Genesis 43:21

Summary

This verse is part of the brothers' explanation to Joseph's steward, recounting what happened when they stopped for the night on their first return journey from Egypt. They report opening their sacks and finding each man's silver at the mouth of his sack, in its full weight, and state that they have brought it back with them.

Key words

• ma.Lon ("lodging place", H4411) — a masculine singular noun marking the location where the discovery occurred, the overnight stop on the road.
• nif.te.Cha ("we opened", H6605A) with paragogic he (H9012) — qal narrative form "we", with an added final he that adds emphasis or solemnity to the action of opening the sacks.
• 'am.te.cho.Tei.nu ("sacks of...our", H0572 + H9025) — construct noun with the "our" suffix, literally "the sacks of us," i.e., "our sacks."
• khe.sef-'ish ("silver of each man", H3701G + H0376I) — construct chain meaning "the silver belonging to each man," emphasizing individual ownership before the plural "our silver" is mentioned.
• Na.shev ("we have brought back", H7725J) — hiphil (causative) narrative form "we," meaning "we caused [it] to return," i.e., "we brought it back."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-y.hi ("and it was", H9001+H1961), a standard construction introducing a new episode, followed by the subordinating particle ki ("that/when", H3588A) marking the temporal clause "when we came to the lodging place." The main action then unfolds in a chain of narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs: "we came" (Va.nu), "we opened" (nif.te.Cha), and later "we brought back" (Na.shev), all first-person plural, giving the report a cohesive first-person testimony structure.

The description of the discovery uses the interjection hi.Neh ("there!", H2009), a marker of surprise or vividness within reported speech, followed by two parallel construct phrases: first khe.sef-'ish be-fi 'am.tach.To ("the silver of each man in the mouth of his sack"), then kas.Pe.nu be-mish.ka.Lo ("our silver in its weight"). The shift from "each man's silver" to "our silver" moves from individual to collective framing of the same event. The phrase be-mish.ka.Lo ("in its weight", H4948 + H9023) specifies that the amount matched precisely, without stating an outcome or interpretation beyond the fact of the weight matching. The final clause, "we brought it back in our hand" (Na.shev... be-ya.De.nu), uses the hiphil form to indicate that the brothers themselves caused the silver's return, reinforcing that the object of the verb ('o.To, "it") refers back to the silver just described.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew be-mish.ka.Lo ("in its weight") is rendered in the LXX as ἐν σταθμῷ ("by weight"), a close correspondence. The Vulgate renders this as "eodem pondere" ("the same weight"), making explicit the idea of correspondence to the original amount, a nuance not lexically stated in the Hebrew construct phrase itself. The LXX text as given breaks off before completing the clause corresponding to Na.shev ("we have brought back"), so the full parallel for that verb is not present in the provided LXX excerpt.