Q: Do you think “you and I” should be “you and me” in the first part of Genesis 31:44 (English Standard Version): “Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me”? The verse is similar in the King James Version.
A: Many English translations of the Bible use “let us” with “you and I” in Genesis 31:44, but many others use “let us” with “you and me.” In other words, both usages are common in biblical writing.
In contemporary English, especially in speech, “let’s” (or “let us”) is often followed by either “you and me” or “you and I”—with or without words or punctuation between the two parts.
As we say in a 2012 post (“Does ‘let’s’ need lexical support?”), both are acceptable in informal English. We also wrote about the usage in a 2021 post (“Let’s You and Him Fight”).
The earliest English version of Genesis uses “make we” in the sense of “let us make” in verse 31:44, but doesn’t follow it directly with either “you and I” or “you and me”:
“Therfor come thou, and make we boond of pees, that it be witnessyng bitwixe me, and thee” (from the Wycliffe Bible, Early Version, circa 1382, a translation of the verse from the Latin Vulgate).
The first English version of Genesis 31:44 that uses “let us” (followed by “I and thou”) is from William Tyndale’s 1530 translation of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible:
“Now therfore come on let us make a bonde I and thou together and let it be a wytnesse betwene the and me.”
The verse in the original King James Version (1611), largely based on the Hebrew text, also has “I and thou” (“Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee”).
However, the verse in the New King James Version (1982) has “you and I” (“Now therefore, come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.”
Finally, here are the Hebrew, Latin, and Greek versions of Genesis 31:44 that were the sources of the early English translations:
- Leningrad Codex, dating from around 1010, the oldest surviving complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible: “וְעַתָּ֗ה לְכָ֛ה נִכְרְתָ֥ה בְרִ֖ית אֲנִ֣י וָאָ֑תָּה וְהָיָ֥ה לְעֵ֖ד בֵּינִ֥י וּבֵינֶֽךָ” (“Now come let us make a covenant I and you and let it be for a witness between me and you”).
- The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament from the third century BC: “νῦν οὖν δεῦρο διαθώμεθα διαθήκην ἐγὼ καὶ σὺ καὶ ἔσται εἰς μαρτύριον ἀνὰ μέσον ἐμοῦ καὶ σοῦ” (“Now therefore come let us make a covenant I and you and it shall be unto a witness between me and you”).
- The Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Bible dating from the late fourth and early fifth centuries: “Veni ergo et ineamus foedus, ut sit testimonium inter me et te” (“Come therefore, and let us enter into a covenant, so that it may be a witness between me and you”).
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