What Does Genesis 43:7 Mean?
And they said, The man asked after us and our birth, saying, Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother? And we told him by the mouth of these words. Could we surely know that he would say, Bring your brother down?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And they said, The man asked us straitly of our state, and of our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? have ye another brother? and we told him according to the tenor of these words: could we certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down?THE KEY
You can answer what is asked and still be unable to know what your answer will set in motion.
THE MEANING
You can speak accurately about what has been asked and who belongs to your household without knowing what the answer will open next. Hearing a question does not reveal the next demand.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A truthful answer does not mean you could have known the questioner’s next move.
THE ROOT
הֲיָדוֹעַ נֵדַע
ha-yādōaʿ nēdaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“surely know” in this verse is ha-yādōaʿ nēdaʿ. The Hebrew repeats the knowing, asking whether this future demand was knowable to them at all. Knowing here is perception through encounter: hearing a question does not let you perceive words that have not yet been spoken.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, awareness.
דַּעַת
This noun keeps knowing connected to what is recognized, not to foreknowledge of what will happen.
yādūaʿ: Known, made known.
יָדוּעַ
Its passive form sharpens the question: was the next demand something they could have known already?
שָׁאוֹל שָׁאַל
shaʾōl shaʾal
GROWS FROM
שאל
To ask, inquire, or request.
“asked us straitly” in this verse is shaʾōl shaʾal. English “straitly” conveys pressure, while the Hebrew doubles the verb: “asking, the man asked.” The repetition makes the questioning insistent; it presses into their family ties without letting them see what comes next.
ALSO GROWS
sheʾēlāh: A question or request.
שְׁאֵלָה
The question is itself a request for knowledge about their family.
shāʾūl: Asked for; Shaul, or Saul.
שָׁאוּל
The root can compress a request into a name, showing how asking can mark what is sought.
עַל־פִּי הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה
ʿal-pi ha-devarim ha-elleh
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; a word, utterance, or matter.
“tenor of these words” in this verse is ʿal-pi ha-devarim ha-elleh. The Hebrew places their account “by the mouth of these words,” while davar can mean both a word and a matter. They can report what was said; the matter those words set in motion remains outside their knowledge.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: A word, saying, or matter.
דָּבָר
The brothers recount the actual words spoken, not what they might lead to.
dibber: To speak or utter.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal branch keeps the verse grounded in speech: they answer from what was spoken to them.
THE PATTERN
Questions bring what is hidden into speech, but they do not make the next demand knowable.
And the LORD God called to Adam, and said to him, Where are you?Then I said, My lord, what are these? And the messenger who spoke with me said to me, I will let you see what these are.Saying, What do you want me to do for you? And he said, Lord, that I may look up.THE THREAD
And Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but he made himself a stranger to them and spoke hard words to them. And he said to them, From where have you come? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food.Genesis 42:7 uses the same Hebrew root שאל (shaʾal, ask) when Joseph questions his brothers. Here they recount those earlier questions: they can repeat what was asked, but could not know the demand it would lead to.
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