Genesis 42:32

Summary

The speakers describe themselves as twelve brothers, sons of the same father, noting that one brother is no longer present and the youngest remains with their father in the land of Canaan. This is part of the brothers' explanation to Joseph about their family situation.

Key words

she.neim-'a.Sar ("two-ten", H8147/H6240) — the compound numeral construction meaning "twelve," formed by combining the dual "two" with "ten," a standard Hebrew way of expressing this number.

'a.Chim ("brothers", H0251G) — masculine plural noun, here functioning as the predicate describing the group's relationship to each other.

be.Nei 'a.Vi.nu ("sons of our father", H1121A + H0001G + H9025) — construct chain literally "sons of father-our," with the pronominal suffix -nu ("our") attached to "father," specifying shared paternity.

'ei.Ne.nu ("he is not", H0369 + H9043) — the negative existential particle 'ein with third-person suffix -nu ("he/him"), stating the absence or non-existence of the one brother, without specifying cause.

ha.Ka.Ton ("the young one", H9009 + H6996H) — definite article plus adjective, used substantively to mean "the youngest [brother]," referring to the brother left behind.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the numeral she.neim-'a.Sar ("twelve") placed before the pronoun 'a.Nach.nu ("we"), giving numerical emphasis before identity: "Twelve, we [are], brothers." This word order foregrounds the count itself as the key fact being communicated to the listener.

The phrase ha.'e.Chad 'ei.Ne.nu ("the one, he is not") uses the existential negator 'ein with a pronominal suffix rather than a finite verb of being. This construction states absence without indicating the reason for that absence — the Hebrew does not specify death, separation, or any other cause, only non-presence.

The final clause locates the youngest brother (ha.Ka.Ton) as being 'et 'a.Vi.nu ("with our father") be.'E.retz Ke.Na.'an ("in the land of Canaan"), using the preposition 'et ("with") to indicate accompaniment rather than possession or origin.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders 'ei.Ne.nu as "unus non est super" ("one is not above/remaining"), interpreting the Hebrew absence-statement with a spatial nuance ("super") not explicit in the Hebrew construction itself. The LXX uses οὐχ ὑπάρχει ("does not exist/is not present"), a more general existential negation matching the Hebrew's ambiguity about cause. Some modern translations (e.g., SBLIBRE "ya murió" — "already died") supply an interpretive cause of the absence that the Hebrew text itself does not state explicitly.