Genesis 13:14

Summary

Yehovah speaks to Abram after Lot has separated from him, instructing Abram to lift his eyes and look from his current location toward the four cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west.

Key words

• hipaRed ("separated", H6504) — niphal infinitive construct; the niphal stem marks the action as passive or reflexive, so Lot is presented as the one who "was separated" or "separated himself," rather than Abram performing an action upon him.
• sa' ("lift up", H5375) — qal imperative, masculine singular; a direct command addressed to Abram, paired with na' ("please", H4994), an interjection that softens the imperative into a request or invitation.
• 'einei-kha ("your eyes", H5869) — feminine dual construct noun with 2ms suffix; the dual form reflects that "eyes" are naturally paired, and the construct links it to the following possessive.
• tzaFonah ("north", H6828) with directional -ah (H9011) — the suffixed -ah is the "directional he," turning the noun "north" into "northward," indicating motion or orientation toward that direction rather than mere location.
• 'asher-'atah sham ("where you [are] there", H0834 + H0859 + H8033) — relative particle plus independent pronoun plus adverb, forming a relative clause describing the place: "the place that you [are] there."

What the text says

The verse opens with va-Yehovah 'amar ("and Yehovah said"), a standard narrative construction using the qal perfect of 'amar ("to say", H0559) to introduce direct speech. The temporal clause 'acharei hipared-Lot me'immo ("after Lot separated from him") uses the preposition 'acharei ("after", H0310) governing the niphal infinitive hipared, which frames the divine speech as occurring specifically once the separation of Lot from Abram has been completed.

The core instruction to Abram consists of two imperatives in sequence: sa' na' 'einekha ("lift up, please, your eyes") and u-re'eh ("and look", H7200), both qal imperative forms. The object of looking is specified by min-ha-maqom 'asher-'atah sham ("from the place where you [are] there"), a prepositional phrase followed by a relative clause. The four directions — tzafonah, negbah, qedmah, yamah — each carry the directional -he suffix (H9011), a grammatical feature that expresses motion-toward or orientation-toward a location, distinguishing "northward" from a static noun "north." Each directional term is joined by the conjunction va- ("and", H9002), producing a rhythmic list of four paired directions rather than a single continuous phrase.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Yehovah as ho theos ("God") rather than using a divine name equivalent, differing from the Hebrew Yehovah (H3068) and the Vulgate's Dominus ("Lord"). The LXX also renders the directional terms as prepositional phrases (pros borran, "toward north," etc.) using pros ("toward") rather than reproducing the Hebrew's suffixed directional -he construction, though the resulting sense of "toward" is similar.