Genesis 45:1

וְלֹֽא־יָכֹל יוֹסֵף לְהִתְאַפֵּק לְכֹל הַנִּצָּבִים עָלָיו וַיִּקְרָא הוֹצִיאוּ כָל־אִישׁ מֵעָלָי וְלֹא־עָמַד אִישׁ אִתּוֹ בְּהִתְוַדַּע יוֹסֵף אֶל־אֶחָֽיו׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְלֹֽא־יָכֹ֨ל יוֹסֵ֜ף לְהִתְאַפֵּ֗ק לְכֹ֤ל הַנִּצָּבִים֙ עָלָ֔יו וַיִּקְרָ֕א הוֹצִ֥יאוּ כָל־אִ֖ישׁ מֵעָלָ֑י וְלֹא־עָ֤מַד אִישׁ֙ אִתּ֔וֹ בְּהִתְוַדַּ֥ע יוֹסֵ֖ף אֶל־אֶחָֽיו׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Καὶ οὐκ ἠδύνατο ἸωσὴΦ ἀνέχεσθαι πάντων τῶν παρεστηκότων αὐτῷ, ἀλλ’ εἶπεν Ἐξαποστείλατε πάντας ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ· καὶ οὐ παριστήκει οὐδεὶς ἔτι τῷ ἸωσὴΦ ἡνίκα ἀνεγνωρίζετο ἸωσὴΦ τοῖς ἀδελΦοῖς αὐτοῦ.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Non se poterat ultra cohibere Joseph multis coram astantibus: unde præcepit ut egrederentur cuncti foras, et nullus interesset alienus agnitioni mutuæ.

Spanish

Entonces José ya no pudo controlarse delante de sus servidores, y gritó: “¡Que salgan todos de aquí!” Así que no quedó nadie con él cuando José se dio a conocer a sus hermanos.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

NO podía ya José contenerse delante de todos los que estaban al lado suyo, y clamó: Haced salir de conmigo á todos. Y no quedó nadie con él, al darse á conocer José á sus hermanos.

English

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “ Send everyone away from me!” So none of them were with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Genesis 45:1 narrates the moment Joseph can no longer contain his emotion in front of his Egyptian attendants and orders them removed from the room, so that no one else is present when he reveals his identity to his brothers.

Key words

yakhol ("he was able", H3201) — qal perfect, negated by lo ("not", H3808), giving "he was not able," describing a completed state of incapacity rather than a process.
hit'appek ("restrain himself", H0662) — hithpael infinitive, marking a reflexive action: Joseph acting upon himself, "to hold himself back."
nitzavim ("standing", H5324) — niphal participle, plural, functioning as a substantive ("those who were standing"), describing the attendants positioned around him ('alav, "over/with him", H5921A).
yiqra ("he called out", H7121I) — qal narrative form (vav-consecutive), advancing the storyline: "and then he called out."
hitvadda' ("made himself known", H3045) — hithpael infinitive, reflexive: Joseph causing himself to be known, i.e., revealing his own identity rather than being passively recognized.

What the text says

The verse opens with a negated qal perfect, lo yakhol ("he was not able", H3201/H3808), followed by the hithpael infinitive hit'appek ("restrain himself", H0662). This infinitive construction with le- ("to", H9005) expresses purpose or capacity: Joseph lacked the ability "to restrain himself." The object of his lack of self-control is le-khol ha-nitzavim 'alav ("before all those standing with him"), where nitzavim (H5324) is a niphal participle used as a noun, describing the Egyptian staff physically positioned around him.

The narrative then shifts abruptly with the vav-consecutive va-yiqra ("and he called out", H7121I), directly followed by the imperative hotzi'u ("send out", H3318G, hiphil causative plural imperative). There is no explicit verb of speech such as "saying" between yiqra and the command itself in this Hebrew sequence — the call and its content run together grammatically. The command hotzi'u kol-ish me'alai ("send out every man from me") uses kol (H3605) in construct with 'ish (H0376G), "every man," followed by the compound preposition me-'alai ("from upon me/from with me", H5921A + H9030), an idiom for removing people from one's presence.

The final clause, be-hitvadda' Yosef 'el-'echav ("when Joseph made himself known to his brothers"), uses the hithpael infinitive hitvadda' (H3045), emphasizing that the disclosure of identity is an action Joseph performs upon himself, directed toward 'echav ("his brothers", H0251G, construct plural with suffix).

Differences between versions

The LXX inserts ἀλλ' εἶπεν ("but he said") between the call and the command, supplying an explicit verb of speech that is not present as a separate word in the Hebrew sequence, where yiqra ("he called out") leads directly into the imperative hotzi'u. The Vulgate renders the scene more compactly, using præcepit ("he ordered") instead of preserving the two-step "called out / command" structure found in the Hebrew.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.