Genesis 45:12

Summary

Joseph tells his brothers that their own eyes — and the eyes of Benjamin — are witnessing that it is his own mouth speaking to them. The verse functions as a proof-statement: the physical sight of the brothers confirms the identity of the speaker.

Key words

• hinneh ("there!", H2009) — a deictic interjection drawing attention to the situation about to be described; it frames the whole clause as something immediately observable.
• ro'ot ("[are] seeing", H7200G) — qal participle, feminine plural, agreeing with the dual/plural 'einei ("eyes"); the participle marks ongoing, present perception rather than a single completed act.
• ki ("that", H3588A) — here functions as a subordinating particle introducing the content of what the eyes perceive, not as a conditional "if"; it links the seeing to the fact stated afterward.
• ha-medabber ("the one speaking", H1696G with H9009) — piel participle with definite article; the article turns the participle into a substantive, "the [one] speaking," creating an emphatic identification: "it is my mouth, the one speaking."
• 'achi ("my brother", H0251G + H9020) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, syntactically binding "brother" to "my" and setting up the following name, Vinyamin ("Benjamin", H1144G), as an appositive.

What the text says

The sentence opens with hinneh, which does not simply mean "behold" as a filler word but signals that the speaker is pointing to a visible, present reality. The subject "your eyes" ('eineichem, dual construct + suffix) takes the feminine plural participle ro'ot, describing a continuous state of seeing rather than a momentary glance. This subject is doubled by "and the eyes of my brother Benjamin," so two sets of eyes are grammatically joined as the same subject of perception.

The particle ki then introduces what is being seen: not an object noun, but a full clause, "that my mouth is the one speaking to you." The predicate here is built on the participle medabber ("speaking") with the definite article ha-, which gives it a substantival, identifying force — literally "the mouth, the speaking one, to you." This construction places emphasis on the mouth itself as the locus of proof: it is not merely that Joseph is speaking, but that the very mouth in front of them is the one producing the words they hear, which the eyes can confirm belongs to Joseph.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew 'achi Vinyamin ("my brother Benjamin") as Beniamein tou adelphou mou ("Benjamin, my brother"), reversing the name-then-appositive order found in the Hebrew. The Vulgate preserves the Hebrew order, fratris mei Benjamin. The BSB adds the explicit clarifying phrase "I, Joseph," which is not present as a separate lexical item in the Hebrew text, where identification of the speaker rests only on the participle ha-medabber ("the one speaking") without naming him directly in this clause.