Genesis 50:14
וַיָּשָׁב יוֹסֵף מִצְרַיְמָה הוּא וְאֶחָיו וְכָל־הָעֹלִים אִתּוֹ לִקְבֹּר אֶת־אָבִיו אַחֲרֵי קָבְרוֹ אֶת־אָבִֽיו׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיָּ֨שָׁב יוֹסֵ֤ף מִצְרַ֙יְמָה֙ ה֣וּא וְאֶחָ֔יו וְכָל־הָעֹלִ֥ים אִתּ֖וֹ לִקְבֹּ֣ר אֶת־אָבִ֑יו אַחֲרֵ֖י קָבְר֥וֹ אֶת־אָבִֽיו׃
καὶ ἀπέστρεψεν Ἰωσὴφ εἰς Αἴγυπτον, αὐτὸς καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ οἱ συναναβάντες θάψαι τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Reversusque est Joseph in Ægyptum cum fratribus suis, et omni comitatu, sepulto patre.
Después de enterrar a su padre, José regresó a Egipto junto con sus hermanos y con todos los que lo habían acompañado al entierro.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y tornóse José á Egipto, él y sus hermanos, y todos los que subieron con él á sepultar á su padre, después que le hubo sepultado.
After Joseph had buried his father, he returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone with him to bury his father. Joseph Comforts His Brothers
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse narrates Joseph's return to Egypt after the burial of his father Jacob, accompanied by his brothers and all who had traveled with him. The Hebrew text uniquely states the purpose of the journey ("to bury his father") and then repeats, in a temporal clause, that the burial had already taken place ("after he had buried his father").
Key words
- vaYashov ("he went back", H7725) — wayyiqtol narrative verb form; opens the verse as a new narrative step following the burial episode.
- ha'olim ("those who had gone up", H5927) — qal participle masculine plural with the definite article; designates the whole group that accompanied Joseph to Canaan, without naming them individually as in verse 7-9.
- liqvor ("to bury", H6912) — infinitive construct governed by the preposition li ("to"); expresses the purpose of the journey up to Canaan.
- 'acharei ("after", H0310A) — construct form functioning as a temporal preposition, introducing the clause that follows.
- qavro ("his burying", H6912) — infinitive construct with pronominal suffix "his"; together with 'acharei it forms "after his burying [of] his father," restating that the act was completed.
What the text says
The sentence is built around the verb vaYashov ("he returned"), with Joseph as subject, followed by an expanding list of companions: "he" (hu', H1931), "his brothers" ('echav, H0251G), and "all who had gone up with him" (ha'olim, H5927G). This list mirrors the structure used earlier in the chapter to describe who traveled with Joseph to bury Jacob, now describing the return trip.
The verse then contains two clauses referring to the burial: the infinitive clause liqvor 'et-'aviv ("to bury his father") and the temporal clause 'acharei qavro 'et-'aviv ("after he had buried his father"). Both use the same verbal root qavar ("to bury", H6912), first as a purpose infinitive and then as a temporal infinitive with a pronominal suffix. The Hebrew thus states the purpose of the group's presence and separately marks that the action was already completed before the return to Egypt, producing a construction with two references to the same burial within one verse.
Differences between versions
The LXX (καὶ ἀπέστρεψεν... θάψαι τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ) renders only the purpose clause ("to bury his father") and omits the second Hebrew clause "after he had buried his father." The Vulgate (sepulto patre, an ablative absolute meaning "the father having been buried") preserves only one reference to the burial as well, structurally placed differently than the Hebrew's double mention. The English versions BSB and SBLIBRE restructure the sentence, placing "after Joseph had buried his father" at the beginning, which reflects the Hebrew's second (temporal) clause but changes its position relative to the description of travel companions.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.