Genesis 45:18

וּקְחוּ אֶת־אֲבִיכֶם וְאֶת־בָּתֵּיכֶם וּבֹאוּ אֵלָי וְאֶתְּנָה לָכֶם אֶת־טוּב אֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם וְאִכְלוּ אֶת־חֵלֶב הָאָֽרֶץ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וּקְח֧וּ אֶת־אֲבִיכֶ֛ם וְאֶת־בָּתֵּיכֶ֖ם וּבֹ֣אוּ אֵלָ֑י וְאֶתְּנָ֣ה לָכֶ֗ם אֶת־טוּב֙ אֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם וְאִכְל֖וּ אֶת־חֵ֥לֶב הָאָֽרֶץ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ παραλαβόντες τὸν πατέρα ὑμῶν καὶ τὰ ὑπάρχοντα ὑμῶν ἥκετε πρὸς μέ· καὶ δώσω ὑμῖν πάντων τῶν ἀγαθῶν Αἰγύπτου, καὶ φάγεσθε τὸν μυελὸν τῆς γῆς.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

et tollite inde patrem vestrum et cognationem, et venite ad me: et ego dabo vobis omnia bona Ægypti, ut comedatis medullam terræ.

Spanish

Tomen a su padre y a sus familias, y vengan a verme. Yo les daré lo mejor de la tierra de Egipto, y comerán de la abundancia del país’.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y tomad á vuestro padre y vuestras familias, y venid á mí, que yo os daré lo bueno de la tierra de Egipto y comeréis la grosura de la tierra.

English

Then bring your father and your families and return to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat from the fat of the land.’

✦ What the text says

Summary

This verse contains Joseph's instructions (relayed through his brothers) for his family to leave Canaan and settle in Egypt. It is structured as a series of imperatives — fetch, come, eat — framed by Joseph's promise to give them the best of the land.

Key words

ke.Chu ("fetch", H3947G) — qal imperative, masculine plural: a direct command addressed to "you all" (the brothers).
Vo.'u ("come", H0935G) — qal imperative, masculine plural, paired with the preposition 'e.La + suffix i ("to me"), forming "come to me."
'e.te.Nah ("let me give", H5414G) — a first-person verb form expressing Joseph's own intended action, distinct from the imperatives given to the brothers.
tuv ("[the] good thing[s] of", H2898) — masculine singular construct, syntactically bound to 'E.retz mitz.Ra.yim ("land of Egypt"), forming the phrase "the good of the land of Egypt."
Che.lev ("[the] fat of", H2459) — masculine singular construct, bound to ha.'A.retz ("the land"), forming "the fat of the land."

What the text says

The verse is built on three successive imperatives — ke.Chu ("fetch," H3947G), Vo.'u ("come," H0935G), and 'ikh.Lu ("eat," H0398) — all second-person masculine plural, addressed collectively to the brothers. Between the first two imperatives, the direct objects are marked by 'et (H0853), an untranslatable particle that simply signals what follows is the grammatical object: 'a.vi.Khem ("your father," H0001G) and ba.tei.Khem ("your households," H1004M), both construct nouns bound to the pronominal suffix Khem ("your," H9026).

The verb 'e.te.Nah ("let me give," H5414G) shifts the grammatical subject to Joseph himself, marking a contrast between what the brothers are told to do and what Joseph promises to do in return. This promise is expressed through two parallel construct phrases: tuv 'E.retz Mitz.Ra.yim ("the good of the land of Egypt") and, after the final imperative 'ikh.Lu ("eat"), Che.lev ha.'A.retz ("the fat of the land"). Both tuv (H2898) and Che.lev (H2459) are construct nouns, grammatically linking an abstract or physical quality directly to "the land," a construction that in Hebrew ties the promised abundance concretely to the territory itself rather than to a general condition.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Che.lev ("fat," H2459) as τὸν μυελὸν ("the marrow"), a different image of richness than the Hebrew "fat." The Vulgate follows this with medullam ("marrow"), matching the LXX rather than the Hebrew term. The Hebrew tuv ("the good [things] of," H2898) is rendered by the LXX as πάντων τῶν ἀγαθῶν ("all the good things"), an explicit plural where the Hebrew noun is singular in form though collective in sense.

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