Genesis 44:7

Summary

Joseph's brothers respond to the accusation of theft with two rhetorical exclamations: first questioning why "my lord" would say such things, then declaring it unthinkable that his servants would act "according to this word/matter." The verse is entirely direct speech, structured as protest through rhetorical question followed by an emphatic denial.

Key words

• yedabber ("does he speak", H1696G) — piel imperfect; the piel stem often intensifies the action, so this is not mere neutral "saying" but a marked, deliberate act of speaking; the imperfect aspect frames it as an ongoing or repeated act being questioned.
• adoni ("my master", H0113) — construct noun + 1st person suffix "my"; the construct form with the possessive suffix produces the vocative-like address "my lord," referring to Joseph.
• chalilah ("far be it", H2486) — an interjection with no verbal conjugation of its own; it functions as a strong exclamatory negation, introducing the denial that follows.
• avadeikha ("your servants", H5650) — construct plural noun + 2nd person masculine suffix "your"; construct + suffix marks the brothers as belonging to/subordinate to the addressee ("your servants" = the brothers themselves, speaking of themselves in the third person as a mark of deference).
• me'asot ("from doing", H6213A) — qal infinitive with the preposition min ("from"); the infinitive after chalilah expresses the specific act being repudiated ("far be it... from doing").

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on va-yomeru ("and they said"), continuing the story sequence, followed by the introduction of direct speech addressed elav ("to him", H0413) — to the steward or Joseph's representative. The first clause is a rhetorical question built on the interrogative lammah ("why?", H4100) plus the piel imperfect yedabber, followed by adoni ("my lord") as subject, and ka-devarim ha-elleh ("according to these words", H1697O + H0428) as the complement — literally "why does my lord speak according to these words?" The second clause pivots on the exclamation chalilah, syntactically independent, followed by la-avadeikha ("to your servants") indicating whom the statement concerns, then the infinitive clause me-asot ka-davar ha-zeh ("from doing according to this matter") specifying the denied action. The repetition of the preposition ka ("according to the", H9004) in both clauses (ka-devarim, ka-davar) creates a grammatical parallel between the accusation ("these words") and the denied deed ("this matter"), even though one noun is plural (devarim) and the other singular (davar).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew adoni ("my lord") includes the 1st-person suffix "my," while the LXX renders it simply as ho kyrios ("the lord"), omitting the possessive. The Vulgate merges the two Hebrew clauses (the rhetorical question and the chalilah denial) into a single continuous question, and adds tantum flagitii ("such great crime/wickedness"), an interpretive expansion not present in the more neutral Hebrew phrase ka-davar ha-zeh ("according to this matter").