Genesis 42:5

Summary

Genesis 42:5 reports that the sons of Israel arrived to buy grain, joining a larger group of people who were also coming for this purpose, because the famine that afflicted Egypt had also reached the land of Canaan.

Key words

• va-yyavo'u ("and they came", H0935G) — qal narrative verb form, third person masculine plural, advancing the story with "and then they came."
• liשbor ("to buy grain", H7666) — qal infinitive with prefixed preposition li ("to"), expressing purpose: the reason for their coming.
• ba'im ("the ones coming", H0935G) — qal participle, masculine plural, with definite article ha ("the"); describes an ongoing group of people, not a single completed action like the finite verb in position 2.
• hayah ("it was", H1961) — qal perfect, third person masculine singular, marking a completed state in the past; introduces the causal clause explaining why they came.
• ki ("for/that", H3588A) — subordinating particle connecting the main narrative (their arrival) to its cause (the famine).

What the text says

The verse divides into two clauses joined by ki ("for", H3588A). The first clause uses the narrative verb va-yyavo'u ("and they came", H0935G) to state the main action: the bene Yisra'el ("sons of Israel", H1121A + H3478) arrived. Their purpose is marked by the infinitive construction li-shbor ("to buy grain", H9005 + H7666), a common Hebrew way to express intent attached to a finite verb.

The phrase be-tokh ha-ba'im ("among the ones coming", H9003 + H8432 + H0935G) uses the participle ba'im rather than a finite verb, which in Hebrew grammar depicts an ongoing or general group of travelers arriving for a similar purpose. This grammatical contrast between the finite va-yyavo'u (a specific completed event: they came) and the participle ba'im (a general ongoing group: those who are coming) situates the sons of Israel within a wider, unspecified movement of people—the text does not identify who else was in this group.

The causal clause beginning with ki ("for", H3588A) explains the motive using the qal perfect hayah ("it was", H1961), indicating a prior established state: the famine, ha-ra'av ("the famine", H7458), was already be'eretz Kena'an ("in the land of Canaan", H0776G + H3667A). The perfect aspect marks this famine as an existing condition at the time the sons of Israel departed, not a new development.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders bene Yisra'el with hoi huioi Israēl and translates the participle construction as meta tōn erchomenōn ("with those coming"), matching the Hebrew participle sense. The Vulgate, however, adds terram Aegypti ("the land of Egypt"), specifying a destination not present in the Hebrew text, which only states they came be-tokh ha-ba'im ("among those coming", H8432 + H0935G) without naming a location for that arrival.