Genesis 47:7

Summary

The verse narrates Joseph bringing his father Jacob before Pharaoh and standing him in Pharaoh's presence, after which Jacob blesses Pharaoh. The action unfolds in three successive narrative steps marked by the vav-consecutive construction typical of Hebrew narrative prose.

Key words

• va-yavе ("and he brought", H0935P) — hiphil causative form of the verb "to come/enter", meaning Joseph caused Jacob to come in; the narrative vav links this as the first event in the sequence.
• va-ya'amidehu ("and he made him stand", H5975G) — hiphil causative of "to stand", with the pronominal suffix hu ("him") attached directly to the verb, indicating Joseph is the one who positions Jacob before Pharaoh.
• lifnei ("before", H6440G) — construct form of the noun "face," literally "to the face(s) of," the standard idiom for standing in someone's presence.
• va-yevarekh ("and he blessed", H1288) — piel (intensive) form of the verb "to bless," marking the third and climactic action of the sequence, performed by Jacob rather than Joseph.
• 'et (H0853) — the direct object marker, appearing twice, with no independent meaning but signaling that "Jacob" (v.4) and "Pharaoh" (v.17) are the grammatical objects of their respective verbs.

What the text says

The verse is built on three sequential verbs, each introduced by the narrative vav construction ("and then..."): va-yave ("he brought"), va-ya'amidehu ("he made him stand"), and va-yevarekh ("he blessed"). This chain structure is characteristic of Hebrew narrative, presenting the events as a tight, consecutive sequence rather than as separate or parallel statements. The subject shifts within the sentence: Joseph is the subject of the first two verbs (bringing Jacob and making him stand before Pharaoh), while Jacob becomes the subject of the third verb (blessing Pharaoh).

The second verb, va-ya'amidehu ("he made him stand", H5975G), carries a pronominal suffix hu ("him") directly attached to the verb form, a common feature of Hebrew where object pronouns merge with the verb rather than standing as separate words. The phrase lifnei Far'oh ("before Pharaoh") uses the construct noun penei ("face of", H6440G) in its idiomatic sense of "in the presence of," a very common Biblical Hebrew expression for standing before a person of authority. The final clause uses the piel verb yevarekh ("he blessed", H1288), the piel stem here carrying its typical intensive or performative force associated with the verb "to bless" throughout the Hebrew Bible.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) ends the verse differently, breaking off with "qui benedicens illi" ("who, blessing him,"), which grammatically links to the following verse rather than closing this one, unlike the Hebrew, LXX, and modern translations which complete the blessing action within verse 7 itself. The LXX (εἰσήγαγεν... Ἰωσὴφ Ἰακὼβ) omits an explicit equivalent for 'aviv ("his father," combining H0001G with suffix), rendering it simply as "Ἰωσὴφ Ἰακὼβ τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ," which is structurally consistent with the Hebrew's construct-plus-suffix phrase 'avi + v.