Genesis 45:19

Summary

Pharaoh instructs Joseph, using an emphatic second-person singular address, that he (Joseph) has been commanded to convey specific instructions to his brothers: they are to take wagons from Egypt for their children and wives, then bring their father back with them. The verse shifts grammatically from addressing Joseph alone to quoting the plural command meant for the brothers.

Key words

• 'atah ("you", H0859A) — emphatic independent pronoun preceding the verb, singling out Joseph specifically as the one addressed by Pharaoh.
• tzuveitah ("you are commanded", H6680) — pual (passive intensive) perfect, 2nd masculine singular; the passive form indicates Joseph is the recipient of a command rather than its issuer, with Pharaoh as the implied source.
• 'asu ("do", H6213A) — qal imperative, 2nd masculine plural; the sudden shift to plural signals that the following instructions are meant for the brothers, not Joseph alone.
• nesatem ("you will carry", H5375H) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), continuing the imperative force begun by kechu ("take", H3947G); this construction extends a command chain using perfect verb forms rather than additional imperatives.
• va'tem ("you will come", H0935G) — qal sequential perfect, closing the chain of instructions with the final expected action.

What the text says

The verse opens with the pronoun 'atah ("you", H0859A) followed by tzuveitah ("you are commanded", H6680), a pual perfect that grammatically marks Joseph as the object of a command rather than its source — the text does not name who commands him, though context indicates Pharaoh. The demonstrative zot ("this", H2063) introduces the content of what follows.

A grammatical shift occurs at 'asu ("do", H6213A) and kechu ("take", H3947G), both qal imperatives in the plural form. This plural marks a change of addressee within the quoted speech: Joseph is told (singular) that he is commanded, and the content of that command is then phrased in the plural, directed at the brothers who will carry it out. The Hebrew does not insert an explicit "tell them" between these two sections — the shift from singular to plural verb forms alone signals the change in addressee.

The sequence continues with nesatem ("you will carry", H5375H) and va'tem ("you will come", H0935G), both sequential (vav-consecutive) perfects. In Biblical Hebrew, this construction allows perfect-tense verbs joined by vav to continue the force of a preceding imperative, functioning as further commands ("carry...and come") rather than describing completed past action.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate makes explicit what the Hebrew grammar leaves implicit through the person-shift: it inserts "et dicito" ("and say"), directly marking the transition to reported speech that the Hebrew conveys only through the change from singular to plural verbs. The Vulgate also adds "quantocius" ("as quickly as possible"), an intensifier not present in the Hebrew text. The LXX renders tzuveitah ("you are commanded", H6680) with the active-voice middle imperative ἔντειλαι ("command"), shifting the grammatical voice from passive to a directive addressed to Joseph himself, rather than preserving the passive sense of Joseph having been commanded by another.