Genesis 47:12
וַיְכַלְכֵּל יוֹסֵף אֶת־אָבִיו וְאֶת־אֶחָיו וְאֵת כָּל־בֵּית אָבִיו לֶחֶם לְפִי הַטָּֽף׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיְכַלְכֵּ֤ל יוֹסֵף֙ אֶת־אָבִ֣יו וְאֶת־אֶחָ֔יו וְאֵ֖ת כָּל־בֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יו לֶ֖חֶם לְפִ֥י הַטָּֽף׃
καὶ ἐσιτομέτρει Ἰωσὴφ τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς καὶ παντὶ τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ σῖτον κατὰ σῶμα.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Et alebat eos, omnemque domum patris sui, præbens cibaria singulis.
Además, José les proveyó alimentos a su padre, a sus hermanos y a toda la familia de su padre, según el número de sus hijos.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y alimentaba José á su padre y á sus hermanos, y á toda la casa de su padre, de pan, hasta la boca del niño.
Joseph also provided his father and brothers and all his father’s household with food for their families. The Famine Continues
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse states that Joseph provided food for his father, his brothers, and his father's entire household, with the provision measured "according to the mouth of the little ones." The verb used for Joseph's action is an intensive form indicating sustained, ongoing provision rather than a single act of giving.
Key words
- yekhalkel ("he provided for", H3557) — piel stem, indicating intensive or repeated action; suggests sustained maintenance/sustenance rather than a one-time gift.
- 'et (H0853) — untranslated object marker, appears three times marking each object of Joseph's provision (father, brothers, household).
- lechem ("food/bread", H3899) — the substance being distributed, used generically for sustenance rather than a specific foodstuff.
- pi ("mouth of", H6310) — construct form, part of the idiom "according to the mouth of," meaning "according to the measure/need of."
- ha-taf ("the little ones", H2945) — definite noun; here it stands with "mouth" to form a distribution formula.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence has a single main verb, yekhalkel ("he provided for," from H3557), governing three parallel objects each introduced by the untranslated marker 'et (H0853): "his father" ('aviv), "his brothers" ('echav), and "all the household of his father" (kol beit 'aviv). Each of these nouns carries a possessive suffix ("his"), tying the provision explicitly to Joseph's own family line. The sentence then adds a final phrase, lechem lefi ha-taf — literally "food to the mouth of the little ones" — which functions as an adverbial expression describing the basis or standard of distribution.
The piel stem of yekhalkel is worth noting grammatically: piel often intensifies or extends the basic sense of a root, so the provision described is not a single handout but an ongoing, sustained supply. The idiom "mouth of the little ones" (pi ha-taf) does not have a literal one-word equivalent in English; it expresses a measure — provision calibrated to the number of dependents or household members, particularly children.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew idiom lefi ha-taf ("according to the mouth of the little ones") is rendered variably. The LXX has κατὰ σῶμα ("according to body/person"), shifting the reference from "little ones" specifically to persons generally. The Vulgate reads praebens cibaria singulis ("providing food to each one"), which drops the specific reference to taf ("little ones," H2945) entirely, generalizing to "each person." Among the modern versions, RV1909 preserves a literal "hasta la boca del niño" ("to the mouth of the child"), while SBLIBRE interprets it as "según el número de sus hijos" ("according to the number of his children"), and BSB paraphrases as "for their families," none of which retain the exact "mouth" imagery present in the Hebrew.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.