Genesis 43:7
וַיֹּאמְרוּ שָׁאוֹל שָֽׁאַל־הָאִישׁ לָנוּ וּלְמֽוֹלַדְתֵּנוּ לֵאמֹר הַעוֹד אֲבִיכֶם חַי הֲיֵשׁ לָכֶם אָח וַנַגֶּד־לוֹ עַל־פִּי הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה הֲיָדוֹעַ נֵדַע כִּי יֹאמַר הוֹרִידוּ אֶת־אֲחִיכֶֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיֹּאמְר֡וּ שָׁא֣וֹל שָֽׁאַל־הָ֠אִישׁ לָ֣נוּ וּלְמֽוֹלַדְתֵּ֜נוּ לֵאמֹ֗ר הַע֨וֹד אֲבִיכֶ֥ם חַי֙ הֲיֵ֣שׁ לָכֶ֣ם אָ֔ח וַנַ֨גֶּד־ל֔וֹ עַל־פִּ֖י הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֑לֶּה הֲיָד֣וֹעַ נֵדַ֔ע כִּ֣י יֹאמַ֔ר הוֹרִ֖ידוּ אֶת־אֲחִיכֶֽם׃
οἰ δὲ εἶπαν Ἐρωτῶν ἐπηρώτησεν ἡμᾶς ὁ ἄνθρωπος καὶ τὴν γενεὰν ἡ λέγων Εἰ ἒτι ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ζῆ ; εἰ ἔστιν ὑμῖν ἀδελφός; καὶ ἀπηγγείλαμεν αὐτῷ κατὰ τὴν ἐπερώτησιν αὐτοῦ. μὴ ᾔδειμεν εἰ ἐρεῖ ἡμῖν Ἀγάγετε τὸν ἀδελφὸν ὑμῶν;
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
At illi responderunt: Interrogavit nos homo per ordinem nostram progeniem: si pater viveret: si haberemus fratrem: et nos respondimus ei consequenter juxta id quod fuerat sciscitatus: numquid scire poteramus quod dicturus esset: Adducite fratrem vestrum vobiscum?
Ellos le respondieron: “Es que el hombre nos preguntó directamente por nosotros y por nuestra familia. Nos dijo: ‘¿Todavía vive su padre? ¿Tienen algún otro hermano?’ Nosotros sólo contestamos a sus preguntas. ¿Cómo íbamos a saber que nos pediría que lleváramos a nuestro hermano?”
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y ellos respondieron: Aquel varón nos preguntó expresamente por nosotros, y por nuestra parentela, diciendo: ¿ Vive aún vuestro padre? ¿ tenéis otro hermano? y declarámosle conforme á estas palabras. ¿ Podíamos nosotros saber que había de decir: Haced venir á vuestro hermano?
They replied, “ The man questioned us in detail about ourselves and our family: ‘ Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ And we answered him accordingly. How could we possibly know that he would say, ‘ Bring your brother here ’?”
✦ What the text says
Summary
Joseph's brothers explain to their steward that the Egyptian official had questioned them closely about their family, asking whether their father was still alive and whether they had another brother. They report that they answered honestly, and defend themselves by asking how they could have anticipated his demand to bring their youngest brother.
Key words
- sha'ol sha'al ("carefully, he asked", H7592) — infinitive absolute followed by the perfect of the same root; this doubling intensifies the verb, conveying that the man asked persistently or in detail, a nuance lost when translated as a single verb like "questioned."
- chai ("living", H2416A) — adjective in a nominal clause introduced by the interrogative ha (H9008), forming the direct question "is [he] still alive?" without a verb "to be," typical of Hebrew verbless clauses.
- naged ("we told", H5046) — hiphil narrative form of the causative stem, meaning "we caused [him] to know" or "we declared," used with the preposition 'al p̄i ("according to the mouth of," H6310K) to specify that they answered strictly following the content of his questions.
- yadoa' neda' ("really, did we know", H3045) — a second infinitive-absolute-plus-imperfect construction, again doubling the same root to intensify the rhetorical question, expressing strong denial of foreknowledge ("how could we possibly have known").
- 'achikhem ("your brother", H0251G) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, referring to the brother the Egyptian official demanded be brought down, closing the speech with the object of dispute.
What the text says
The verse is built around two paired infinitive-absolute constructions, both doubling a finite verb with its own infinitive absolute: sha'ol sha'al ("asking, he asked") and yadoa' neda' ("knowing, would we know"). This repetition is a common device in Biblical Hebrew for emphasis, here framing the brothers' account as urgent self-justification: the official's questioning was insistent, and their own ignorance of his intentions was total. The verbless questions ha-'od 'avichem chai ("is your father still alive?") and ha-yesh lachem 'ach ("do you have a brother?") retain the paratactic, direct style of reported speech without a copula, characteristic of Hebrew narrative embedding dialogue within dialogue.
The narrative vav-forms (va-yomru, "and they said"; va-naged, "and we told") move the story forward in sequence, while the causative hiphil naged marks the brothers as active reporters who "made known" their answers according to ('al pi) the specific wording of the questions asked—stressing that they answered only what was asked, not more.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the double infinitive constructions with intensifying phrases (Ἐρωτῶν ἐπηρώτησεν, "questioning, he questioned"; the second doubling is reduced to μὴ ᾔδειμεν, "did we not know," without a matching infinitive doubling). The Vulgate flattens both Hebrew emphatic doublings into single verbs (interrogavit, "he questioned"; scire poteramus, "were we able to know"), losing the repeated-root intensity present in the Hebrew.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.