Genesis 12:13

Summary

In Genesis 12:13, Abram instructs Sarai to say she is his sister, so that he may be treated well and his life preserved on her account. The verse is structured as a request followed by two purpose/result clauses explaining the reason for the request.

Key words

• 'im.ri ("say", H0559) — qal imperative, feminine singular: a direct command addressed to a woman (Sarai).
• na' ("please", H4994) — interjection softening the imperative into a request rather than a bare order.
• 'a.Cho.t-i ("my sister", H0269) — noun in construct form with 1st person suffix, literally "sister of me," the content of what Sarai is told to say.
• yi.tav ("it may go well", H3190) — qal jussive, expressing a wished-for or intended outcome ("let it go well"), dependent on the particle le.Ma.'an.
• cha.ye.Tah ("it will live", H2421) — qal sequential perfect (vav + perfect continuing the sequence of intended results), referring to naf.Sh-i ("my life/soul").

What the text says

The verse opens with the imperative 'im.ri plus the softening particle na', forming a polite request: "say, please." What Sarai is to say follows immediately: 'a.Cho.t-i 'At — "my sister [are] you" — a nominal clause with no verb "to be" in Hebrew, simply juxtaposing the construct noun and the pronoun 'At ("you," feminine).

The purpose of this statement is introduced by le.Ma.'an ("so that"), governing two verbs in sequence: first yi.tav, a jussive form expressing the hoped-for result ("it may go well for me"), followed by the prepositional phrase ba.'a.vu.Rekh ("for your sake," construct noun + suffix). The second result clause is joined by the narrative ve- prefixed to cha.ye.Tah, a sequential perfect continuing the chain of intended outcomes: "and my life/soul (naf.sh-i) will live," followed by bi.g.la.Lekh ("on account of you"). Both prepositional phrases (ba.'a.vu.Rekh and bi.g.la.Lekh) use different construct nouns meaning roughly "for the sake/account of," each taking the 2nd person feminine singular suffix -kh ("you"), creating a parallel structure that reinforces the causal link between Sarai's identity claim and Abram's safety.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the request as a reported statement, "Ἀδελφὴ αὐτοῦ εἰμί" ("I am his sister"), shifting from the Hebrew's direct quoted command form 'a.Cho.t-i 'At ("my sister [are] you") to a first-person self-identification. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew more closely in structure ("soror mea sis," "you are my sister") but adds obsecro te ("I beg you"), an explicit verb of pleading not present in the Hebrew na', which is only an interjection. Where the Hebrew has two distinct nouns for cause (ba.'a.vu.Rekh and bi.g.la.Lekh), the LXX and Vulgate each use two prepositional phrases (διὰ σέ / ἕνεκεν σοῦ; propter te / ob gratiam tui) that parallel the Hebrew's double structure but do not preserve the distinct lexical roots of the two Hebrew nouns.