Genesis 45:26

Summary

The sons of Jacob report to their father that Joseph is still alive and rules over all the land of Egypt. Jacob's reaction is described physically — his heart "grew numb" — because he does not believe the report.

Key words

• va-yaggidu ("and they told", H5046) — hiphil narrative form of the verb "to tell"; the causative stem implies making something known, and the narrative vav places it as the next event in sequence.
• chai ("alive", H2416A) — adjective describing Joseph's state; placed after the proper name Yosef rather than before it, giving prominence to the fact of his being alive.
• moshel ("ruling", H4910) — qal participle of the verb "to rule", expressing an ongoing state or role ("the one who rules") rather than a completed or punctual action.
• va-yafog ("and it grew numb", H6313) — qal narrative verb describing the physical/emotional response of the heart; continues the narrative chain begun by va-yaggidu.
• he'emin ("he believed", H0539) — hiphil perfect of the root for "to believe/trust"; the perfect aspect marks this as a completed (non-)action — negated here by lo' ("not", H3808), producing "he did not believe."

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative-vav clauses in sequence: first va-yaggidu ("and they told"), introducing the sons' report via the infinitive le'mor ("saying"), and second va-yafog ("and it grew numb"), introducing Jacob's reaction. Within the reported speech, two parallel statements are joined by ve-khi ("and that"): od Yosef chai ("Joseph [is] still alive") and hu moshel be-khol 'eretz Mitzrayim ("he [is] ruling over all the land of Egypt"). Neither clause uses a finite verb of being — chai is an adjective and moshel is a participle — which in Hebrew narrative typically expresses a present, ongoing state rather than a single completed event.

The reaction clause pairs the narrative verb va-yafog ("and [his heart] grew numb") with libbo ("his heart", construct plus suffix "his"), making the heart itself the grammatical subject of the numbing. The causal clause that follows, introduced by ki ("for", H3588A, same lexical form as ve-khi earlier though functioning differently), explains this reaction: lo he'emin lahem ("he did not believe them"), using the negated hiphil perfect he'emin, marking disbelief as a completed mental state at that narrative moment.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders od Yosef chai as "ὁ υἱός σου Ἰωσὴφ ζῇ" ("your son Joseph lives"), adding "your son" (σου), a specification not present in the Hebrew text, which reads simply od Yosef chai ("Joseph [is] still alive"). The Vulgate follows the LXX's addition with "Joseph filius tuus vivit" ("Joseph your son lives"). Both the LXX and Vulgate also make Jacob's mental state explicit by naming him directly ("ἡ διάνοια Ἰακώβ" / "Jacob... evigilans"), whereas the Hebrew text at this point uses only the pronominal suffix libbo ("his heart") without repeating the name Jacob.