Genesis 42:23

Summary

The verse states that Joseph's brothers were unaware that Joseph understood their speech, explaining that this ignorance was due to the presence of an interpreter (melitz, H3887) mediating between them.

Key words

• yade'u ("they knew", H3045) — qal perfect, 3rd person plural: a completed action of knowing, negated by lo' ("not", H3808), establishing the brothers' state of ignorance.
• shome'a ("hearing/understanding", H8085J) — qal participle, masculine singular: describes Joseph's ongoing action as an active state ("the one hearing") rather than a single completed event.
• ki ("that/for", H3588A) — appears twice (positions 5 and 8), functioning as a subordinating particle introducing both the content of what the brothers did not know and the reason (the presence of the interpreter).
• ha-melitz ("the interpreter", H3887) — hiphil participle with definite article: literally "the one causing to interpret," a substantivized participle naming the role/agent.
• beinotam ("between them", H0996G + H9038) — construct form with pronominal suffix, indicating the interpreter's position "between" the two parties.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence begins with ve-hem ("and they") placing emphasis on the brothers as the grammatical subject before the negated verb lo' yade'u ("they did not know"). This word order foregrounds the brothers' perspective and their lack of awareness as the main point of the clause.

The first ki clause uses a participle, shome'a ("hearing/understanding"), rather than a finite verb, to describe Joseph's comprehension. Hebrew participles often express a continuous or characteristic state rather than a single completed action; here it portrays Joseph's understanding as an ongoing condition throughout the exchange, not a momentary event.

The second ki clause provides the explanation: ha-melitz beinotam ("the interpreter [was] between them"). Notably, this clause lacks an explicit verb "to be" in Hebrew — the sentence is a nominal (verbless) clause, common in Hebrew for stative descriptions. The participle ha-melitz is used substantively, functioning as a noun ("the interpreter") rather than a verb, though its underlying hiphil form (H3887) suggests the causative sense of "one who causes understanding" or "mediates."

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the second clause with a finite verb, loqueretur ("he was speaking"), shifting from the Hebrew's static, verbless construction ("the interpreter [was] between them") to an active description of ongoing speech through the interpreter. The LXX preserves a structure closer to the Hebrew, using ἑρμηνευτὴς ("interpreter") with ἀνὰ μέσον ("between"), maintaining the nominal, positional sense rather than introducing a verb of speaking.