Genesis 46:27
וּבְנֵי יוֹסֵף אֲשֶׁר־יֻלַּד־לוֹ בְמִצְרַיִם נֶפֶשׁ שְׁנָיִם כָּל־הַנֶּפֶשׁ לְבֵֽית־יַעֲקֹב הַבָּאָה מִצְרַיְמָה שִׁבְעִֽים׃ פ
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וּבְנֵ֥י יוֹסֵ֛ף אֲשֶׁר־יֻלַּד־ל֥וֹ בְמִצְרַ֖יִם נֶ֣פֶשׁ שְׁנָ֑יִם כָּל־הַנֶּ֧פֶשׁ לְבֵֽית־יַעֲקֹ֛ב הַבָּ֥אָה מִצְרַ֖יְמָה שִׁבְעִֽים׃ פ
υἱοὶ δὲ Ἰωσὴφ οἱ γενόμενοι ἐν γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ ψυχαὶ ἐννέα. πᾶσαι ψυχαὶ οἴκου Ἰακὼβ αἱ εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἑβδομήκοντα πέντε.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Filii autem Joseph, qui nati sunt ei in terra Ægypti, animæ duæ. Omnes animæ domus Jacob, quæ ingressæ sunt in Ægyptum, fuere septuaginta.
Y los hijos que le nacieron a José en Egipto fueron dos. Así que el total de las personas de la familia de Jacob que llegaron a Egipto fue de setenta.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y los hijos de José, que le nacieron en Egipto, dos personas. Todas las almas de la casa de Jacob, que entraron en Egipto, fueron setenta.
And with the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob ’s family who went to Egypt were seventy in all. Jacob Arrives in Egypt
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse counts two additional persons — Joseph's sons born in Egypt — and gives a final total of seventy people for Jacob's household that came to Egypt. It closes the genealogical list that begins earlier in chapter 46.
Key words
- bene ("sons of", H1121A) — masculine plural construct, linking "sons" directly to Yosef ("Joseph", H3130G) without an intervening preposition.
- yulad ("it was born", H3205) — pual perfect (intensive passive), indicating a completed action expressed passively: the sons "were born," with the agent unstated.
- nefesh ("person", H5315J) — feminine singular noun used twice (lines 10 and 14) as a collective/counting term for individuals, not gendered to the number that follows it.
- kol ("every/all of", H3605) — masculine singular construct, introducing the phrase "all the persons," setting up the summary count of the household.
- ha-ba'ah ("that went", H0935G) — qal perfect with prefixed definite article, functioning as a relative clause ("[the household] that went") describing beit Ya'akov ("household of Jacob", H1004M).
What the text says
The verse divides into two parallel statements built on the noun nefesh ("person," H5315J), each functioning as a counting unit rather than a strictly grammatical subject with number agreement. First, u-vene Yosef 'asher yulad-lo be-Mitzrayim nefesh shenayim states that the sons of Joseph "who were born to him in Egypt" amount to nefesh shenayim, literally "person, two" — the singular noun nefesh stands before the numeral shenayim ("two", H8147) in a construction typical of Biblical Hebrew counting formulas, where the counted noun does not pluralize with the numeral.
The second clause, kol ha-nefesh le-veit Ya'akov ha-ba'ah Mitzraymah shiv'im, totals "all the persons of the household of Jacob that came to Egypt" as shiv'im ("seventy", H7657). The relative clause ha-ba'ah ("that came") is formed by attaching the definite article directly to the qal perfect verb ba'ah ("she came", H0935G), a common way in Hebrew narrative to create a relative clause without a separate relative pronoun. The directional suffix -ah on Mitzraymah ("to Egypt") marks motion toward a place.
Differences between versions
The LXX gives ψυχαὶ ἐννέα ("nine souls") for Joseph's sons where the Hebrew has nefesh shenayim ("two persons"), and totals ἑβδομήκοντα πέντε ("seventy-five") where the Hebrew and Vulgate read shiv'im / "septuaginta" ("seventy"). The Vulgate's "duae" and "septuaginta" align numerically with the Hebrew text.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.