Genesis 42:20

Summary

Joseph instructs his brothers to bring their youngest brother to him, stating that this action will lead to the verification of their words and that they will not die. The verse ends with a narrative note: they did so.

Key words

• 'achikhem ("your brother", H0251G) — construct noun with 2nd person masculine plural suffix, "brother of you (pl.)", specifying whose brother is meant.
• qaton ("young/small", H6996H) — masculine singular adjective modifying "brother," marking him as the youngest.
• tavi'u ("you will bring", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural: the causative stem indicates they are to cause the brother to come, not merely accompany him.
• ye'amenu ("they may be verified", H0539) — niphal (passive/reflexive) imperfect with conjunctive vav: the words themselves become the grammatical subject of a passive verb, meaning they will be "made firm" or "confirmed" rather than actively verified by an agent.
• ya'asu-ken ("they did so", H6213A + H3651C) — qal narrative verb plus adverb, a formulaic closing construction marking compliance with a prior instruction.

What the text says

The verse opens with a command built on the hiphil form tavi'u ("you will bring", H0935P), placing the causative burden on the brothers: they must actively cause the youngest brother to arrive. The object of the command, 'achikhem haqqaton ("your young brother"), is marked with the direct object particle 'et (H0853), which itself carries no independent meaning in translation but signals that the following noun phrase is the direct object of the verb.

The purpose/result of this action is introduced by the conjunctive vav on ye'amenu ("and let them be verified", H0539), a niphal form. In the niphal stem, the "words" (divreikhem, H1697G, construct plural "words of you") are the subject undergoing an action rather than performing one — the grammar frames confirmation as something that happens to the words, not something the brothers or Joseph actively do to them. This passive/reflexive nuance is not preserved in translations that render it with active verbs like "prove" or "verify."

The consequence clause velo tamutu ("and you will not die", H4191) uses a simple qal imperfect with negation, stated as a direct assurance following the fulfillment of the condition, not framed as a separate conditional statement in the Hebrew.

Differences between versions

The LXX restructures the consequence as an explicit conditional: εἰ δὲ μή, ἀποθανεῖσθε ("but if not, you will die"), introducing a conditional particle absent from the Hebrew's straightforward "and you will not die." The Vulgate renders the niphal ye'amenu with an active construction, ut possim...probare ("so that I may test/prove"), supplying an explicit subject ("I") for the verification process, where the Hebrew niphal leaves the agent unstated and treats the words as the grammatical subject of a passive verb.