For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn't with me? Lest I see the evil that will come on my father."
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The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
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For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn't with me? Lest I see the evil that will come on my father."
For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father.
For how will I go up to my father if the young man is not with me? I fear to see the misery that would find my father!”
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn't with me? Lest I see the evil that will come on my father."
For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the misery that would overwhelm him.”
For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the misery that would overwhelm him.”
For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father.
For how shall I go up to my father, if the lad be not with me? lest I see the evil that shall come on my father.
For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest I see the evil that shall come on my father.
For how can I go vp to my father, if the childe be not with me, vnlesse I woulde see the euil that shall come on my father?
For I cannot return to my father without the boy, lest I be a witness of the calamity that will oppress my father.
for how do I go up unto my father, and the youth not with me? lest I look on the evil which doth find my father.'
for how do I go up to my father, and the youth not with me? Lest I look on the evil which finds my father.”
For how can I go up to my father if the boy is not with me? I am afraid to see the evil that would come on my father.”
For how will I go up to my father if the young man is not with me? I fear to see the misery that would find my father!”
for how should I go up to my father if the lad were not with me? -- lest I see the evil that would come on my father.
For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn’t with me?—lest I see the evil that will come on my father.”
For how shall I return to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest perhaps I see the evil that shall come on my father.
For how could I ever go back to my father if the boy wasn't with me? I couldn't stand seeing the anguish that would cause my father.”
For how may I go back to my father without the boy, and see the evil which will come on my father?
For how shall I go up to my father, if the lad be not with me? lest I look upon the evil that shall come on my father.'
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).
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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 →
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 26 words from the Hebrew and 25 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 15 Hebrew tokens and 22 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.
Topical passages linked to Genesis 44:34 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
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.
כִּי אֵיךְ֙ אֶֽעֱלֶ֣ה אֶל אָבִ֔י וְהַנַּ֖עַר אֵינֶ֣נּוּ אִתִּ֑י פֶּ֚ן אֶרְאֶ֣ה בָרָ֔ע אֲשֶׁ֥ר יִמְצָ֖א אֶת אָבִֽי
For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn't with me? Lest I see the evil that will come on my father."
World English Bible · Public Domain
πῶς γάρ ἀναβαίνω πρός ὁ πατήρ ὁ παιδίον μή εἰμί μετά ἐγώ ἵνα μή ὁράω ὁ κακός ὅς εὑρίσκω ὁ πατήρ ἐγώ
For how shall I go up to my father, the lad not being with us? lest I behold the evils which will befall my father.
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 →
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.
אֲרֵי אֶכְדֵּין אֶסַּק לְוַת אַבָּא וְעוּלֵימָא לֵיתוֹהִי עִמִּי דִּלְמָא אֶחֱזֵי בְּבִישׁוּ דִּי יִשְׁכַּח יָת אַבָּא
(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.
אֲרוּם הֵיכְדֵין אֶסַק לְוַת אַבָּא וְטַלְיָא לֵיתוֹי עִמִי דִלְמָא אֶחֱמֵי בְּבִישְׁתָּא דְתִבְרַז יַת אַבָּא
For how can I go up to my father, and the young man be not with us lest I behold the evil that will strike my father through!
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.
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 15 words (14 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼêyk (“how”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on Genesis 44:34 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
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.
Geneva Bible (1599)
Geneva Bible translators
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.
John Gill's Exposition
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
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).
Ramban (Nachmanides)
Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban / Nachmanides)
Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.