Genesis 42:8

Summary

The verse states that Joseph recognized his brothers when they came before him, but his brothers did not recognize him. The sentence establishes a contrast between Joseph's recognition and his brothers' failure to recognize him.

Key words

• va-yaKer ("and he recognized", H5234A) — hiphil (causative) verb in narrative form, indicating a completed act of recognition performed by Joseph.
• Yosef ("Joseph", H3130G) — proper name, subject of the first clause.
• 'et-'eChav ("his brothers", H0251G + suffix) — masculine plural noun in construct with the pronominal suffix "his", marked by the direct object marker 'et (H0853), identifying who Joseph recognized.
• heM ("they", H1992) — independent personal pronoun, placed before the negated verb to emphasize the subject of the second clause in contrast to Joseph.
• hikiRuhu ("they recognized him", H5234A + suffix H9033) — hiphil perfect verb with pronominal suffix "him", negated by lo' (H3808), describing the brothers' failure to recognize Joseph.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel clauses joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), creating a structural contrast. The first clause, va-yaKer Yosef 'et-'eChav ("and Joseph recognized his brothers"), uses the narrative vav construction (va-) attached to the hiphil verb yaKer, which signals a sequential, completed action within the story. The subject Joseph is named explicitly, and the object "his brothers" is marked with the direct object particle 'et (H0853), which has no independent gloss but signals that "his brothers" is the grammatical object of the recognition.

The second clause, ve-heM lo' hikiRuhu ("but they did not recognize him"), reverses the roles: the pronoun heM ("they") is placed emphatically before the negated verb, drawing attention to the contrast with Joseph's action. The verb hikiRuhu is also hiphil, matching the causative form of the first verb, but here in the perfect and negated by lo' ("not", H3808), with the object "him" attached as a suffix (-hu) rather than as a separate word. This grammatical symmetry — same verb root and stem (hiphil) used in both clauses — reinforces the direct contrast between recognizing and not recognizing.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text presents the verse as two coordinated clauses joined by "and" (ve), without an explicit concessive marker. The Vulgate ("Et tamen...") and the Spanish SBLIBRE and BSB translations ("Aunque...", "Although...") render the relationship between the clauses as concessive ("even though/although"), which is an interpretive addition not present in the Hebrew conjunction ve. The LXX (Swete) uses δὲ ("but/and") in both clauses, similar to a simple coordinating contrast, closer to the paratactic style of the Hebrew than the concessive renderings in the Vulgate and modern translations.