Genesis 15:3

Summary

Abram tells God that despite the divine promises, he remains childless: no offspring (zera, H2233) has been given to him, and therefore a member of his household will inherit his estate. The verse uses two parallel interjections to frame the contrast between what has not happened and what is the current situation.

Key words

• hen ("here!", H2005) — interjection opening the first clause, drawing attention to the lack of offspring.
• natatah ("you have given", H5414G) — qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular; the perfect aspect marks this as a completed (non-)action up to the moment of speaking — "you have not given" as an accomplished state, not a single past event.
• zara ("offspring", H2233H) — masculine singular noun, the object explicitly withheld.
• hinneh ("there!", H2009) — second interjection, parallel to hen, introducing the resulting reality.
• yoresh ("inheriting", H3423G) — qal participle, masculine singular; participles in Hebrew narrative typically denote an ongoing or characterizing action, here describing the household member as one who is (in process of, or by current status) inheriting Abram, rather than a future event.

What the text says

The verse is built as two balanced clauses, each opened by an interjection (hen / hinneh) that draws attention to a specific fact. The first clause states in the perfect tense that Abram has not been given offspring — the perfect verb natatah frames this as a settled, ongoing state rather than a one-time past occurrence. The second clause, introduced by hinneh, presents the consequence using a participle, yoresh, attached to ben-beiti ("the son of my household," a construct chain formed by ven + beiti, H1121A + H1004M). The participle grammatically signals an action in progress or a present characteristic — the household-born person is depicted as already functioning as heir, not merely destined to become one at a future point.

This grammatical choice (perfect + participle) creates a contrast in aspect: the negated perfect closes off the past regarding offspring, while the participle opens onto a present, ongoing reality regarding inheritance.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders yoresh with a future verb, hæres meus erit ("will be my heir"), and the BSB likewise translates it as "will be my heir" — both shifting the Hebrew participle's present/ongoing nuance into a future prediction. The LXX text as given shows σπέρμα repeated in sequence, which does not correspond to a single clear Hebrew equivalent and appears as a duplication in the transmitted Greek wording, differing from the single occurrence of zara in the Hebrew.