Genesis 50:7
וַיַּעַל יוֹסֵף לִקְבֹּר אֶת־אָבִיו וַיַּֽעֲלוּ אִתּוֹ כָּל־עַבְדֵי פַרְעֹה זִקְנֵי בֵיתוֹ וְכֹל זִקְנֵי אֶֽרֶץ־מִצְרָֽיִם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיַּ֥עַל יוֹסֵ֖ף לִקְבֹּ֣ר אֶת־אָבִ֑יו וַיַּֽעֲל֨וּ אִתּ֜וֹ כָּל־עַבְדֵ֤י פַרְעֹה֙ זִקְנֵ֣י בֵית֔וֹ וְכֹ֖ל זִקְנֵ֥י אֶֽרֶץ־מִצְרָֽיִם׃
καὶ ἀνέβη Ἰωσὴφ θάψαι τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ· καὶ συνανέβησαν μετ’ αὐτοῦ πάντες οἱ παῖδες Φαραὼ καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι τοῦ οἴκου αὐτοῦ, καὶ πάντες ὁ ἐροῖ τῆς γῆς Αἰγύπτου,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Quo ascendente, ierunt cum eo omnes senes domus Pharaonis, cunctique majores natu terræ Ægypti:
Así que José fue a enterrar a su padre. Con él fueron todos los funcionarios del faraón, los ancianos de su corte y todos los ancianos de la tierra de Egipto.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Entonces José subió á sepultar á su padre; y subieron con él todos los siervos de Faraón, los ancianos de su casa, y todos los ancianos de la tierra de Egipto,
Then Joseph went to bury his father, and all the servants of Pharaoh accompanied him — the elders of Pharaoh ’s household and all the elders of the land of Egypt —
✦ What the text says
Summary
Genesis 50:7 narrates that Joseph went up to Egypt's frontier region to bury his father, and that he was accompanied by an entourage: all of Pharaoh's servants, the elders of Pharaoh's household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt.
Key words
- ya'al ("he went up", H5927G) — qal narrative verb, marking a new sequential action in the story; repeated in word 10 for the plural "they went up."
- liqvor ("to bury", H6912) — qal infinitive with prefixed li ("to"), expressing purpose: Joseph goes up in order to bury.
- 'avdei ("servants of", H5650) — masculine plural construct, grammatically bound to Pharʿoh, denoting Pharaoh's officials as a group.
- ziqnei ("elders of", H2205G) — appears twice (words 16 and 21), each time construct, linking to "his house" and "the land of Egypt" respectively, naming two distinct groups of elders.
- kol ("all", H3605) — construct noun used twice (words 13 and 20), each time governing a following group noun, emphasizing totality of the escorting parties.
What the text says
The verse opens with a narrative vav + qal verb (va-ya'al) establishing Joseph as the subject of the first action: going up. The purpose clause li-qvor 'et-'aviv ("to bury his father") uses the object marker 'et to mark "his father" as the direct object of the infinitive "to bury," a mechanism with no separate English equivalent.
The second half of the verse repeats the narrative pattern (va-ya'alu, "and they went up") with a new subject introduced by kol ("all of") stacked three times in construct chains: kol-'avdei Par'oh ("all the servants of Pharaoh"), ziqnei veito ("the elders of his house"), and kol ziqnei 'eretz-Mitzrayim ("all the elders of the land of Egypt"). The Hebrew syntax places ziqnei veito immediately after 'avdei Par'oh without a conjunction, so the phrase can be read as naming a single group ("the servants of Pharaoh, [namely] the elders of his house") or as an implicit second group in apposition. Only the third group, "the elders of the land of Egypt," is explicitly joined by the conjunction ve- ("and").
Differences between versions
The LXX inserts an explicit καὶ ("and") between "the servants of Pharaoh" and "the elders of his house," rendering them as two distinct groups where the Hebrew construct chain leaves the relationship ambiguous. The Vulgate condenses the escort into a single phrase, omnes senes domus Pharaonis ("all the elders of Pharaoh's house"), which does not separately render 'avdei Par'oh ("servants of Pharaoh") as its own group, differing from both the Hebrew's threefold construct structure and the LXX's explicit three-part listing.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.