Genesis 46:32
וְהָאֲנָשִׁים רֹעֵי צֹאן כִּֽי־אַנְשֵׁי מִקְנֶה הָיוּ וְצֹאנָם וּבְקָרָם וְכָל־אֲשֶׁר לָהֶם הֵבִֽיאוּ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְהָאֲנָשִׁים֙ רֹ֣עֵי צֹ֔אן כִּֽי־אַנְשֵׁ֥י מִקְנֶ֖ה הָי֑וּ וְצֹאנָ֧ם וּבְקָרָ֛ם וְכָל־אֲשֶׁ֥ר לָהֶ֖ם הֵבִֽיאוּ׃
οἱ δὲ ἄνδρες εἰσὶν ποιμένες· ἄνδρες γὰρ κτηνοτρόφοι ἦσαν· καὶ τὰ κτήνη καὶ βόας καὶ πάντα τὰ αὐτῶν ἀγιόχασιν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
et sunt viri pastores ovium, curamque habent alendorum gregum: pecora sua, et armenta, et omnia quæ habere potuerunt, adduxerunt secum.
Como estos hombres son pastores y se dedican a la cría de animales, han traído sus ovejas, sus vacas y todo lo que tienen’.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y los hombres son pastores de ovejas, porque son hombres ganaderos: y han traído sus ovejas y sus vacas, y todo lo que tenían.
The men are shepherds; they raise livestock, and they have brought their flocks and herds and all that they own.’
✦ What the text says
Summary
Genesis 46:32 records the description Joseph instructs his brothers to give: they are shepherds by occupation, men whose living has always been raising livestock, and they have brought all their flocks, herds, and possessions with them into Egypt.
Key words
- ro'ei ("shepherds of / the ones tending", H7462B) — qal participle, masculine plural construct; describes an ongoing occupational identity rather than a single completed action, and is grammatically bound to tzon ("sheep", H6629G) as its object.
- ki ("for / that", H3588A) — a subordinating particle introducing the clause that justifies or explains the preceding statement about the men being shepherds.
- hayu ("they have been", H1961) — qal perfect of the verb "to be"; marks a completed, settled state describing their identity as livestock-keepers, not a present observation.
- tzonam ("their flock", H6629G + H9028) — noun in construct form with a possessive suffix, tying the flock directly to "them" as owners.
- heviu ("they have brought", H0935P) — hiphil perfect, causative form of the verb "to come"; indicates that the men actively caused the livestock and possessions to arrive, not merely that these came along.
What the text says
The verse is built around two linked statements. The first, ha'anashim ro'ei tzon ("the men, shepherds of sheep"), uses a participle in construct with tzon, presenting shepherding as their defining characteristic rather than a temporary role. The second statement, introduced by ki ("for/that"), restates this identity using the perfect verb hayu ("they have been") with anshei mikneh ("men of livestock"), reinforcing that this occupation is not new but has characterized them over time.
The final clause lists what they brought — tzonam ("their flock"), veqaram ("their herd"), and kol asher lahem ("all that belongs to them") — each noun bound by a possessive suffix, emphasizing ownership. The verb heviu, a hiphil perfect, frames this as a completed act of bringing, with causative force: they made these things come with them, rather than the animals simply following.
Differences between versions
The LXX splits the Hebrew's tightly bound clauses into two separate assertions: "the men are (εἰσὶν) shepherds" in the present tense, then "for they were (ἦσαν) κτηνοτρόφοι [livestock-rearers]," using different tenses where the Hebrew uses one continuous perfect verb (hayu) to unify the description. The Vulgate similarly renders the first clause in the present ("sunt viri pastores") and paraphrases the second as "they have the care of feeding flocks" (curamque habent alendorum gregum), diverging from the Hebrew's direct identity-statement "men of livestock they have been."
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.