Genesis 42:4

וְאֶת־בִּנְיָמִין אֲחִי יוֹסֵף לֹא־שָׁלַח יַעֲקֹב אֶת־אֶחָיו כִּי אָמַר פֶּן־יִקְרָאֶנּוּ אָסֽוֹן׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְאֶת־בִּנְיָמִין֙ אֲחִ֣י יוֹסֵ֔ף לֹא־שָׁלַ֥ח יַעֲקֹ֖ב אֶת־אֶחָ֑יו כִּ֣י אָמַ֔ר פֶּן־יִקְרָאֶ֖נּוּ אָסֽוֹן׃

Greek (Septuagint)

τὶν δὲ Βενιαμεὶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν ἸωσὴΦ οὐκ ἀπέστειλεν μετὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν αὐτοῦ· εἶπεν γάρ Μή ποτε συμβῇ αὐτῷ μαλακια.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Benjamin domi retento a Jacob, qui dixerat fratribus ejus: Ne forte in itinere quidquam patiatur mali:

Spanish

Pero Jacob no dejó que Benjamín, el hermano de José, se fuera con ellos, porque pensó: “No vaya a ser que le pase alguna desgracia”.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Mas Jacob no envió á Benjamín hermano de José con sus hermanos; porque dijo: No sea acaso que le acontezca algún desastre.

English

But Jacob did not send Joseph ’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, “ I am afraid that harm might befall him.”

✦ What the text says

Summary

Genesis 42:4 explains that Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, along with the other brothers who traveled to Egypt. The verse gives the reason: Jacob feared that harm might come to him.

Key words

bin.ya.Min ("Benjamin", H1144G) — proper noun marked with the direct object marker 'Et (H0853), identifying him as the object of the withholding action expressed by the verb sha.Lach.

'a.Chi ("brother of", H0251G) — masculine singular construct form, linking Benjamin directly to Yosef, producing the phrase "Benjamin, brother of Joseph."

sha.Lach ("he sent", H7971G) — qal perfect, third person masculine singular, negated by lo' ("not", H3808), stating as a completed fact that Jacob did not send Benjamin.

'a.Mar ("he said", H0559) — qal perfect, introduced by ki ("for/that", H3588A), which introduces the reported reason for Jacob's action.

yik.ra.'Enu ("it should happen to him", H7122I + H9033) — qal imperfect with third person masculine singular suffix, following the particle pen ("lest", H6435), expressing a feared but not-yet-realized event.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence begins by placing the object—'et bin.ya.min 'a.chi Yosef ("Benjamin, brother of Joseph")—before the negated verb lo' sha.lach ("he did not send"), with the subject Ya'aqov following the verb. This word order foregrounds Benjamin as the topic under discussion, distinguishing the clause from a simple subject-verb-object statement. The construct phrase 'a.chi Yosef ("brother of Joseph") specifies Benjamin's relationship to Joseph rather than to the group of brothers traveling to Egypt, even though the following phrase 'et 'e.chav ("with his brothers", H0854 + H0251G) refers to the collective group Jacob did send.

The causal clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588A) attaches Jacob's stated reasoning to the preceding negative action. Inside this clause, the particle pen ("lest", H6435) governs the qal imperfect verb yik.ra.'Enu ("it should happen to him"), a form denoting an unrealized, apprehended event rather than a completed one — grammatically marking the object 'a.son ("harm", H0611) as a feared possibility, not a stated certainty.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'a.son ("harm", H0611) as malakia ("sickness/weakness"), narrowing the more general Hebrew term for harm/disaster to a specific bodily ailment. The Vulgate expands the clause with "in itinere" ("on the journey"), a phrase not present in the Hebrew, specifying that the feared harm would occur during travel.

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