Genesis 43:29
וַיִּשָּׂא עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא אֶת־בִּנְיָמִין אָחִיו בֶּן־אִמּוֹ וַיֹּאמֶר הֲזֶה אֲחִיכֶם הַקָּטֹן אֲשֶׁר אֲמַרְתֶּם אֵלָי וַיֹּאמַר אֱלֹהִים יָחְנְךָ בְּנִֽי׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּשָּׂ֣א עֵינָ֗יו וַיַּ֞רְא אֶת־בִּנְיָמִ֣ין אָחִיו֮ בֶּן־אִמּוֹ֒ וַיֹּ֗אמֶר הֲזֶה֙ אֲחִיכֶ֣ם הַקָּטֹ֔ן אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲמַרְתֶּ֖ם אֵלָ֑י וַיֹּאמַ֕ר אֱלֹהִ֥ים יָחְנְךָ֖ בְּנִֽי׃
ἀναβλέψας δὲ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἸσὴΦ ἴδεν Βενιαμεὶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν ὁμομήτριον, καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἀδελφὸς ὑμῶν ὁ νεώτερος, ὃν εἴπατε πρὸς μὲ ἀγαγεῖν; καὶ εἶπεν Ὁ θεὸς ἐλεήσαι σε, τέκνον.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Attollens autem Joseph oculos, vidit Benjamin fratrem suum uterinum, et ait: Iste est frater vester parvulus, de quo dixeratis mihi? Et rursum: Deus, inquit, misereatur tui, fili mi.
Al levantar la vista, José vio a su hermano Benjamín, el hijo de su propia madre, y preguntó: “¿Es éste su hermano menor, del que me hablaron?” Y a Benjamín le dijo: “¡Que Dios te bendiga, hijo mío!”
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y alzando él sus ojos vió á Benjamín su hermano, hijo de su madre, y dijo: ¿ Es éste vuestro hermano menor, de quien me hablasteis? Y dijo: Dios tenga misericordia de ti, hijo mío.
When Joseph looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, he asked, “ Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” Then he declared, “ May God be gracious to you, my son.”
✦ What the text says
Summary
Joseph lifts his eyes and sees Benjamin, described as his full brother ("son of his mother"), and asks the brothers whether this is the youngest brother they had told him about. He then pronounces a wish that God show favor to Benjamin, addressing him as "my son."
Key words
- va-yiSSa ("and he lifted up", H5375) — qal narrative verb, marks the next event in sequence: Joseph's action of raising his eyes.
- achiv / achi ("his brother", H0251) — masculine singular construct with pronominal suffix, used twice: first to identify Benjamin as "his brother" (Joseph's), then in "your brother" (achikhem) when Joseph speaks to the group.
- ben-immo ("son of his mother", H1121 + H0517) — construct chain specifying Benjamin as sharing the same mother as Joseph, distinguishing him from the other brothers who share only the father.
- ha-qqaton ("the young [one]", H6996) — adjective with definite article, functioning as a substantive: "the young one," i.e., the youngest.
- yochnekha ("may he show favor to you", H2603) — qal imperfect, expressing a wish or request rather than a completed action, addressed to Benjamin.
What the text says
The verse is built from a chain of narrative verbs joined by the vav consecutive (va-): va-yissa ("and he lifted up"), va-yar ("and he saw"), va-yomer ("and he said," appearing twice), va-yomer again. This chain presents the events as a rapid sequence: seeing, then two separate speech acts. The first speech is a question directed to the brothers (marked by the interrogative ha-, H9008, prefixed to zeh, "this"), asking whether "this" is "your brother, the young one" (achikhem ha-qqaton), further specified by the relative clause asher amartem elai ("whom you spoke to me," H0834 + H0559 perfect + H0413 with suffix "to me"). The perfect tense amartem marks this as something already completed in an earlier conversation, referenced back to at this moment.
The second speech shifts addressee: Joseph turns to Benjamin directly, using the vocative beni ("my son," H1121 with 1st person suffix). The verb yochnekha is an imperfect, which here carries an optative/wish sense ("may he show favor"), attached to the subject Elohim ("God," H0430), a plural noun used with a singular verb, functioning as the grammatical subject of the wish.
Genealogically, the phrase achiv ben-immo ("his brother, son of his mother") makes explicit that Benjamin is identified through the maternal line, distinguishing this kinship note from the more general ach ("brother") used elsewhere for the other sons of Jacob.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the second speech differently: instead of a direct address ending in "may God show favor to you," it reads "ὁ θεὸς ἐλεήσαι σε, τέκνον" ("may God have mercy on you, child"), using ἐλεήσαι ("have mercy") where the Hebrew yochnekha means "show favor/grace." The Vulgate follows this sense with "misereatur tui" ("may he have mercy on you"), also diverging from the Hebrew's "favor/grace" nuance toward "mercy." Additionally, the LXX inserts "ἀγαγεῖν" ("to bring") into the relative clause, an addition not present in the Hebrew relative clause asher amartem elai ("whom you spoke to me").
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.