Genesis 43

Notes

1. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "The man did solemnly protest unto us" (KJV) / "The man solemnly warned us" (RSV)

   Rulings 10, 2, 95

   הָעֵד הֵעִד is the infinitive absolute with the hiphil of עוּד, the verb of עֵד "witness" (31:44–52): to call to witness, to bear witness against (Deut 4:26 "I call to witness against you today the skies and the land"; 1 Kgs 2:42). The warning is sworn testimony, and Judah reports it as a charge laid against them (בָּנוּ). The doubled verb is kept (10) as "witnessing… witnessed," the home gloss of the root held (2, 95); "warn" would lose the court. The WPRB says both.

2. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 95, 2

   עָרַב "pledge" is the verb of עֵרָבוֹן "pledge" (38:17–20), one root. Judah, who once handed his seal, cord and staff to Tamar as a pledge, now pledges himself, and in 44:32 he will say it again before Joseph: "your servant pledged himself for the lad." "From my hand you shall seek him" is the language of required blood (9:5).

3. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 97, 74

   פַּעֲמָיִם is the dual of פַּעַם "turn" (97), "two turns," "twice": two journeys there and back. זֶה, "this," is the idiom of elapsed time ("these twenty years," 31:38, 41).

4. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "the best fruits in the land" (KJV) / "the choice fruits of the land" (RSV)

   Rulings 1, 25, 74

   זִמְרָה occurs only here in this sense. Elsewhere it is "song" (Exod 15:2; Isa 12:2; Ps 118:14: "my strength and my song"). Onkelos renders "from what is praised in the land" (מִדְּמִשְׁתַּבַּח בְּאַרְעָא), and Rashi explains: what everyone sings of when it comes into the world. The LXX (ἀπὸ τῶν καρπῶν τῆς γῆς) and the Vulgate (de optimis terrae fructibus) give the sense "fruits," and modern lexicons divide between a homograph "choice produce" (from זָמַר "prune": what the vine-dresser cuts) and "strength" (Ugaritic ḏmr). Ruling 25 looks first to the Bible, and the Bible's word is the song. "Renown" keeps the reading of Onkelos and Rashi, the land's goods as what the land is praised for, without printing "song," which is שִׁיר's. The produce itself is named in the list that follows.

5. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 129, 95, 17

   שְׁקֵדִים "almonds" is the tree of Jeremiah's pun, "I see a rod of almond (שָׁקֵד)… for I am watching (שֹׁקֵד) over my word" (Jer 1:11–12), and the blossom of Aaron's rod (Num 17:23). Ruling 129(f) gave לוּז "almond" (30:37) and declared that the two would be one tree under two names when this word was reached: they share "almond." The gifts answer the cargo of 37:25, balm, gum and ladanum carried down to Egypt by the caravan that bought Joseph.

6. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 123, 26, 39

   רַחֲמִים is the plural of רֶחֶם "womb," the feeling of the womb for what it bore (1 Kgs 3:26, the true mother: "her mercy grew warm over her son"). Ruling 123(a) kept "mercy" free for it, and the plural is an English singular (26). The word returns at v. 30, where it is Joseph's own: Jacob prays that El Shaddai give mercy before the man, and the man's mercy is the answer.

7. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 21, 74

   כַּאֲשֶׁר שָׁכֹלְתִּי שָׁכָלְתִּי, "as I am bereaved, I am bereaved," is resignation in the form of a tautology, as Esther's "and if I perish, I perish" (Esth 4:16). The verb is Rebekah's (27:45) and Jacob's at 42:36.

8. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Ruling 74

   לַאֲשֶׁר עַל־בֵּיתוֹ "to the one who was over his house": the office Joseph held in Potiphar's house (39:4–5), now held over his. The KJV and RSV call him "the steward"; the Hebrew names him by his place, here and in vv. 19; 44:1, 4. The WPRB names him "the steward" where a pronoun would be unclear.

9. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "make ready" (KJV, RSV)

   Rulings 20, 2

   וְהָכֵן is the hiphil of כּוּן, whose niphal is "be fixed" (41:32): the causative, "make fixed, make ready." The lexicon row names the niphal and leaves the hiphil to be fixed when reached; it is printed "fix," a split by stem (20), here and at v. 25 ("they fixed the gift"). The packet shows no earlier printing of the hiphil of כּוּן: unknown. English "fix" keeps both the firm and the made-ready ("fix a meal"), as the root does: "fix your heart" (1 Sam 7:3), "he fixed the skies" (Prov 3:19). The butchering is טֶבַח, the noun of טָבַח, whose participle is טַבָּח "butcher" (37:36; 39:1): Potiphar was "chief of the butchers," and Joseph now has a beast butchered for his brothers.

10. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 2, 74

    לְהִתְגֹּלֵל is the hithpolel of גָּלַל "roll" (29:3, 8, 10): "to roll himself upon us," to come at us like a stone rolled down. The KJV and RSV, "seek occasion against us," take it as a figure. The concrete verb is kept, and it is followed by "fall upon us," as an attacker falls on his victim (Josh 11:7; Job 1:15).

11. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 9, 107, 128

    Elohim has the singular verb נָתַן "has given," so both nouns take the capital (9): "your Elohim and the Elohim of your father." The steward speaks, the man over Joseph's house, and he names the God of Jacob's house. ADONAI is not named in Gen 42–43; the capital comes from agreement, not from the scene. The WPRB has "God" twice, for the two nouns of the Hebrew.

12. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 123, 26, 39

    נִכְמְרוּ רַחֲמָיו "his mercy grew warm": כָּמַר niphal is to grow warm or hot (Lam 5:10, "our skin grew hot like an oven"; Hos 11:8, "my comfortings grow warm together"), and the idiom is the one of 1 Kgs 3:26. The verb is plural, agreeing with the plural noun; the English singular "mercy" follows ruling 26. See the note at v. 14.

13. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians" (KJV, RSV)

    Rulings 134, 18

    The third word in the verse is מִצְרַיִם, the land's name "Egypt," used for its people; the source tags it with the gentilic (H4713) of the first two. The tag is kept and "Egypt" is printed as a logged departure, as at 41:55–56 (134l). תּוֹעֵבָה "abhorrence" is what a people's rite or custom abhors: Israel's shepherds to Egypt (46:34), Egypt's sacrifices to Israel (Exod 8:22). "Abomination" is the expected English.

14. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 123, 20, 95

    The seating sets two pairs of one root side by side: בְּכוֹר "firstborn" with בְּכוֹרָה "birthright" (the singular of the right of the firstborn, 25:31–34; 27:36; split by construction, 20), and צָעִיר "younger" with צְעִרָה, "youngness," its abstract noun (only here). The birthright is the word Esau sold and Jacob took, and Joseph, who knows each brother's age, seats them by it. The men are astounded because a stranger could not know it.

15. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 95, 2, 39

    מַשְׂאֵת "uplift" is the noun of נָשָׂא "lift," one root: what is lifted up, here a portion carried from the host's table (2 Sam 11:8); elsewhere a column of smoke (Judg 20:38) and a contribution (Ezek 20:40). The verse lifts uplifts, as the Hebrew does. "Five hands" is five shares, as in 47:24, "four hands"; "was many" keeps the home gloss of רָבָה. Joseph tests whether the brothers will begrudge Rachel's other son his larger share as they begrudged Joseph his tunic (37:3–4).