Genesis 12:16

Summary

This verse concludes the episode of Sarai's presentation to Pharaoh's household: the unnamed subject (Pharaoh, from the preceding narrative) treats Abram well because of her, and Abram consequently acquires livestock and servants. The list enumerates seven categories of possessions in a structured sequence.

Key words

• heiTiv ("he did good", H3190) — Hiphil (causative) perfect, third person masculine singular. The Hiphil stem here conveys "to treat well / to benefit," with an unstated but contextually implied subject.
• ba'avuRah ("for her sake", H5668 + H9034) — construct noun with pronominal suffix "her," giving the causal reason ("on account of her") for the good treatment.
• vayehi ("and it came to be", H1961) — Qal narrative (vav-consecutive) form, marking the sequential result: after the good treatment, possessions "came to belong" to Abram.
• chamoRim ("male donkeys", H2543) and atoNot ("female donkeys", H0860) — both plural nouns, distinguished by grammatical gender, forming a male/female pair within the list.
• avaDim ("male servants", H5650) and shefaChot ("female servants", H8198) — parallel masculine/feminine plural pair, structurally mirroring the donkey pair.

What the text says

The verse opens with the object-marked phrase u-le-Avram ("and to Abram"), placing Abram before the verb heiTiv, which is a common Hebrew word-order variation for emphasis on the recipient. The verb itself carries no explicit subject pronoun or noun in this clause; the third-person masculine singular form relies on prior context to identify who acts. The causal clause ba'avuRah ("for her sake") uses the construct noun avuRah ("sake of," H5668) with the third-person feminine singular suffix, tying the benefit received to an unnamed "her."

The second half of the verse shifts to a narrative vav-consecutive construction, vayehi-lo ("and it came to be to him"), a common Hebrew idiom for acquisition or possession, followed by an asyndetic-then-conjoined list of seven noun categories: tzon ("sheep," H6629) and baqar ("cattle," H1241) appear without conjunction between them, while the remaining five items are joined by the conjunction u- ("and," H9002). The list shows a grammatical patterning of masculine and feminine plural nouns alternating in pairs (chamoRim/atoNot; avaDim/shefaChot), with gemaLim ("camels," H1581) closing the sequence.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew atoNot ("female donkeys," H0860) as ἡμίονοι ("mules"), differing from the Hebrew term for female donkeys. The Vulgate's asinae corresponds more directly to the Hebrew atoNot. The LXX and Vulgate both make explicit the subject of the "treating well" action by referencing Pharaoh, either implicitly through prior clauses or in surrounding context, where the Hebrew leaves the subject grammatically unstated within this verse alone.