Genesis 42:9
וַיִּזְכֹּר יוֹסֵף אֵת הַחֲלֹמוֹת אֲשֶׁר חָלַם לָהֶם וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם מְרַגְּלִים אַתֶּם לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עֶרְוַת הָאָרֶץ בָּאתֶֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּזְכֹּ֣ר יוֹסֵ֔ף אֵ֚ת הַחֲלֹמ֔וֹת אֲשֶׁ֥ר חָלַ֖ם לָהֶ֑ם וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֲלֵהֶם֙ מְרַגְּלִ֣ים אַתֶּ֔ם לִרְא֛וֹת אֶת־עֶרְוַ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ בָּאתֶֽם׃
καὶ ἐμνήσθη ἸωσὴΦ τῶν ἐνυπνίων ὦν ἴδεν αὐτός. καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Κατάσκοποί ἐστε, κατα νοῆσαι τὰ ἴχνη τῆς χώρας ἥκατε.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Recordatusque somniorum, quæ aliquando viderat, ait ad eos: Exploratores estis: ut videatis infirmiora terræ venistis.
Entonces José se acordó de los sueños que había tenido acerca de ellos, y les dijo: “¡Ustedes son espías! Han venido a ver cuáles son los puntos débiles de nuestro país”.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Entonces se acordó José de los sueños que había tenido de ellos, y díjoles: Espías sois; por ver lo descubierto del país habéis venido.
Joseph remembered his dreams about them and said, “ You are spies! You have come to see if our land is vulnerable.”
✦ What the text says
Summary
Genesis 42:9 narrates that Joseph recalled the dreams he had had about his brothers, and then accused them of being spies who had come to see the "nakedness" (vulnerability) of the land.
Key words
- va-yiz.kor — zakar ("he remembered", H2142), qal narrative form: the vav-consecutive marks this as the next event in the story sequence, immediately following the brothers' arrival.
- cha.lo.Mot — "dreams" (H2472), feminine plural noun with the definite article ha- (H9009): refers back to specific, known dreams (presumably those narrated earlier in Genesis).
- me.ra.ge.Lim — "spies" (H7270), piel participle plural: an intensive verbal noun describing an ongoing activity ("the ones who spy"), used here as a predicate nominal without a copula in Hebrew.
- 'er.Vat — "nakedness of" (H6172), feminine singular noun in construct state: grammatically bound to the following word ha-'A.retz ("the land"), forming the fixed expression "nakedness of the land."
- ba.Tem — bo' ("you have come", H0935), qal perfect: marks the action as completed, i.e., their arrival is presented as an accomplished fact underlying the accusation.
What the text says
The verse opens with two narrative vav-consecutive verbs (va-yiz.kor and va-yo.mer), which chain the sequence of events: first Joseph's inner recollection, then his spoken accusation. The object of his memory is marked by 'et (H0853, untranslated object marker) before ha-chalomot ("the dreams"), followed by a relative clause introduced by 'a.Sher ("which", H0834A) and the perfect verb cha.Lam ("he had dreamed", H2492B) with the prepositional suffix la.Hem ("to/of them", H9038), specifying that these were dreams concerning the brothers.
The accusation itself, me.ra.ge.Lim 'a.Tem ("spies you [are]"), lacks a copula, as is typical in Hebrew nominal clauses — the participle me.ra.ge.Lim functions directly as a predicate over the pronoun 'a.Tem ("you", H0859). The purpose clause that follows uses the infinitive li-r'ot ("to see", H7200) governing the construct phrase 'er.Vat ha-'Aretz ("nakedness of the land", H6172 + H0776), a construct chain in which the first noun is grammatically dependent on the second, forming a single conceptual unit.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew phrase 'er.Vat ha-'Aretz ("nakedness of the land") is rendered in the LXX as τὰ ἴχνη τῆς χώρας ("the tracks/traces of the land"), a different image from the Hebrew's bodily metaphor. The Vulgate gives infirmiora terrae ("the weaker parts of the land"), an interpretive rendering closer to the sense of vulnerability. The Hebrew relative clause "which he had dreamed of/concerning them" (la.Hem) is rendered in the LXX simply as ὦν ἴδεν αὐτός ("which he himself saw"), omitting the specific reference to the brothers found in the Hebrew la.Hem.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.