Genesis 43:28

Summary

The brothers respond to Joseph's inquiry about their father, reporting that he is well and still alive. They then perform a physical gesture of bowing before Joseph.

Key words

• shalom ("health", H7965I) — a masculine singular noun functioning here as a predicate of well-being, describing the father's state.
• 'avdekha ("your servant", H5650 + H9021) — construct noun with 2nd person masculine suffix, a self-referential term the brothers use for their father in relation to Joseph.
• 'avinu ("our father", H0001G + H9025) — construct noun with 1st person plural suffix, identifying the subject of the report.
• chai ("alive", H2416A) — adjective in predicate position, confirming the father's continued life.
• yishtachavu ("they bowed down", H7812) — verb in the hishtaphel narrative form, describing a physical act of prostration.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative verb va-yomeru ("and they said", H0559), introducing direct speech from the brothers. The reported speech itself has no verb of being — shalom le-'avdekha le-'avinu literally reads "health to your servant, to our father," a nominal (verbless) construction typical of Biblical Hebrew for stating a state or condition. The double prepositional phrase le-'avdekha le-'avinu ("to your servant, to our father") uses apposition: "your servant" and "our father" refer to the same person, layering the brothers' deferential self-positioning (calling their father "your servant") together with their own relational term ("our father").

The clause continues with odenu chai ("he [is] still alive"), where od ("still", H5750) is marked grammatically as a construct form bound to the pronominal suffix -nu ("his/him", H9043), and chai ("alive", H2416A) stands as a predicate adjective completing the sentence without a linking verb — again reflecting the Hebrew pattern of verbless predication for states of being.

The final action is expressed through two consecutive narrative verbs: va-yikkedu ("and they bowed low", H6915) and va-yishtachavu ("and they bowed down", H7812). These are two distinct verbal roots placed in sequence, describing two phases or aspects of a single physical gesture of bowing.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the brothers' report as a full sentence, "Ὑγιαίνει ὁ παῖς σου" ("Your servant is well"), supplying the verb "is well" (ὑγιαίνει) that the Hebrew nominal construction lacks. The LXX also inserts an additional line, "καὶ εἶπεν Εὐλογητὸς ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος τῷ θεῷ" ("And he said, Blessed is that man to God"), which has no corresponding Hebrew text in the words provided. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew structure more closely with "Sospes est servus tuus pater noster" ("Your servant our father is safe"), supplying "est" for the verbless Hebrew clause but without the extra LXX addition.