Genesis 47:5

Summary

Pharaoh addresses Joseph directly, stating that Joseph's father and brothers have arrived. The verse consists of an introductory speech formula followed by the content of Pharaoh's statement, a simple declarative report of the family's arrival.

Key words

• va-yYomer ("and he said", H0559) — narrative vav plus qal verb, marking the next event in sequence within the story.
• le-Mor ("saying", H0559) — infinitive construct of the same root as the verb above, functioning as a quotation marker that introduces direct speech.
• 'aVikha ("your father", H0001G) — construct noun with 2nd person masculine singular suffix, meaning "father of you."
• 'aCheikha ("your brothers", H0251G) — plural construct noun with the same suffix, "brothers of you."
• Ba'u ("they have come", H0935G) — qal perfect, 3rd person plural, denoting a completed action: the arrival has already happened.

What the text says

The verse opens with the standard Hebrew narrative construction va-yYomer... le-Mor ("and he said... saying"), a double speech-formula common in Biblical Hebrew where the finite verb yYomer introduces the speaker and addressee (Pharaoh to Joseph), and the infinitive le-Mor introduces the actual words spoken. This redundancy is typical of Hebrew narrative style and is not usually rendered doubly in translation.

The quoted speech itself is a short verbless-adjacent clause built around the qal perfect verb Ba'u ("they have come"), placed after its compound subject: 'aVikha ve-'aCheikha ("your father and your brothers"). Both nouns are in construct form with the 2nd person masculine singular suffix -kha ("your"), linking them grammatically to Joseph as the addressee. The perfect aspect of Ba'u indicates the arrival is presented as a completed fact at the moment of speaking. The clause ends with 'eleikha ("to you"), repeating the -kha suffix, which reinforces the orientation of the movement toward Joseph specifically.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text (TAHOT) contains only the statement "your father and your brothers have come to you." The LXX (Swete) includes additional material before this clause — instructions about settling in the land of Gesem and appointing capable men over livestock, plus a note that Jacob and his sons went to Egypt and that Pharaoh heard of it — content not present in the Hebrew verse as segmented here. The Vulgate (Clementine) and other translations (RV1909, BSB, SBLIBRE) align closely with the Hebrew, rendering the core statement about the father and brothers having arrived, though BSB frames it with "Now that," giving a slightly more explanatory tone than the direct declarative of the Hebrew Ba'u.