Genesis 44:31

Summary

This verse is part of Judah's speech to Joseph, describing the anticipated consequence if their father sees that Benjamin ("the young man") is missing: the father will die, and the brothers will be responsible for bringing him down to Sheol in sorrow. The Hebrew uses two chained sequential clauses to present this as a certain future outcome.

Key words

• ha.Yah ("it will be", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, opening the clause and marking the start of a foretold sequence of events ("and it will happen that...").
• r.'o.T ("sees", H7200G) with suffix o ("his") — infinitive construct with pronominal suffix, functioning as "when he sees," anchoring the temporal clause to the father's own act of perception.
• Met ("he will die", H4191) — qal sequential perfect, directly continuing from ha.Yah, presenting death as the automatic consequence of the seeing.
• ho.Ri.du ("they will bring down", H3381) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, shifting the subject to "your servants" (the brothers), making them the causative agents of the father's descent.
• sei.Vat ("gray hair of", H7872) — feminine singular construct, forming part of the idiom "gray hair" as a metonym for the aged father himself.

What the text says

The verse is built on a chain of sequential perfects (vav-consecutive), a common narrative structure in Biblical Hebrew that here projects a hypothetical future sequence rather than past narration: ha.Yah ("it will be") → Met ("he will die") → ho.Ri.du ("they will bring down"). Each verb picks up the vav-prefix and continues the logical/temporal chain begun by the first verb, producing an effect similar to "and then... and then..." in English, though English translations must use separate future-tense verbs to convey this chaining.

The clause introduced by ki ("when", H9004) and the infinitive construct r.'o.T ("sees") with the suffixed o ("his") sets up the triggering condition — the father's own visual confirmation that "the young man" (Na.'ar, H5288) is absent, marked by 'ein ("there not", H0369). The second ki (H3588A) introduces the content of what is seen, functioning almost like "that" or "if" in a subordinate report.

The final phrase stacks two construct chains: sei.Vat ("gray hair of") + 'av.de. ("servant", construct) + Kha ("your") = "the gray hair of your servant," followed by 'a.Vi. ("father") + nu ("our") = "our father," in apposition. The directional he suffixed to she.'O.la ("Sheol") reinforces motion "toward" Sheol, matching the causative sense of ho.Ri.du ("bring down").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Na.'ar ("young man", H5288) as τὸ παιδάριον and adds μεθ' ἡμῶν ("with us"), an explanatory addition not present in the Hebrew clause structure at that point (though implied by context). The Vulgate's non esse nobiscum ("not to be with us") similarly supplies "with us," paralleling the LXX's addition rather than the more compact Hebrew 'ein ha.Na.'ar ("the young man is not"). The RV1909 and BSB render she.'O.la as "la sepultura" / "Sheol" respectively, showing a translational divide between transliterating the Hebrew place name (BSB) and interpreting it as "the grave" (RV1909).