Genesis 48:19

וַיְמָאֵן אָבִיו וַיֹּאמֶר יָדַעְתִּֽי בְנִי יָדַעְתִּי גַּם־הוּא יִֽהְיֶה־לְּעָם וְגַם־הוּא יִגְדָּל וְאוּלָם אָחִיו הַקָּטֹן יִגְדַּל מִמֶּנּוּ וְזַרְעוֹ יִהְיֶה מְלֹֽא־הַגּוֹיִֽם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיְמָאֵ֣ן אָבִ֗יו וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ יָדַ֤עְתִּֽי בְנִי֙ יָדַ֔עְתִּי גַּם־ה֥וּא יִֽהְיֶה־לְּעָ֖ם וְגַם־ה֣וּא יִגְדָּ֑ל וְאוּלָ֗ם אָחִ֤יו הַקָּטֹן֙ יִגְדַּ֣ל מִמֶּ֔נּוּ וְזַרְע֖וֹ יִהְיֶ֥ה מְלֹֽא־הַגּוֹיִֽם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ οὐκ ἠθέλησεν, ἀλλὰ εἶπεν Οἶδα, τέκνον, οἷα· καὶ οὗτος ἔσται εἰς λαόν, καὶ οὗτος ὑψωθήσεται· ἀλλὰ ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ ὁ νεώ. τερος μείζων αὐτοῦ ἔσται, καὶ τὸ σπέρμα αι'τοῦ ἔσται εἰς πλῆθος ἐθνῶν.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Qui renuens, ait: Scio, fili mi, scio: et iste quidem erit in populos, et multiplicabitur: sed frater ejus minor, major erit illo: et semen illius crescet in gentes.

Spanish

Pero su padre se negó y le respondió: “Ya lo sé, hijo mío, ya lo sé. Él también llegará a ser un gran pueblo, y será muy importante. Sin embargo, su hermano menor será más importante que él, y su descendencia formará una multitud de naciones”.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Mas su padre no quiso, y dijo: Lo sé, hijo mío, lo sé: también él vendrá á ser un pueblo, y será también acrecentado; pero su hermano menor será más grande que él, y su simiente será plenitud de gentes.

English

But his father refused. “ I know, my son, I know!” he said. “ He too shall become a people, and he too shall be great; nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.”

✦ What the text says

Summary

Jacob refuses to change the position of his hands on Joseph's sons and declares that he knows what he is doing. He states that Manasseh (the firstborn) will become a people and be great, but that his younger brother Ephraim will be greater, and his offspring will become "the fullness of the nations."

Key words

y.ma.'En ("he refused", H3985) — piel narrative form, giving the verb an intensive nuance: a firm, deliberate refusal rather than a simple "no."
ya.Da'.ti ("I know", H3045) — qal perfect, repeated twice in the verse (words 7 and 10), marking completed knowledge already possessed, not something newly realized.
ka.Ton ("young", H6996H) — adjective with definite article ha. ("the", H9009), specifying "the young one" as a distinguishing epithet for the younger brother.
yig.Dal ("he will become great", H1431) — qal imperfect, appearing twice (words 19 and 26), expressing future/ongoing growth, applied first to the older brother and then, in comparative form, to the younger.
me.lo'- ("[the] fullness of", H4393) — construct noun linking directly to go.Yim ("nations", H1471A), forming the phrase "fullness of the nations."

What the text says

The verse opens with two narrative vav-consecutive verbs, va-y.ma.'En ("and he refused") and va-i.Yo.mer ("and he said"), which continue the story sequence from the preceding narrative. The repetition of ya.Da'.ti ("I know", H3045) twice in immediate succession is a Hebrew rhetorical device of emphasis, reinforcing the certainty of Jacob's statement before he explains his reasoning, addressed to ve.N-i ("my son", H1121A + H9020, literally "son of me").

The comparison between the two brothers is built through parallel imperfect verbs: yih.yeh- ("he will become", H1961) and yig.Dal ("he will become great", H1431) are first applied to the elder brother (marked by gam-hu', "also he", H1571+H1931, repeated twice for emphasis), and then the same verb yig.Dal is applied to 'a.Chi-v ha-ka.Ton ("his brother, the young one", H0251G+H9009+H6996H), followed by mi.Me-nu ("more than him", H4480A+H9033), producing a direct comparative construction: the younger will become great "more than" the elder. The final clause uses a construct chain, zar.'-O ("his offspring", H2233H+H9023) as subject of yih.Yeh ("it will be", H1961), followed by another construct chain me.lo'-ha-go.Yim ("fullness of the nations", H4393+H9009+H1471A).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ka.Ton ("young", H6996H) with a comparative form (νεώτερος, "younger") and translates me.lo'-ha-go.Yim ("fullness of the nations") as εἰς πλῆθος ἐθνῶν, "into a multitude of nations," shifting from "fullness" to "multitude." The Vulgate renders yig.Dal ("he will become great") applied to the elder brother as multiplicabitur ("will be multiplied") rather than a term of greatness, while keeping major erit illo ("will be greater than him") for the comparative clause concerning the younger brother. The Vulgate also renders me.lo'-ha-go.Yim as crescet in gentes ("will grow into nations"), diverging from the Hebrew construct "fullness of."

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.