Genesis 39:16

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

She laid up his garment by her, until his master came home.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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אֶצְלָ֑הּ

ʼêtsel

H681

“beside · her”

Preposition + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular

Appears 61× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 39:10

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H680 (in the sense of joining)

TWOT: 153a

beside, by, near, nearness, joining, proximity - (BDB) (substantive) - conjunction, proximity - beside, in proximity, contiguous to, from beside

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
3 nouns
3 prepositions

Verb forms

וַתַּנַּ֥ח Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
בּ֥וֹא Qal · Infinitive Construct

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 12 words from the Hebrew and 14 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 14 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Genesis 39:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Psalms 37:32 The wicked watches the righteous, And seeks to kill him.
Psalms 37:12 The wicked plots against the just, And gnashes at him with his teeth.
Jeremiah 4:22 For my people are foolish, they don't know me; they are foolish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Jeremiah 9:3–5 They bend their tongue, [as it were] their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don't know me, says Yahweh.
Titus 3:3 For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Genesis 39:16 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַתַּנַּ֥ח בִּגְד֖וֹ אֶצְלָ֑הּ עַד בּ֥וֹא אֲדֹנָ֖יו אֶל בֵּיתֽוֹ

She laid up his garment by her, until his master came home.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 39:16 Septuagint · lemma form

καί καταλιμπάνω ὁ ἱμάτιον παρά ἑαυτοῦ ἕως ἔρχομαι ὁ κύριος εἰς ὁ οἶκος αὐτός

So she leaves the clothes by her, until the master came to his house.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַאֲחִתְּתֵהּ לִלְבוּשֵׁהּ לְוָתַהּ עַד דְּעַל רִבּוֹנֵהּ לְבֵיתֵהּ

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְאַנְחַת לְבוּשֵׁיהּ גַבָּהּ עַד דְעַל רִבּוֹנֵיהּ לְבַיְיתֵיהּ

And she let the garment remain until his master came into his house;

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Genesis 39:16 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Gen 39:16 And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home.

Ver. 16. {See Trapp on "Gen 39:12"} {See Trapp on "Gen 39:15"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

16. laid up] i.e. laid on one side, and kept ready to be produced as evidence.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And she laid up his garment by her,.... As a proof of what she laid to his charge, and as a testimony against him:

until her lord came home; or until his lord came home, for the pronoun refers to Joseph, and so Jarchi interprets it; who either was gone a journey, or gone to court that day, being an officer of Pharaoh's, or to the public place where the festival was kept that day, if it was such an one.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

A proof of her fidelity, or an argument to gain credit, argumentum fidei. (Challoner) --- Love neglected, turns to fury. She wishes to take away Joseph’s life, according to the laws of Egypt against adulterers. Diodorus says Sesostris burnt some women taken in the crime; and we must attribute it to divine Providence, that the enraged husband did not inflict instant death upon his slave. Perhaps he did not altogether believe him guilty. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The Pulpit Commentary

Vers. 16-18. And she laid up his garment by her (literally, by her side), until his lord came home (literally, until the coming of his lord to his house). And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us (here she charges her husband with being indirectly at least the cause of the alleged affront which had been put upon her), came in unto me to mock me: seemed too modest to speak in plain terms of Joseph"s crime (Lawson)and it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me and fled out (i.e. went forth into the street, ut supra).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

his master

"Joseph's master." This refers to Potiphar.

She told him this explanation

"She explained it like this"

brought to us

The word "us" refers to Potiphar, his wife, and includes the rest of the household. (See: Inclusive "We")

came in to mock me

"came in to make a fool of me." Here, the word "mock" is a euphemism for "to seize and to sleep with." AT: "came into where I was and tried to force me to sleep with him" (See: Euphemism)

It came about that

"Then." Potiphar's wife uses this phrase to mark the next event in the account she is telling him about Joseph trying to sleep with her. (See: Introduction of a New Event)

fled outside

"ran quickly out of the house"

translationWords

lord

Hebrew

servant

mock

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

אדניו HIS MASTER — Joseph’s master (not the master or owner of the garment).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼêtsel (“beside”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word ʼêtsel carries the sense “beside.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Psalms 37:32, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«וַתַּנַּ֥ח» is a Hiphil Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 14 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.