Genesis 50:20

Summary

Joseph tells his brothers that what they intended against him as ra'ah ("harm", H7451I) God intended as tovah ("good", H2896C). The verse states the purpose of this reversal: to accomplish what happened "this day" and to keep a numerous people alive.

Key words

• chashavtem ("you planned", H2803I) — qal perfect, 2nd person masculine plural: a completed action attributed to the brothers.
• chashavah ("he planned", H2803I) — same root as above but qal perfect 3rd person masculine singular, with the pronominal suffix -ah ("it", H9034) referring back to the feminine noun ra'ah; the repetition of the same verb for both subjects sets the two plans in direct grammatical parallel.
• Elohim ("God", H0430G) — noun, morphologically plural, used here as the subject of a singular verb (chashavah).
• lema'an ("so as", H4616) — subordinating particle introducing purpose, governing the infinitive that follows.
• lehachayot ("preserve alive", H2421) — hiphil (causative) infinitive: the causative stem marks the action as "causing to live," not simply "living."

What the text says

The verse is built on a syntactic parallel: ve-'atem chashavtem 'alay ra'ah ("and you, you planned against me harm") is mirrored by Elohim chashavah le-tovah ("God planned it for good"), using the identical verb chashav (H2803I) for both human and divine subjects. The contrast is carried not by different verbs but by the object markers: ra'ah ("harm", H7451I) is governed by the preposition 'al ("on/against", H5921A) with the suffix -i ("me"), while tovah ("good", H2896C) is governed by le- ("for", H9005), a directional/purpose preposition. This shift from "against me" to "for" marks the reorientation of the same action's aim.

The purpose clause introduced by lema'an (H4616) governs two infinitives in sequence: 'asoh ("to do/act", H6213A) qal infinitive, specifying "as this day," and lehachayot (H2421), a hiphil infinitive specifying the result "to preserve alive a numerous people" ('am rav, H5971A + H7227A). The hiphil stem of chayah ("to live") turns the verb causative — the action is not "a people living" but an agent "causing a people to live."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the parallel with ἐβουλεύσασθε / ἐβουλεύσατο, preserving the same verb-repetition pattern as the Hebrew chashavtem / chashavah. The Vulgate diverges further: it uses cogitastis for the brothers' plan but vertit ("turned/changed") for God's action, introducing a verb of transformation not present in the Hebrew's repeated chashav (H2803I). The Vulgate also adds ut exaltaret me ("that he might exalt me"), a clause absent from the Hebrew text and from the LXX, which instead has ὅπως ἂν γενηθῇ ὡς σήμερον ("that it might come to be as today"), closer to the Hebrew ka-yom ha-zeh ("as this day").