Genesis 42:27

Summary

This verse describes one of Joseph's brothers opening his sack at a lodging place to feed his donkey, and discovering his silver in the mouth of the sack. The discovery is marked with surprise through the interjection hinneh ("there!", H2009).

Key words

• ha'echad ("the one", H9009+H0259) — the definite article attached to the numeral "one" specifies a particular individual among the brothers, functioning as "the one [of them]" rather than a generic "someone."
• sako ("his sack", H8242+H9023) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, marking possession; the sack belongs to the brother who opens it.
• lachamoro ("to his donkey", H2543+H9023) — construct + suffix, indicating the purpose clause (latet, "to give", H5414G) is directed toward feeding his own animal.
• vayyar' ("and he saw", H7200G) — qal narrative verb continuing the story chain begun with vayyiftach ("and he opened", H6605A); the narrative vav sequence drives the action forward step by step.
• hinneh ("there!", H2009) — interjection that marks the moment of discovery, shifting the narrative into the character's immediate perception rather than mere report.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of narrative verbs (vayyiftach, "and he opened"; vayyar', "and he saw") linked by the narrative vav (H9001), producing a sequential action: opening the sack, then seeing the silver. The purpose of opening the sack is expressed through the infinitive latet ("to give", H5414G) plus mispo' ("fodder", H4554), specifying that the sack was opened for a practical reason unrelated to the silver.

The discovery itself is framed not as a simple verb but through vehinneh-hu ("and there!—it", H9002+H2009+H1931), which shifts from narration to a moment of direct perception: the pronoun hu' ("it", H1931) restates the subject (the silver, kaspo, "his silver", H3701G) for emphasis right before locating it bephi 'amtachto ("in the mouth of his sack", H6310G+H0572+H9023), a construct chain meaning literally "mouth of his sack," an idiom for the opening or top of the sack.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders lachamoro ("to his donkey", singular) as τοῖς ὄνοις αὐτοῦ ("to his donkeys," plural), and adds οὗ κατέλυσαν ("where they lodged"), a phrase not present as a separate clause in the Hebrew, which instead places bammalon ("at the lodging place", H4411) directly within the main clause. The Vulgate similarly integrates "in diversorio" ("at the inn") into the purpose clause, differing slightly in syntax from the Hebrew's placement of bammalon after the donkey-feeding clause. The Hebrew hinneh ("there!"), marking the emotional immediacy of the discovery, has no distinct lexical equivalent in the LXX, which simply states ἴδεν ("he saw") followed by a report clause with ἦν ("it was"), losing the interjection's expressive force.