Genesis 14:19

Summary

This verse records Melchizedek's blessing of Abram, pronounced in direct speech. It identifies the deity invoked as El Elyon ("God Most High", H0410J/H5945H), described as the one who possesses or creates heaven and earth.

Key words

• va-y'varekhehu ("and he blessed him", H1288) — piel verb with narrative vav and pronominal suffix "him"; the piel stem intensifies the action of blessing, and the narrative form situates it as a discrete event following the prior clause.
• barukh ("blessed", H1288) — qal passive participle, masculine singular; unlike the finite verb in word 2, this is a participial adjective describing Abram's state as one who is blessed, not an ongoing action.
• El Elyon ("God Most High", H0410J + H5945H) — noun plus adjective, both masculine singular; Elyon modifies El to specify a particular epithet for the deity.
• qoneh ("creator/possessor of", H7069) — qal participle, masculine singular, in construct state; construct form binds it grammatically to shamayim ("heaven", H8064), producing "one who creates/possesses heaven."
• shamayim va-aretz ("heaven and earth", H8064 + H0776G) — noun pair joined by conjunction va (H9002); shamayim is plural in form, aretz is feminine singular, together forming a merism for the totality of creation.

What the text says

The verse opens with two narrative verbs in sequence — va-y'varekhehu ("and he blessed him", H1288) and va-yomar ("and he said", H0559) — both qal/piel forms with the narrative vav that Hebrew uses to advance a storyline action by action. The first verb reports the act of blessing; the second introduces the content of that blessing as direct speech.

The blessing itself begins with barukh ("blessed", H1288), a passive participle rather than a finite verb, which functions here as a predicate adjective applied to Abram ("Abram", H0087): Abram is described as being in a blessed state, without a finite tense component. The agent or source of this blessed state is marked by the preposition le ("by", H9005) attached to El Elyon ("God Most High", H0410J + H5945H), a compound divine title combining a general noun for deity with an adjective of superiority.

The final phrase, qoneh shamayim va-aretz ("creator of heaven and earth", H7069 + H8064 + H0776G), uses a participle in construct state to link the divine epithet directly to a description of that deity's relationship to the cosmos. The construct chain qoneh shamayim ("creator of heaven") is extended by the conjunction va ("and", H9002) to include aretz ("earth", H0776G), forming a fixed two-part expression covering the totality of created space.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew participle qoneh (H7069) can denote either "creator" or "possessor/owner." The LXX renders this with ὃς ἔκτισεν ("who created"), a finite relative clause rather than a participle, and the Vulgate similarly uses qui creavit ("who created"), also a finite verb. Both Greek and Latin versions thus resolve the participle toward the "creator" sense and restructure it as a relative clause rather than a construct-state noun phrase as in the Hebrew. The Spanish RV1909 reflects the alternative sense with "poseedor" ("possessor"), while BSB and SBLIBRE follow the "creator" reading.