Genesis 44:24

Summary

The verse opens the second half of Judah's speech to Joseph, recounting how the brothers, after returning home, reported to their father everything the "lord" (Joseph) had said. It marks the narrative transition from the journey back to Canaan to the report given to Jacob.

Key words

• yehi ("it was", H1961) — qal narrative form, the standard formula opening a new narrative sequence ("and it came to pass").
• ki ("that/when", H3588A) — subordinating particle introducing the temporal clause that follows, here functioning as "when."
• 'alinu ("we went up", H5927G) — qal perfect, first-person plural, marking a completed action prior to the main verb; consistent with the geographic idiom of "going up" toward Canaan/Jacob's household.
• naged ("we told", H5046) — hiphil narrative form, causative in stem, meaning "we caused [it] to be told/declared," first-person plural, introducing the report to the father.
• divrei ("words of", H1697G) — masculine plural construct, linking to 'adoni ("my lord", H0113) to form "the words of my lord," the object of the report.

What the text says

The sentence is built on two sequential narrative verbs joined by va- ("and"): first yehi ("it was") governing the subordinate clause introduced by ki ("that/when"), and then va-naged ("and we told"), continuing the narrative chain. The subordinate clause ki 'alinu 'el-'avdekha 'avi ("that we went up to your servant, my father") places two designations of Jacob side by side in construct-like apposition: 'avdekha ("your servant", H5650, with 2ms suffix H9021) and 'avi ("my father", H0001G, with 1cs suffix H9020). Judah thus refers to his own father simultaneously as Joseph's subject ("your servant") and as his own father ("my father"), reflecting the formal, deferential register of the speech addressed to the man he believes to be an Egyptian official.

The main clause va-naged-lo 'et divrei 'adoni uses the hiphil verb naged with the object marker 'et (H0853, untranslated) before divrei 'adoni ("the words of my lord"), 'adoni again referring to Joseph with the same deferential title used throughout the speech. The construct chain divrei 'adoni ties the reported words directly and exclusively to Joseph as their source.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew 'avi ("my father", 1cs suffix) is rendered in the LXX as patera hēmōn ("our father") and in the Vulgate as patrem nostrum ("our father"), both shifting the singular possessive to a plural one, where the Hebrew text specifies only Judah's own father. The BSB and SBLIBRE follow this plural pattern ("my father" vs. some translations using "our"), showing the same divergence carried into modern renderings.