Genesis 44:8

Summary

The speaker points out that the silver found in the mouths of the sacks was voluntarily brought back from Canaan, and then asks rhetorically how it would be conceivable to steal silver or gold from the master's house. The verse builds a logical contrast between honest return and the accusation of theft.

Key words

• hen ("here!", H2005) — an interjection drawing attention to the fact stated, functioning like "look" or "behold" to introduce the evidence.
• matza'nu ("we found", H4672) — qal perfect, first person plural; marks the finding of the silver as a completed past action, presented as fact.
• heshivonu ("we brought back", H7725G) — hiphil perfect, first person plural; the causative stem stresses that the group actively caused the silver's return, not merely that it happened.
• 'eikh ("how?", H0349A) — interrogative particle opening a rhetorical question; it does not seek information but expresses the impossibility of the accused action.
• nignov ("will we steal", H1589) — qal imperfect, first person plural; the imperfect aspect frames the stealing as a hypothetical, non-completed action, reinforcing the rhetorical denial.

What the text says

The verse divides into two clauses joined by ve ("and", H9002). The first clause is built around hen drawing attention to kesef ("silver", H3701G), qualified by the relative clause 'asher matza'nu be-fi 'amtechoteinu ("which we found in the mouth of our sacks") — using the construct chain pi 'amtechoteinu ("mouth of our sacks") to specify exact location. The main verb of this clause, heshivonu, is hiphil, marking a deliberate, caused return, not a passive rediscovery — grammatically encoding intentional restitution as evidence of honesty.

The second clause pivots on the interrogative 'eikh, followed by the imperfect nignov. The imperfect here does not indicate future action in a narrative sense but functions modally, expressing what the speakers claim is inconceivable — "how could we possibly steal." The prepositional phrase mi-beit 'adoneikha ("from the house of your master(s)", H1004B/H0113) uses a construct chain culminating in a plural noun 'adonei-kha ("your master"), a plural form applied to a singular referent, consistent with the honorific plural pattern in the source data. The final phrase kesef 'o zahav ("silver or gold") lists the two metals as parallel objects of the hypothetical theft, mirroring the kesef mentioned in the first clause and reinforcing the argument by repetition of the same noun.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the sequence with ἀπεατέψαμεν ("we brought back") corresponding to heshivonu, preserving the causative sense in Greek middle/active voice. Notably, the LXX and Vulgate reverse the order of the final pair: the Hebrew has kesef 'o zahav ("silver or gold"), while the Vulgate gives "aurum vel argentum" ("gold or silver"), inverting the sequence found in the Hebrew source text.