Genesis 44:15

Summary

Joseph confronts his brothers after the silver cup is found, asking rhetorically what act they have committed and whether they were unaware that a man like him can practice divination. The verse combines an accusatory question with a statement about Joseph's own claimed ability.

Key words

• ma'aseh ("deed", H4639K) — definite noun with the article ha (H9009) and demonstrative zeh ("this", H2088), framing the brothers' action as a specific, identifiable act requiring explanation.
• 'a.si.Tem ("you have done", H6213A) — qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural, marking the action as completed and attributing it directly to the brothers as a group.
• ye.da'.Tem ("do you know", H3045) — qal perfect 2nd person plural, preceded by the interrogative ha (H9008) plus negation lo' (H3808), forming a rhetorical question expecting an affirmative answer ("surely you knew").
• nachesh yenachesh ("indeed...he practices divination", H5172) — piel infinitive absolute followed by piel imperfect of the same root; this doubling is an emphatic construction underscoring the certainty or intensity of the action ("he definitely/surely divines").
• ka.Mo.ni ("like me", H3644G + H9030) — preposition with 1st person suffix, attached to 'ish ("a man", H0376G), identifying Joseph himself as the reference point for the claimed skill.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-yomer ("and he said", H9001+H0559), introducing direct speech from Yosef (H3130G) to lahem ("to them", H9005+H9038). The first question uses the interrogative mah ("what", H4100) with the article-marked noun ha-ma'aseh ha-zeh ("this deed") and the relative clause 'asher 'asitem ("which you have done"), a construction that presents the brothers' act as already completed and now demanding explanation.

The second question is introduced by the interrogative particle ha attached to the negation lo', a common Biblical Hebrew pattern for rhetorical questions implying an expected "yes" answer — literally "did you not know?" This leads into a subordinate clause marked by ki ("that", H3588A), which contains the emphatic infinitive-absolute-plus-imperfect structure nachesh yenachesh (H5172 doubled). This grammatical doubling, characteristic of Biblical Hebrew, intensifies the verbal idea — here rendered as certainty or emphasis on the act of divination itself, rather than merely stating that divination occurs. The subject of this verb, 'ish 'asher kamoni ("a man who is like me"), places Joseph's identity at the center of the claim.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the negative construction as ouk ouk (a doubled negation) where the Hebrew has a single interrogative negation ha-lo' ("did you not"); this repetition in the Greek text differs structurally from the single negative particle in the Hebrew. The Vulgate shifts the sense of the final clause: where the Hebrew states that "a man like me indeed practices divination" ('ish 'asher kamoni), the Vulgate reads quod non sit similis mei in augurandi scientia ("that there is none like me in the knowledge of divining"), inverting the comparative structure — the Hebrew affirms a man "like Joseph" divines, while the Vulgate emphasizes that no one is "like" Joseph in this skill.