Genesis 43:20

Summary

The verse opens the speech of Joseph's brothers to the steward of Joseph's house. They address him respectfully and affirm, using an emphatic verbal construction, that their earlier visit to Egypt had the sole purpose of buying food.

Key words

• bi ("pardon us", H0994) — an interjection expressing entreaty or supplication, opening the speech before the direct address to the "lord."
• 'adoni ("O lord", H0113 + suffix) — construct noun with 1st person singular suffix, literally "my lord," a formal address used toward a social superior.
• yarod ("certainly ", H3381) — qal infinitive absolute, placed before the finite verb of the same root to intensify the action it describes.
• yaradnu ("we came down", H3381) — qal perfect, 1st person plural, describing a completed action; paired with yarod it forms the emphatic construction "we surely came down."
• bat-techilah ("at the beginning", H8462 + preposition/article) — feminine singular noun with prefixed preposition and article, marking the temporal reference "the first time."

What the text says

The verse begins with the narrative vav on va-yomru ("and they said," H9001+H0559), continuing the sequence of events from the preceding narration. The brothers' speech opens with the interjection bi (H0994), followed by the address 'adoni (H0113 with 1st singular suffix "my"), a standard formula of respectful petition toward a superior.

The core grammatical feature of the verse is the doubling of the root yarad ("to go down," H3381): the infinitive absolute yarod is placed immediately before the finite perfect verb yaradnu. This construction, characteristic of Biblical Hebrew, intensifies or emphasizes the verb that follows — here rendered by the glosses as "certainly we came down" or "we really did come down." The perfect aspect of yaradnu marks the action as completed prior to the moment of speaking.

The temporal phrase ba-techilah ("at the beginning," H8462 with preposition and article H9003) specifies that this "coming down" refers to an earlier, prior descent, distinguishing it from the present visit. The purpose of that earlier journey is given by the infinitive construction li-shbor 'okel ("to buy food," H9005+H7666+H0400), where the infinitive with prefixed preposition li expresses purpose ("in order to do/buy"), followed by the noun 'okel ("food," H0400).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew bi (H0994), an interjection of entreaty, is rendered in the LXX as Deómetha ("we beg"), and in the Vulgate as "Oramus... ut audias nos" ("we pray... that you hear us"), an expanded phrase not present as such in the Hebrew wording. The emphatic infinitive absolute + perfect construction yarod yaradnu has no direct morphological equivalent in Greek or Latin; both LXX (katébēmen, simple aorist) and Vulgate (descendimus, simple perfect) render it with a single verb form, without reproducing the doubling found in the Hebrew.