Genesis 12:9

Summary

The verse narrates Abram's departure using a Hebrew construction that doubles the verb "to journey" to intensify the sense of continuous movement. The text states that Abram traveled progressively toward the Negev, the southern region.

Key words

• yissa ("he journeyed", H5265) — qal narrative verb, the finite form that opens the sequence of action.
• halokh ("going", H1980L) — infinitive absolute of halakh, placed before the finite verb pattern to reinforce continuity of motion.
• naso'a ("journeying", H5265) — infinitive absolute of the same root as yissa, paired with halokh to form a doubled expression of ongoing travel.
• ha-Negbah ("toward the Negev", H5045G + H9011) — the place name Negev with the directional he suffix (H9011), indicating movement "toward" that location rather than static presence there.

What the text says

The clause opens with the finite verb yissa ("he journeyed", H5265), establishing Abram as the subject and setting the narrative in motion. What follows — halokh ("going", H1980L) and naso'a ("journeying", H5265) — are both infinitive absolutes, a Hebrew grammatical device that does not add new information about the destination but modifies the aspect of the action itself. Placed together, this pairing of infinitives (from two different roots, halakh and nasa) intensifies the verb, conveying a sense of gradual, continuous, or repeated travel — something like "journeying on by stages" rather than a single discrete movement. Standard prose translations render this idea as "journeyed on" or "continued his journey," since English lacks a direct equivalent for the doubled infinitive absolute construction.

The final word, ha-Negbah ("toward the Negev", H5045G+H9011), combines the definite article ha (H9009) with the place name Negev (H5045G) and the directional he (H9011), a suffix that indicates motion toward a location. This confirms that Abram's progressive journeying was directed southward.

Differences between versions

The LXX diverges significantly from the Hebrew: it reads ἀπῆρεν Ἀβρὰμ ἐστρατοπέδευσεν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ("Abram departed and encamped in the wilderness/desert"), omitting any reference to the Negev and replacing the doubled-infinitive sense of continuous travel with a single verb of encampment. The Vulgate, "Perrexitque Abram vadens, et ultra progrediens ad meridiem" ("Abram proceeded, going and advancing further toward the south"), preserves the Hebrew's doubled motion by using two participial forms (vadens, progrediens) and renders ha-Negbah as ad meridiem ("toward the south"), closer to the Hebrew sense of directional movement than the LXX's "wilderness."