Genesis 42:21

Summary

Genesis 42:21 records the brothers of Joseph speaking among themselves, admitting guilt toward "their brother": they recall having seen his distress when he pleaded with them, and that they did not listen. They conclude that the trouble now befalling them is a direct consequence of that earlier refusal.

Key words

• 'ish ("each", H0376I) — used distributively with the following preposition to mean "each one to his brother," setting up a mutual, internal exchange among the brothers.
• 'aval ("indeed", H0061) — an interjection introducing the admission; it marks the statement that follows as an emphatic acknowledgment.
• 'ashemim ("guilty", H0818) — masculine plural adjective, predicated of 'anachnu ("we"), stating a present state (being guilty) rather than a completed action.
• tzarat naftsho ("distress of his self/soul", H6869B + H5315G) — a construct chain; tzarat ("distress of") is bound to nafsho ("his soul/self"), expressing the intensity of the suffering as belonging to his very being.
• hitchanno ("his seeking favor/pleading", H2603A, hithpael infinitive) — the hithpael stem marks the action as self-directed appeal, "pleading for himself/on his own behalf," describing the manner in which the distress was expressed.
• shama'nu ("we listened/heard", H8085G, qal perfect) — negated by lo ("not", H3808), forming "we did not listen," a completed past action of refusal.

What the text says

The verse is built as direct speech introduced by va-yomeru ("and they said", H0559), with 'ish 'el-'achiv ("each to his brother") signaling that the statement is exchanged mutually among the brothers rather than addressed outward. The core clause, 'aval 'ashemim 'anachnu 'al-'achinu ("indeed we are guilty concerning our brother"), uses the adjective 'ashemim to describe a current state of guilt, not a verb of action — the grammar presents guilt as a condition they now recognize, not merely an event they performed.

The relative clause that follows, introduced by 'asher ("who/that", H0834A), recalls the past events causally connected to that guilt: ra'inu tzarat naftsho be-hitchanno 'eleinu ("we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded to us"). The construct phrase tzarat naftsho binds "distress" tightly to "his soul," so the Hebrew expresses the suffering as inward and personal, tied to his inner self rather than a general external hardship. The hithpael infinitive hitchanno frames his plea as self-involved supplication. The clause ends with ve-lo shama'nu ("and we did not listen"), a qal perfect negated, marking this refusal as a completed past act.

The final sentence, 'al-ken ba'ah 'eleinu ha-tzarah ha-zot ("therefore this distress has come upon us"), uses the causal adverb 'al-ken ("therefore") to link the present calamity (ha-tzarah, using the same root as tzarat earlier) directly to their earlier failure to listen, drawing a linguistic parallel between the distress they caused and the distress now falling on them.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'aval ("indeed") with Naí ("Yes"), and shifts the reason clause to en hamartia gar autou ("for in his sin," or "concerning his sin"), differing from the Hebrew's 'ashemim 'anachnu 'al-'achinu ("we are guilty concerning our brother"). The Vulgate reads merito haec patimur, quia peccavimus in fratrem nostrum ("deservedly we suffer this, because we sinned against our brother"), explicitly supplying "we sinned" (peccavimus) where the Hebrew has the adjectival state 'ashemim ("guilty") rather than a verb of sinning.