Genesis 42:35

Summary

As Jacob's sons empty their grain sacks, each one finds his bag of silver still inside — the same silver they thought they had left in Egypt. When they and their father see the bags of silver, all of them become afraid.

Key words

• va-yehi ("and it was", H1961) — narrative qal verb opening the scene, the standard formula introducing a new event in the story sequence.
• meriqim ("emptying", H7324) — hiphil (causative) participle, masculine plural, describing an action in progress: the brothers were in the process of emptying, not having finished.
• hinneh ("there!", H2009) — interjection marking a sudden discovery from the perspective of those looking into the sacks; it signals surprise within the narrative.
• tzror-kaspo ("the bag of his silver", H6872A + H3701G) — construct chain, singular, referring to one man's bag; later echoed in plural construct tzrorot kaspeihem ("the bags of their silvers", H6872A + H3701G) when all the bags are seen together.
• yira'u ("they were afraid", H3372G) — qal narrative verb, third person plural, closing the verse with the emotional reaction.

What the text says

The verse is built in two narrative movements joined by va- ("and") chains typical of Biblical Hebrew storytelling. The first movement (items 1–15) sets the scene: va-yehi hem meriqim ("and it was, they were emptying") uses a participle to freeze the action mid-motion, then hinneh introduces the discovery from inside the narrative viewpoint — as if the reader looks into the sack alongside the brothers. The construct chain tzror-kaspo be-saqqo ("the bag of his silver was in his sack") is a nominal clause without a stated verb "to be" in Hebrew; the preposition be- ("in", item 13) functions as the predicate, a common feature of Hebrew existential statements.

The second movement (items 16–27) reports the reaction: va-yir'u ("and they saw", H7200G) takes the direct object marker 'et before the plural construct tzrorot kaspeihem ("the bags of their silvers"), now generalized to all the sacks rather than the single sack of item 10. The subjects of seeing are marked twice — hemah ("they", H1992, in its fuller form) and avihem ("their father", H1G construct + suffix) — explicitly including Jacob among those who see and fear. The final verb va-yira'u ("and they were afraid", H3372G) shares no root with the earlier va-yehi but closes the verse with the emotional outcome of the discovery.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew hinneh ("there!") without an equivalent interjection, moving directly to ἢν ("was"), which flattens the surprise marked in the Hebrew. The Vulgate similarly omits any equivalent to hinneh, and instead of the Hebrew's stative construction ("the bag... was in his sack"), it uses the active verb "repererunt" ("they found"), assigning agency to the brothers where the Hebrew text uses a nominal, event-like phrasing. The Vulgate also merges the two-step Hebrew structure (first individual discovery, then collective seeing with the father) into a more continuous single report.