Genesis 42:33

וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֵינוּ הָאִישׁ אֲדֹנֵי הָאָרֶץ בְּזֹאת אֵדַע כִּי כֵנִים אַתֶּם אֲחִיכֶם הָֽאֶחָד הַנִּיחוּ אִתִּי וְאֶת־רַעֲבוֹן בָּתֵּיכֶם קְחוּ וָלֵֽכוּ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלֵ֗ינוּ הָאִישׁ֙ אֲדֹנֵ֣י הָאָ֔רֶץ בְּזֹ֣את אֵדַ֔ע כִּ֥י כֵנִ֖ים אַתֶּ֑ם אֲחִיכֶ֤ם הָֽאֶחָד֙ הַנִּ֣יחוּ אִתִּ֔י וְאֶת־רַעֲב֥וֹן בָּתֵּיכֶ֖ם קְח֥וּ וָלֵֽכוּ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

εἶπεν δὲ ἡμῖν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὃς ὁ κύριος τῆς γῆς Ἐν τούτῳ γνωσόμεθα ὃτι εἰρηνικοί ἐστε· ἀδελφὸν ἕνα ἄφετε ὦδε μετ’ ἐμοῦ, τὸν δὲ ἀγορασμὸν τῆς σιτοδοσίας ὑμῶν λαβόντες ἀπέλθατε·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Qui ait nobis: Sic probabo quod pacifici sitis: fratrem vestrum unum dimittite apud me, et cibaria domibus vestris necessaria sumite, et abite,

Spanish

Pero ese hombre, el gobernador del país, nos contestó: ‘Con esto podré comprobar si realmente son hombres honrados: dejen a uno de ustedes conmigo, llévense trigo para calmar el hambre en sus casas, y váyanse.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y aquel varón, señor de la tierra, nos dijo: En esto conoceré que sois hombres de verdad; dejad conmigo uno de vuestros hermanos, y tomad para el hambre de vuestras casas, y andad,

English

Then the man who is lord of the land said to us, ‘ This is how I will know whether you are honest: Leave one brother with me, take food to relieve the hunger of your households, and go.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse reports the speech of "the man, lord of the land" (Joseph, unnamed here) to the brothers, explaining the test he will use to verify their honesty: one brother must stay behind while the others take provisions and return home. The clause structure moves from a stated condition ("by this I will know...") to a series of imperative commands.

Key words

'eda' ("I will know", H3045) — qal imperfect, first person; expresses a future/resultative verification tied to the preceding phrase bezot ("by this"), forming the condition under which knowledge will be obtained.
khenim ("honest ones", H3651A) — masculine plural adjective functioning as predicate to 'atem ("you"), describing the quality to be tested.
hanichu ("leave", H5117) — hiphil (causative) imperative, plural; a causative form meaning "cause to remain/rest," here commanding that one brother be caused to stay.
ra'avon ("hunger of", H7459) — masculine singular construct, forming a construct chain with bateikhem ("your households"), literally "the hunger of your households," the object taken by the imperative kekhu.
'echad ("one", H0259) — cardinal number modifying the brother left behind; the grammatical data marks it as feminine singular, though it qualifies the masculine noun 'achikhem ("your brother").

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative verb va-yomer ("and he said"), followed by the indirect object 'eleinu ("to us") and only then the subject, "the man, lord of the land" (ha-'ish 'adonei ha-'aretz), a construct phrase where 'adonei ("lords of," plural construct) governs ha-'aretz ("the land"). The reported speech begins with a conditional structure: bezot 'eda' ki khenim 'atem — "by this I will know that you are honest" — where the demonstrative zot ("this") points forward to the actions about to be commanded, and ki introduces the content of what will be known.

Three imperative verbs follow in sequence: hanichu (hiphil, "leave/cause to remain"), kekhu (qal, "take"), and lekhu (qal, "go"), the last two joined by the conjunction va-. The direct object of kekhu is not "grain" or "food" as a concrete noun but the construct phrase 'et-ra'avon bateikhem, literally "the hunger of your households" — an abstract noun used metonymically for the object taken.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders khenim ("honest," H3651A) as εἰρηνικοί ("peaceable"), a different semantic field from the Hebrew term. The Vulgate follows this with pacifici ("peaceful"), matching the LXX rather than the Hebrew's honesty/truthfulness sense. Where the Hebrew has the abstract construct ra'avon bateikhem ("the hunger of your households") as the object taken, the LXX specifies τὸν ἀγορασμὸν τῆς σιτοδοσίας ("the purchase of the grain-distribution") and the Vulgate has cibaria domibus vestris necessaria ("food necessary for your households"), both converting the Hebrew's abstract "hunger" into a concrete reference to grain or food.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.