Genesis 48:22

וַאֲנִי נָתַתִּֽי לְךָ שְׁכֶם אַחַד עַל־אַחֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר לָקַחְתִּי מִיַּד הָֽאֱמֹרִי בְּחַרְבִּי וּבְקַשְׁתִּֽי׃ פ

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The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַאֲנִ֞י נָתַ֧תִּֽי לְךָ֛ שְׁכֶ֥ם אַחַ֖ד עַל־אַחֶ֑יךָ אֲשֶׁ֤ר לָקַ֙חְתִּי֙ מִיַּ֣ד הָֽאֱמֹרִ֔י בְּחַרְבִּ֖י וּבְקַשְׁתִּֽי׃ פ

Greek (Septuagint)

ἐγὼ δὲ δίδωμί σοι σίκιμα ἐξαίρετον ὑπὲρ τοὺς ἀδελφούς σου, ἣν ἔλαβον ἐκ χειρὸς Ἀμορραίων ἐν μαχαίρᾳ μου καὶ τόξῳ.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Do tibi partem unam extra fratres tuos, quam tuli de manu Amorrhæi in gladio et arcu meo.

Spanish

Y a ti, como estás por encima de tus hermanos, te doy la porción de tierra que conquisté de los amorreos con mi espada y con mi arco”.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y yo te he dado á ti una parte sobre tus hermanos, la cual tomé yo de mano del Amorrheo con mi espada y con mi arco.

English

And to you, as one who is above your brothers, I give the ridge of land that I took from the Amorites with my sword and bow.”

What the text says

Summary

Jacob tells Joseph that he personally has given him a shekhem ("shoulder/portion", H7926) beyond what he gives his other sons, a piece of land taken by force from the Amorites. The verse combines an emphatic first-person statement with a relative clause explaining the origin of that possession.

Key words

  • 'aNi ("I", H0589) — independent personal pronoun placed before the verb, adding emphasis to the following perfect-tense verb ("I, I have given").
  • naTati ("I give/I have given", H5414G) — qal perfect, marking a completed act; combined with 'aNi it stresses the speaker's personal agency.
  • sheKhem ("a shoulder", H7926) — masculine singular noun that can denote a body part ("shoulder") or, by extension, a "portion"; it is also the name of the city Shechem, creating lexical ambiguity in this verse.
  • 'aChad ("one", H0259) — cardinal number; notably tagged as feminine singular even though it modifies the masculine noun sheKhem, an irregular agreement in the Hebrew text as provided.
  • 'aCher ("which/who", H0834A) — relative particle introducing the clause that specifies how the sheKhem was acquired: "which I took from the hand of the Amorite."

What the text says

The sentence opens with the conjunction va ("and") followed by the emphatic pronoun 'aNi and the perfect verb naTati, a construction that highlights the speaker's own action rather than simply stating "I gave." The direct object is sheKhem 'aChad, literally "one shoulder/portion," followed by 'al-'aCheicha ("over your brothers"), where 'aCheicha is a construct-plus-suffix form ("brothers-of-you"). This phrase places what is given in comparison to what the brothers receive.

The relative clause beginning with 'aSher ("which") explains the object's history: laKachti ("I took", H3947G, qal perfect) miYad ha'eMori ("from the hand of the Amorite"), using the construct noun Yad ("hand of") governing the gentilic 'eMori ("Amorite"). The final phrase, becharBi uvekashTi ("with my sword and with my bow"), uses two construct nouns (charB, "sword of"; kashT, "bow of") each with the first-person suffix -i, both governed by the preposition be ("by/with"), indicating the means of acquisition.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew noun sheKhem is ambiguous between "shoulder/portion" and the place name Shechem. The LXX renders it as a transliterated proper noun, σίκιμα ἐξαίρετον ("Sikima, a special/select [portion]"), treating it as the city name qualified by "exceptional." The Vulgate instead renders it generically as partem unam ("one part"), following the "portion" sense rather than a place name. Modern translations split accordingly: BSB uses "the ridge of land," SBLIBRE uses "la porción de tierra," while RV1909 keeps "una parte," none preserving the toponymic reading found in the LXX.

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