Genesis 43:34

Summary

The verse describes Joseph sending food portions to his brothers from his own table, with Benjamin's portion being five times larger than the others. The brothers then eat, drink, and become intoxicated together with him.

Key words

• va-yiSSa ("he took/lifted", H5375H) — qal narrative verb, third masculine singular, opening the sequence of action with "and then he took/carried."
• mas'ot ("portions", H4864) — feminine plural noun, referring to the food shares taken from Joseph's table.
• panav ("his face", H6440G) — masculine plural construct noun with pronominal suffix va ("his"); combined with the preposition me'et ("from with"), the phrase literally reads "from with his face," an idiom for "from his presence" or "from before him."
• tterev ("it was great/increased", H7235A) — qal narrative verb, third feminine singular, agreeing with mas'at ("portion of," feminine singular construct), describing how Benjamin's portion exceeded the others.
• yadot ("hands", H3027L) — common gender plural noun, here used with chamesh ("five", H2568) to form the idiom "five hands," i.e., five portions/shares.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure moves through four narrative verbs joined by the vav-consecutive: va-yiSSa ("and he took"), va-tterev ("and it was great"), va-yishtu ("and they drank"), and va-yishkeru ("and they became drunk"). This chain creates a tight sequence of events without additional connectors, typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative prose.

The phrase me'et panav ("from with his face") is a Hebrew idiom meaning "from his presence" — the text does not explicitly say the food came from a "table," only that portions were taken from where Joseph's presence was located, and then given alehem ("to them", suffix on H0413). The comparison of Benjamin's portion uses construct chains: mas'at Binyamin ("the portion of Benjamin") is contrasted with mi-mas'ot kullam ("more than the portions of all of them"), and the multiple is expressed as chamesh yadot — literally "five hands," an idiom for "five portions" or "five shares," rather than a numeral attached directly to a portion-word.

The final verb va-yishkeru (H7937) denotes becoming drunk/intoxicated, a plain description of the physical state reached after drinking (va-yishtu, H8354).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew idiom chamesh yadot ("five hands") as πενταπλασίως ("five-fold" or "five times"), converting the Hebrew idiom into a straightforward multiplicative adverb. The Vulgate similarly reads "quinque partibus excederet" ("it exceeded by five parts/portions"), also abandoning the "hands" idiom for a numerical portion count. Neither the LXX nor the Vulgate preserves the literal "hands" (yadot) image found in the Hebrew text. Additionally, where the Hebrew simply states me'et panav ("from with his face/presence"), the BSB translation specifies "from Joseph's table," an interpretive addition not present in the Hebrew wording itself.