the hunger of your households."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ke.Nim ("honest") as εἰρηνικοί ("peaceable"), a different semantic nuance than the Hebrew's sense of straightforwardness or truthfulness. The Vulgate's pacifici ("peaceful") follows this same LXX-influenced sense rather than the Hebrew's more literal "honest/upright." Where the Hebrew has the passive niphal ye.'a.Ser ("let him be imprisoned"), the LXX uses the imperative κατασχεθήτω ("let him be detained"), preserving the passive sense but shifting mood slightly toward direct command. The Vulgate's ligetur ("let him be bound") introduces the specific image of binding, not explicit in the Hebrew verb, which simply indicates confinement.