Genesis 50:19

Summary

Joseph responds to his brothers' fear with a command not to be afraid, followed by a rhetorical question about his own position relative to God. The Hebrew phrasing turns his response into a question rather than a statement of fact.

Key words

• tira'u ("you fear", H3372) — qal jussive, plural, negated by al ("may not", H0408): a prohibition addressed to "you all," softer in force than a flat imperative.
• ha ("¿", H9008) — interrogative particle prefixed to tachat, signaling that the clause is a question, not a declarative statement.
• tachat ("in place of", H8478) — construct noun, meaning literally "underneath" or "instead of," here governing Elohim.
• Elohim ("God", H0430) — plural noun form (used for the singular deity), object of the preposition-like construct tachat.
• ani ("[am] I", H0589) — independent personal pronoun placed at the end of the clause, giving emphasis to "I" as the subject of the implied question.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative form vayomer ("and he said", H0559), introducing Joseph's direct speech, followed by alehem ("to them", H0413 + suffix) marking the brothers as addressees. The command itself, al-tira'u ("do not fear"), uses the negation al with a jussive verb form, a construction typically used for immediate but non-permanent prohibitions.

The second clause, ki hatachat Elohim ani, is built around the interrogative ha- attached to tachat ("in place of"). This turns the sentence into a question: "for, am I in place of God?" The construct noun tachat links directly to Elohim, producing the sense of occupying God's position or role. The pronoun ani stands at the very end, receiving emphatic stress as the grammatical subject of the rhetorical question. The particle ki (H3588A) here functions as a connector, joining the prohibition to the reason or clarification that follows.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew presents hatachat Elohim ani as an interrogative sentence ("Am I in place of God?"), a reading followed by RV1909, BSB, and SBLIBRE. The LXX renders this differently, as a declarative statement: "τοῦ γὰρ θεοῦ ἐγὼ εἰμί" ("for I am of God"), lacking the interrogative ha- and using a genitive construction rather than "in place of." The Vulgate diverges further, phrasing it as "num Dei possumus resistere voluntati?" ("can we resist the will of God?"), introducing the notion of resisting God's will, a concept not present in the Hebrew word-by-word data for this verse.