Genesis 43:27
וַיִּשְׁאַל לָהֶם לְשָׁלוֹם וַיֹּאמֶר הֲשָׁלוֹם אֲבִיכֶם הַזָּקֵן אֲשֶׁר אֲמַרְתֶּם הַעוֹדֶנּוּ חָֽי׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּשְׁאַ֤ל לָהֶם֙ לְשָׁל֔וֹם וַיֹּ֗אמֶר הֲשָׁל֛וֹם אֲבִיכֶ֥ם הַזָּקֵ֖ן אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֲמַרְתֶּ֑ם הַעוֹדֶ֖נּוּ חָֽי׃
ἠρώτησεν δὲ αὐτούς ΙΙῶς ἒχετε; καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Εἰ ὑγιαίνει ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ πρεσβύτερος ὃν εἲπατε; ἒτι ζῇ;
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
At ille, clementer resalutatis eis, interrogavit eos, dicens: Salvusne est pater vester senex, de quo dixeratis mihi? adhuc vivit?
José les preguntó cómo estaban, y luego les dijo: “¿Cómo está su padre, aquel anciano del que me hablaron? ¿Todavía vive?”
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Entonces les preguntó él cómo estaban, y dijo: ¿ Vuestro padre, el anciano que dijisteis, lo pasa bien? ¿ vive todavía?
He asked if they were well, and then he asked, “ How is your elderly father you told me about? Is he still alive?”
✦ What the text says
Summary
Joseph first inquires about the general well-being of his brothers, then asks specifically about their father, referring to him as "the old man" they had previously mentioned, and asks whether he is still alive. The verse contains two distinct speech-acts: a general greeting and a direct quoted question.
Key words
- sha.Lom ("welfare", H7965I) — first occurrence, a noun functioning as the object of the inquiry "he asked them for/of welfare," a general greeting formula.
- sha.Lom ("health", H7965I) — second occurrence, same noun but now attached to the interrogative particle ha (H9008), forming a yes/no question about the father's condition.
- 'a.vi.Khem ("father of you", H0001G) — construct noun with a plural suffix, literally "father-of-you-all," identifying whose welfare is being asked.
- ha.zaKen ("the old", H2205H) — adjective with definite article, describing the father as "the old one," in apposition to 'a.vi.Khem.
- 'a.mar.Tem ("you spoke", H0559) — perfect verb, second person plural, referring back to something the brothers had previously said, introduced by the relative particle 'a.Sher ("whom/that", H0834A).
What the text says
The verse is built as two consecutive narrative actions marked by the vav-narrative forms va.i.yish.'Al ("and he asked") and va.i.Yo.mer ("and he said"). The first verb, yish.'Al ("he asked", H7592), takes an indirect object marked by la.hem ("to/of them") and a further prepositional phrase le.sha.Lom ("for welfare"), producing a general idiom of greeting rather than a direct quotation. The second verb, Yo.mer, introduces direct speech, signaled by the interrogative particle ha attached to sha.Lom ("health"). This second question is more specific: it names the subject as 'a.vi.Khem ha.zaKen, "your father, the old one," using the construct noun 'a.vi plus suffix and an appositive adjective with the definite article.
The relative clause 'a.Sher 'a.mar.Tem ("whom you spoke [of]") ties this question to an earlier statement by the brothers, using the perfect verb form to mark completed prior speech. The final clause repeats the interrogative particle ha before 'o.De.nu chai — literally "is he still (with suffix 'him') alive" — combining the temporal marker 'oD ("still", H5750) with the suffix and the adjective Chai ("alive", H2416A). The doubling of the interrogative particle ha across two clauses in direct speech creates a rhetorical rhythm: first about the father's health in general terms, then specifically about whether he remains alive.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the opening general greeting as a direct question, "Πῶς ἔχετε;" ("How are you?"), where the Hebrew presents it as reported action ("he asked them of welfare") rather than quoted speech. The Vulgate similarly frames the initial greeting with "clementer resalutatis eis" ("having graciously greeted them back"), an interpretive addition not present as a lexical item in the Hebrew text.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.