one's life is closely bound up with someone’s life

The Hebrew that is translated as “his father’s life is closely bound up with the boy’s life” or similar in English is translated in Mwera idiomatically as “his heart is bound to that young man.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

See also bound up.

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Gen 44:30)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, the Adamawa Fulfulde translation uses the exclusive pronoun, excluding Joseph.

complete verse (Genesis 44:30)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 44:30:

  • Kankanaey: “Then he continued to say, ‘So then sir, if I leave-behind my younger-sibling here and I do not arrive-with-(him) to my father, he will die from his sorrow, because he is already old and this our (excl.) younger-sibling is the place-of-concentration of his love.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Newari: “So now, when we go back, he must also be taken along. For our father’s life is knit with him.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘So, sir, the life of our (excl.) father is-connected/tied-up to the life of the child. If we (excl.) go-home where/[Linker] he (is) not with us (excl.),” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘o please listen. My father will remain alive only if his youngest son remains alive.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Genesis 44:30 - 44:31

Translators may find it helpful to rearrange the order of parts in verses 30 and 31 and combine them, as in Good News Translation.

Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father: Now therefore draws a conclusion based on what has been stated and will be repeated in verse 33. When I come may be better translated as a conditional: “if I return to my father.” For your servant my father see suggestions on 43.28.

And the lad is not with us: that is, “without the boy” or “without the boy with us.”

As his life is bound up in the lad’s life is literally “and his [Benjamin’s] soul bound to his [Jacob’s] soul.” The basic meaning of the idiom is that there is a special “bond of love” between the two people; for another use of the same idiom, see 1 Sam 18.1, where the two people are David and Jonathan. The thought expressed in this context is that Jacob’s life or desire to go on living depends on Benjamin’s life, and therefore on his safety and safe return home. We may translate, for example, “Our father’s life depends on the safe return of the boy.”

When he sees that the lad is not with us: he refers to Jacob. The consequence is he [Jacob] will die.

And your servants: that is, “we” or “we who honor you.”

Bring down the gray hairs … Sheol: see 42.38.

Good News Translation offers a good model for translating verses 30-31. Another model that does not combine these two verses is Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, which shifts the dependence of Jacob’s life on that of Benjamin to the front as the ground for what follows: “because the life of my father is so tied up with the life of the boy that, if the boy does not go with us when I go back, our father will die when he does not see him. In this way we will be guilty of causing our old father to die of sorrow.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .