Genesis 42:37
וַיֹּאמֶר רְאוּבֵן אֶל־אָבִיו לֵאמֹר אֶת־שְׁנֵי בָנַי תָּמִית אִם־לֹא אֲבִיאֶנּוּ אֵלֶיךָ תְּנָה אֹתוֹ עַל־יָדִי וַאֲנִי אֲשִׁיבֶנּוּ אֵלֶֽיךָ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר רְאוּבֵן֙ אֶל־אָבִ֣יו לֵאמֹ֔ר אֶת־שְׁנֵ֤י בָנַי֙ תָּמִ֔ית אִם־לֹ֥א אֲבִיאֶ֖נּוּ אֵלֶ֑יךָ תְּנָ֤ה אֹתוֹ֙ עַל־יָדִ֔י וַאֲנִ֖י אֲשִׁיבֶ֥נּוּ אֵלֶֽיךָ׃
εἶπεν δὲ Ῥουβὴν τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ λέγων τοὺς δύο υἱούς μου ἀπόκτεινον, ἐὰν μὴ ἀγάγω αὐτὸν πρὸς σέ· δὸς αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν χεῖρά μου, κἀγὼ ἀνάξω αὐτὸν πρὸς σέ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Cui respondit Ruben: Duos filios meos interfice, si non reduxero illum tibi: trade illum in manu mea, et ego eum tibi restituam.
Rubén le dijo a su padre: “Si no te lo traigo de regreso, puedes matar a mis dos hijos. Déjalo a mi cuidado, que yo te lo devolveré”.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y Rubén habló á su padre, diciendo: Harás morir á mis dos hijos, si no te lo volviere; entrégalo en mi mano, que yo lo volveré á ti.
Then Reuben said to his father, “ You may kill my two sons if I fail to bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will return him.”
✦ What the text says
Summary
Reuben addresses his father Jacob, offering his own two sons as a guarantee if he fails to bring Benjamin back from Egypt. He frames this as a conditional oath: Jacob may kill his grandsons if Reuben does not return with Benjamin, and asks Jacob to entrust the boy into his care.
Key words
- tamit ("you will kill", H4191) — hiphil imperfect, causative form of "to die"; expresses future/potential action, here functioning as a conditional permission rather than a direct command.
- avi'ennu ("I will bring him", H0935P) — hiphil imperfect with 3ms suffix; the causative of "to come," used inside the protasis ("if I do not bring him").
- tenah ("give!", H5414H) — qal imperative with paragogic he (H9012), an emphatic form of the command, stronger than a plain imperative.
- ashivennu ("I will bring him back", H7725G) — hiphil imperfect with 3ms suffix, causative of "to return"; closes the sentence, mirroring avi'ennu structurally.
- yadi ("my hand", H3027G) — construct noun with 1cs suffix; used with the preposition 'al ("on/upon") to describe placing Benjamin under Reuben's responsibility.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as an inverted conditional: the consequence (tamit, "you will kill my two sons") appears before the condition ('im lo', "if not... I bring him to you"). This order, sometimes called apodosis-first, is a feature of oath-like speech in Biblical Hebrew, placing the stakes before the condition that triggers them. The imperfect verb tamit does not carry imperative morphology, but its position after the naming of the sons and before the conditional clause gives it a permissive or promissory force — "you may/will kill" — rather than a flat command.
The two hiphil forms avi'ennu ("I will bring him") and ashivennu ("I will bring him back") frame the speech, both causative, both carrying the 3ms object suffix "him" referring to Benjamin. Between them sits the emphatic imperative tenah, reinforced by the paragogic he, asking Jacob to physically place Benjamin under Reuben's yadi ("hand"), using the preposition 'al ("upon/over"), a phrase denoting custodial responsibility rather than literal physical hand-holding.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders tamit with the imperative ἀπόκτεινον ("kill!"), sharpening the Hebrew imperfect into a direct command, whereas the Hebrew form is not morphologically imperative. The Vulgate's interfice ("kill") follows the same imperative reading as the LXX. For 'al-yadi ("upon my hand"), the LXX uses εἰς τὴν χεῖρά μου ("into my hand"), and the Vulgate in manu mea ("in my hand") — both shift the preposition from "upon" to "into/in," a minor spatial difference not present in the Hebrew 'al.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.