Lemma

Word-by-word Hebrew & Greek with Strong's lexicon

Link to this page

https://lemma.gebible.app/v/genesis/42/12

Patron login

Genesis 42:12

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Genesis 42:12 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
Download image
Cite this verse

Genesis 42:12 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/genesis/42/12.

Show BibTeX & RIS
BibTeX
RIS
English Translation
He said to them, "No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land."
World English Bible · Public Domain
Download a study sheet

One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.

This verse Autodidact and up

Study sheet (.html) Plain text (.txt)

A passage Seminary Student

Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.

Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.

Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer
Compare translations 3

The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.

Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.

Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    He said to them, "No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land."
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    But he said to them, “No, indeed you have come to see the nakedness of the land!”

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

Versions to compare (up to 4)

3 of 4 selected

Open full comparison →
Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    He said to them, "No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land."
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    “No,” he told them. “You have come to see if our land is vulnerable.”
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    “No,” he told them. “You have come to see if our land is vulnerable.”
  • King James Version Public Domain
    And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    But he saide vnto them, Nay, but yee are come to see the weakenes of the land.
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    And he answered them: It is otherwise: you are come to consider the unfenced parts of this land.
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    and he saith unto them, `No, but the nakedness of the land ye have come to see;'
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    and he says to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land”;
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    He said to them, “No, you have come to see the undefended parts of the land.”
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    But he said to them, “No, indeed you have come to see the nakedness of the land!”
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    And he said to them, No; but to see the exposed places of the land are ye come.
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    He said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land!”
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    And he said to them, No, but to see the nakedness of the land have ye come.
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    “No! You've come to find our country's weaknesses!” he insisted.
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    And he said to them, No, but you have come to see how poor the land is.
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    And he said unto them: 'Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.'

Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).

Word by word

More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →

Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →

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

Shared distinctive vocabulary

עֶרְוַ֥ת nakedness H6172 occurs in 40 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 3 verbs
  • 2 nouns
  • 1 preposition
  • 1 conjunction
  • 1 particle

Verb forms

  • וַיֹּ֖אמֶר Qal · Sequential Imperfect
  • בָּאתֶ֥ם Qal · Perfect
  • לִרְאֽוֹת Qal · Infinitive Construct

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 17 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 11 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.

Download image
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 42:12 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֑ם לֹ֕א כִּֽי עֶרְוַ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ בָּאתֶ֥ם לִרְאֽוֹת

He said to them, "No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land."

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 42:12 Septuagint · lemma form

εἶπον δέ αὐτός οὐ ἀλλά ὁ ἴχνος ὁ γῆ ἔρχομαι ὁράω

And he said to them, Nay, but you⌃ are come to observe the marks of the land.

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)

2

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.

  1. Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
    וַאֲמַר לְהוֹן לָא אֲרֵי בִדְקָא דְאַרְעָא אֲתֵיתוּן לְמֶחֱזֵי

    (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.

  2. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
    וַאֲמַר לְהוֹן לָא אֱלָהֵן עֶרְיַת מַטְעַיַית אַרְעָא אֲתֵיתוּן לְמֶחְמֵי

    But he said to them, No, but to see the nakedness of the shame of the land are you come.

    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 42:12 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 42:12 And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.

Ver. 12. Nay, but to see the nakedness.] That is, the weakness, and where we may be best invaded; as Num 13:19. By this wile he gets out of them that which he much longed to hear of; his father and brother Benjamin’s health and welfare. {Gen 42:9}

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.

John Gill's Exposition

And Joseph said unto them, that is it that I spake unto you, saying, ye are spies. This proves it, at least gives strong suspicion of it; since at first they seemed to speak of themselves, as if they were the only sons of one man and there were no more, now they speak of twelve, and make mention of one being at home with his father; but seeing he sent so many of them, why not all? why should one only be left at home?

And Joseph said unto them, that is it that I spake unto you, saying, ye are spies. This proves it, at least gives strong suspicion of it; since at first they seemed to speak of themselves, as if they were the only sons of one man and there were no more, now they speak of twelve, and make mention of one being at home with his father; but seeing he sent so many of them, why not all? why should one only be left at home?

Genesis 42:15

gen 42:15

gen 42:15

gen 42:15Hereby ye shall be proved,.... Whether spies, or not, namely, by producing their youngest brother, said to be at home with his father:

by the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither: the phrase, "by the life of Pharaoh", seems to be the form of an oath, as it was common with many nations, especially with the Scythians, who used to swear by the royal throne (a), and the Romans, in later times, by the life, health, and genius of their emperor; and this custom of swearing by the life of their king, or by his head, continued with the Egyptians, as Aben Ezra says, unto his times; though some take this to be a wish or prayer for the life of Pharaoh, and render it, "may Pharaoh live" (b), or, at most, but a strong asseveration, that as dear as the life of Pharaoh was to him, so surely they should not stir from the place where they were, unless their youngest brother Benjamin was brought thither.

(a) Herodot. Melpomene, sive, l. 4. c. 68. (b) "vivat Parhoh", Montanus, Junius & Tremellius; so Ainsworth and Lightfoot.

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

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

He said to them

"Joseph said to his brothers"

No, you have come to see the undefended parts of the land

The full meaning can be stated explicitly. AT: "No, you have come to find out where we are not guarding our land so that you can attack us" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

twelve brothers

"12 brothers" (See: Numbers)

See, the youngest

"Listen to us, the youngest." The word "See" is used to emphasize what they say next.

the youngest is this day with our father

"right now our youngest brother is with our father"

translationWords

servant

Canaan

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)

כי ערות הארץ באתם לראות BUT TO SEE THE NAKEDNESS OF THE LAND YE ARE COME — I still insist that you are spies, for what you have just said bears this out for you have entered by ten different gates of the city; why did you not all enter by the same gate if you are really brothers and travelled together? (Genesis Rabbah 91:6).

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 ʻervâh (“nakedness”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. What does “nakedness” (ʻervâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
  2. How does Genesis 9:22, which shares the word «nakedness», read alongside this verse?
  3. 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?
  4. «וַיֹּ֖אמֶר» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
  5. Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

Reading settings

Reading text

Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

Comparing translations? Open the Compare panel on any verse page to stack up to four side by side.