What Does Genesis 42:23 Mean in the King James?
And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The interpreter stands between their voices and Joseph’s answer, but not between their words and his understanding.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the gap between what you believe is being received and what is actually understood. A barrier can shape how you speak without revealing everything the other person hears. You may not know who already understands you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is: “If I cannot see a direct response in my language, I have not been understood.” A visible intermediary can conceal the fact that your words have been received.
THE ROOT
שֹׁמֵעַ
shomea
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, heed.
The word translated “understood” is formed from the root for hearing: Joseph is hearing them while they speak. English makes his understanding sound like a separate mental act; Hebrew reveals it as reception already in progress.
ALSO GROWS
shama: Hear, listen, heed.
שָׁמַע
This verb names the hearing that is already happening beneath the interpreter’s visible role.
shemuah: Report, news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root can name what is carried as heard information, linking Joseph’s listening to the words passing between them.
יָדְעוּ
yada’u
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
Know, perceive, recognize.
“knew not” in this verse is yada’u. Their not knowing is a failure to perceive who is receiving their words. The verse sets that unawareness directly beside Joseph’s hearing, making the difference between the two sides the hidden mechanism of the scene.
ALSO GROWS
yada: Know, perceive.
יָדַע
This root shows that the brothers lack awareness of Joseph’s understanding, rather than merely lacking a piece of information.
da’at: Knowledge, understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root makes the passage’s uneven knowledge visible: Joseph understands what they do not know he understands.
יוֹסֵף
Yosef
GROWS FROM
יסף
y-s-f
Add, increase.
Yosef carries the sense “he adds,” from the root for adding or increasing. The scene holds an added layer in the exchange: their words reach Joseph beyond the channel they can see.
ALSO GROWS
yasaf: Add, increase, continue.
יָסַף
This verb supplies the root sense carried in Joseph’s name.
hosif: Add, increase; cause to continue.
הוֹסִיף
This form shows the same root at work in the added layer of understanding hidden within the conversation.
THE PATTERN
What a speaker cannot see may still be fully heard or known by the one receiving it.
For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.THE THREAD
And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.The Hebrew verb translated “understood” in Genesis 42:23 and “heard” here comes from שמע (shama, hear, listen). That shared root reveals Joseph’s comprehension as hearing already in motion; here, a groan carries meaning before it becomes a spoken request.
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