Genesis 50:8

Summary

The verse lists who traveled with Joseph (his household, his brothers, and his father's household) and specifies what remained behind: only the small children, sheep, and cattle stayed in the land of Goshen. The sentence contrasts those who went and those/what stayed.

Key words

• khol ("all", H3605) — construct form meaning "all of," governing beit Yosef, establishing that the entirety of Joseph's household is included in the group that travels.
• 'e.chav ("his brothers", H0251G) — plural noun with 3rd person masculine singular pronominal suffix -o ("his"), identifying Joseph's brothers as a distinct group alongside his household.
• rak ("only", H7535) — adverb that restricts the scope of what follows; it signals that everything just listed traveled, and only the items introduced after this word were left behind.
• tapam ("their little ones", H2945 + H9028) — construct noun with 3rd masculine plural suffix "their," referring to the dependents (children) of the group, left in Goshen.
• 'azvu ("they left", H5800A) — qal perfect verb, third person plural, expressing a completed action: the subjects (children, sheep, cattle) were left/abandoned in a specific location.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a long compound subject followed by the adverb rak ("only", H7535), which functions as a pivot marking a contrast. The first part lists three groups joined by ve ("and", H9002): khol beit Yosef ("all the household of Joseph"), 'e.chav ("his brothers"), and beit 'aviv ("the household of his father"). All three are construct-suffix chains indicating possession or belonging. After rak, a second list appears — tapam ("their little ones"), tzonam ("their sheep"), u.vekaram ("and their cattle") — each also bearing the 3rd person plural suffix "their" (H9028), referring back to the previously named brothers or household members. The verb 'azvu ("they left", H5800A), a qal perfect, governs this second list and is followed by the locative phrase be'eretz Goshen ("in the land of Goshen", H0776G + H1657G), specifying where these items/persons remained.

The construct chains (beit Yosef, beit 'aviv, tapam, tzonam, bekaram) show a Hebrew syntactic pattern where possession is expressed through direct juxtaposition rather than a separate possessive word, a structure not always visible in translation since English and Spanish require explicit possessive pronouns ("his," "their") for each item.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tapam ("their little ones", H2945) together with tzonam and bekaram using ὑπελίποντο ("they left behind"), and adds ἡ συγγενία αὐτοῦ ("his kindred"), a phrase not present in the Hebrew construct chain of this verse. The Vulgate uses absque parvulis ("apart from the little ones"), phrasing the exception with a preposition rather than the Hebrew adverb rak ("only", H7535) followed by a finite verb 'azvu ("they left").