Genesis 47:2

Summary

Genesis 47:2 describes Joseph selecting five men "from the end of his brothers" and bringing them before Pharaoh. The verse uses two verbs — one for taking/choosing and one for presenting/causing to stand — to narrate this action in two sequential steps.

Key words

• qtseh ("end/edge", H7097A) — masculine singular construct noun, forming a partitive phrase "from the end of X," an idiom whose precise sense (a specific subset, or "some of") is debated by translators.
• 'echav ("his brothers", H0251G) — masculine plural construct noun with pronominal suffix "his," completing the construct chain begun by qtseh.
• laqach ("he took", H3947G) — qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular, marking a completed action: the initial selection of the five men.
• yatztzigem ("he presented them", H3322) — hiphil (causative) narrative form with 3rd masculine plural suffix "them," indicating that Joseph caused the men to stand/appear before Pharaoh.
• liphnei ("before/to the face of", H6440G) — masculine plural construct of "face," forming the common Hebrew idiom for standing "in the presence of" someone.

What the text says

The verse opens with the construct chain mi-qtseh 'echav — literally "from the end of his brothers" — governed by the preposition mi ("from," H9006). This construct phrase functions as a partitive expression, indicating that the five men taken were a portion drawn from the larger group of brothers, rather than the entire group. The exact nuance of qtseh ("end") here is not fully explicit in the grammar alone: it could mark a subset chosen without further qualification, or carry a spatial/hierarchical sense of "extremity."

The main clause uses laqach ("he took") in the qal perfect, describing Joseph's completed act of selection, followed by the narrative vav construction with yatztzigem, a hiphil verb built on the root meaning "to stand," here causative: "he caused them to stand" i.e. "he presented them." This second verb is joined to liphnei Pharaoh ("before the face of Pharaoh," H6440G + H6547H), the standard idiom for appearing in a superior's presence.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew mi-qtseh 'echav ("from the end of his brothers") is rendered differently across versions. The LXX simplifies this to ἀπὸ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ("from the brothers"), omitting any equivalent for qtseh. The Vulgate renders it as extremos... fratrum suorum ("the extreme/outermost ones of his brothers"), interpreting qtseh as describing a specific quality of the men themselves. Modern translations (BSB "five of his brothers," SBLIBRE "cinco de sus hermanos") follow a partitive reading similar to the LXX, without preserving the literal "end" language present in the Hebrew construct phrase.