Genesis 44:20
וַנֹּאמֶר אֶל־אֲדֹנִי יֶשׁ־לָנוּ אָב זָקֵן וְיֶלֶד זְקֻנִים קָטָן וְאָחִיו מֵת וַיִּוָּתֵר הוּא לְבַדּוֹ לְאִמּוֹ וְאָבִיו אֲהֵבֽוֹ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַנֹּ֙אמֶר֙ אֶל־אֲדֹנִ֔י יֶשׁ־לָ֙נוּ֙ אָ֣ב זָקֵ֔ן וְיֶ֥לֶד זְקֻנִ֖ים קָטָ֑ן וְאָחִ֨יו מֵ֜ת וַיִּוָּתֵ֨ר ה֧וּא לְבַדּ֛וֹ לְאִמּ֖וֹ וְאָבִ֥יו אֲהֵבֽוֹ׃
καὶ εἴπαμεν τῷ κυρίῳ Ἔστιν ἡμῖν πατὴρ πρεσβύτερος, καὶ παιδίον νεώτερον γήρως αὐτῷ, καὶ ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ ἀπέθανεν, αὐτὸς δὲ μόνος ὑπελείφθη τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ, ὁ δὲ πατὴρ αὐτὸν ἠγάπησεν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
et nos respondimus tibi domino meo: Est nobis pater senex, et puer parvulus, qui in senectute illius natus est: cujus uterinus frater mortuus est: et ipsum solum habet mater sua, pater vero tenere diligit eum.
Y nosotros le respondimos: ‘Tenemos un padre anciano, y un hermano menor que le nació en su vejez. El hermano de este muchacho ya murió, así que es el único hijo que le queda de esa madre, y su padre lo ama muchísimo’.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y nosotros respondimos á mi señor: Tenemos un padre anciano, y un mozo que le nació en su vejez, pequeño aún; y un hermano suyo murió, y él quedó solo de su madre, y su padre lo ama.
And we answered, ‘ We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy ’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
✦ What the text says
Summary
This verse recounts words spoken by Joseph's brothers to Joseph, quoting their earlier reply to him: they describe having an elderly father, a young brother born in his father's old age, that this brother's own brother had died, and that he alone remains of his mother, loved by his father.
Key words
- yeled ("child of", H3206) — construct form linking to what follows, "child of old age," expressing that this son was born when the father was already old.
- zekunim ("old age(s)", H2208) — plural noun in construct chain with yeled, together forming the idiom "child of old age," i.e., a son born late in life.
- yivvater ("he was left", H3498) — niphal (passive) narrative verb: the subject (the young brother) is the one left remaining, not the one who acts; the passive voice removes any agent from view.
- le-vaddo ("to/for him alone", H0905H with suffix) — construct noun bad ("alone/separateness") plus pronominal suffix "his," modifying how yivvater happens — "he was left, he alone."
- ahevo ("he loves him", H0157G) — qal perfect verb with 3ms subject and object suffix "him," stating a completed/established state: the father's love for this son, expressed as a finished action rather than an ongoing description in the base Hebrew form.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence chain uses the narrative vav (H9001) repeatedly to link a report structured as a series of short clauses: "we said... there is to us a father... and a child of old age, young... and his brother died... and he was left, he alone... and his father loves him." Each clause is short and paratactic, connected by ve- ("and", H9002) or the narrative va-, giving the report a spoken, list-like cadence rather than a subordinated or explanatory structure.
The phrase yeled zekunim (H3206 + H2208) is a construct chain meaning literally "child of old-ages," an idiom describing a son born to a father already advanced in years. The construct chain le-vaddo (H0905H + H9033) reinforces solitude: after the brother's death (met, H4191, qal perfect), the boy is said to be yivvater — "he was left" — using the niphal (passive) stem, meaning the text presents this remaining as something that happened to him, without naming who or what caused it. The final clause, ve-aviv ahevo ("and his father, he loves him," H0157G qal perfect), places the father as grammatical subject with a pronominal object suffix "him" attached directly to the verb, a compact construction that Hebrew allows without an independent object pronoun.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew text as given lacks an explicit "mother" clause parallel to what appears in versions like BSB ("only one of his mother's sons") and RV1909 ("quedó solo de su madre"); the word-by-word data shows le-immo ("to his mother", H0517) appearing in the sequence, which the Vulgate renders as "ipsum solum habet mater sua" (his mother has him alone) and the LXX renders differently, attaching the "alone" clause to the father (tō patri autou, "to his father") rather than to the mother. This reflects a difference in how the LXX links le-vaddo and le-immo compared to the Hebrew and Vulgate arrangement.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.