Genesis 12:3

Summary

Genesis 12:3 states that YHWH will bless those who bless the addressee (Abram) and curse the one who treats him with contempt, and that through him all the clans of the earth will experience blessing. The verse closes the divine speech that begins in 12:1-3 with a series of promises.

Key words

• 'a.va.ra.Khah ("let me bless", H1288) — piel form of the root ברך, expressing an intensive or emphatic blessing action, first person.
• me.Va.re.Khei.kha ("those who bless you", H1288) — piel participle, masculine plural, construct with the suffix -kha ("you"): grammatically it designates a class of people ("blessers of you"), not a single act.
• me.ka.lel.Cha ("the one who disdains you", H7043) — piel participle, masculine singular, from the root קלל (distinct from ברך). The singular number contrasts with the plural participle of blessing.
• 'a.'Or ("I will curse", H0779) — qal imperfect, from the root ארר, a different root from H7043 used in the previous clause for "the one who disdains."
• niv.re.Khu ("they will be blessed", H1288) — niphal perfect (sequential/vav-consecutive), passive or reflexive voice of ברך, third person plural, referring back to "all the clans."

What the text says

The clause structure pairs two participles — mevarekheikha ("those who bless you," plural) and meqallelkha ("the one who treats you with contempt," singular) — each governed by a first-person verb of response: 'avarakhah ("let me bless") answers the plural blessers, and 'a'or ("I will curse") answers the singular offender. The Hebrew text uses two different roots for "curse": קלל (H7043, "to treat lightly/with contempt") for the participle describing the person, and ארר (H0779, "to bind with a curse") for YHWH's own action. This distinction is not reproduced in the word-by-word gloss "curse" for both, but the Strong numbers show they are separate lexemes.

The closing clause shifts to nivrekhu, a niphal perfect functioning here as a sequential form ("and they will be blessed" or "and they will bless themselves") governing kol mishpechot ha'adamah ("all the clans of the earth," H4940 + H0127I). The niphal stem in Hebrew can carry either a passive sense (blessing coming from outside) or a reflexive/reciprocal sense (clans blessing themselves or one another using the addressee's name as a formula); the consonantal form does not resolve this by itself.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders both Hebrew curse-roots (קלל and ארר) with a single Greek verb family (καταρωμένους / καταράσομαι, both from καταράομαι), collapsing the distinction visible in the Hebrew text between "treating with contempt" (H7043) and "binding with a curse" (H0779). The Vulgate likewise uses one root, maledicere, for both. The niphal nivrekhu is rendered as passive in the LXX (εὐλογηθήσονται, "will be blessed") and in the Vulgate (benedicentur), following the passive reading of the Hebrew niphal rather than a reflexive one.