Genesis 46:33

Summary

The verse anticipates a future scene: when Pharaoh summons Joseph's brothers, he will ask them about their occupation. The Hebrew frames this as a sequence of two future events — the summons and the question — introduced by a formulaic "it will be."

Key words

• ha.Yah ("it will be", H1961) — qal sequential perfect; this opening formula ("and it will be that...") signals a new narrative development, setting up a conditional future scenario.
• ki ("that/if", H3588A) — subordinating particle introducing the condition under which the following actions occur ("when/if Pharaoh calls").
• yik.Ra' ("he will summon", H7121G) — qal imperfect, marking an action not yet completed, appropriate for an anticipated future event.
• ma.'a.sei. ("works of", H4639G) — masculine plural noun in construct state, meaning literally "the works/deeds of," here bound to the suffix "your" (H9026).
• mah ("what?", H4100) — interrogative pronoun opening Pharaoh's direct question.

What the text says

The verse is built as a two-part sequence joined by narrative ve-: first ve-hayah ki yikra lachem Pharaoh ("and it will be that Pharaoh will summon you"), then ve-amar ("and he will say"). Both main verbs (hayah and amar) are qal sequential perfects, a common Hebrew construction for chaining future actions in narrative — literally "and it will happen... and he will say," conveying a sequence of anticipated events rather than a single simultaneous action.

The question itself, mah ma'asei-khem, uses the noun ma'asei ("works of") in construct plural form, tied directly to the pronominal suffix -khem ("your," H9026). The plural construct literally yields "what are your works/deeds?" — a grammatical plurality that does not necessarily imply multiple separate occupations but reflects the standard Hebrew idiom for asking about someone's activity or trade.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ma.'a.sei. ("works of", H4639G) is grammatically plural, yielding a literal sense of "what are your deeds/works?" The LXX renders this with the singular τὸ ἔργον ("the work"), and the Vulgate similarly uses the singular opus ("work"). Both Greek and Latin collapse the Hebrew plural construct into a singular noun, which several modern translations (BSB "occupation," RV1909 "oficio") also render as singular. Additionally, the Hebrew conditional/temporal particle ki is translated by the LXX as ἐὰν ("if"), introducing a slightly more hypothetical framing than the Hebrew's "and it will be that."