Genesis 16:12

Summary

Genesis 16:12 is part of the divine oracle concerning Ishmael, describing his character and social position. The verse uses an animal metaphor and a chiastic structure about hands to describe conflict, then states he will dwell "before the face" of his brothers.

Key words

• pere ("wild donkey of", H6501) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linked to adam to form the phrase "a wild donkey of a man," a construct chain producing a metaphorical description rather than two separate nouns.
• adam ("a man", H0120G) — absolute noun completing the construct pair with pere; together they characterize the subject's nature.
• yado ("his hand", H3027G + H9023) — construct noun yad with 3ms possessive suffix, forming half of a mirrored pair with yad kol ("hand of everyone") in the next clause.
• kol ("everyone/all", H3605) — appears twice, first as object of the preposition ba- ("in/against the," H9003) and second as construct head of "hand of all," reinforcing the reciprocal opposition.
• yishkon ("he will dwell", H7931) — qal imperfect, denoting future/ongoing dwelling; the verb itself indicates residence, not conflict.

What the text says

The verse opens with the independent pronoun Hu' ("he", H1931) followed by yihyeh ("he will be", H1961), a qal imperfect verb of the root H1961, setting up a predicate nominative: "he will be [a] pere adam." This construct phrase, "wild donkey of a man," functions as a single metaphorical unit — the noun pere ("wild donkey", H6501) modifies adam ("man", H0120G) by construct relation, producing an image rather than a literal donkey.

The next clause builds a balanced structure: yado bakkol ("his hand [will be] in/against everyone") mirrored by ve-yad kol bo ("and the hand of everyone [will be] against him"). Both halves use the construct noun yad ("hand", H3027G) with the preposition ba- ("in/against", H9003) attached to kol ("everyone", H3605), and no explicit verb appears in Hebrew — the verb "to be" is implied, carried over from yihyeh earlier in the verse.

The final clause states ve-al-penei khol-echav yishkon — "and upon the face of all his brothers he will dwell." The verb yishkon (H7931) is a straightforward qal imperfect of "to dwell," without any component meaning "hostility" or "conflict" in the Hebrew root itself.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders pere adam as ágroikos ánthrōpos ("rustic/wild man"), omitting the donkey imagery present in the Hebrew pere (H6501). The Vulgate similarly gives ferus homo ("wild man"), also without the donkey metaphor. Both LXX and Vulgate preserve the "hand against/hand against him" structure closely. For the final verb, the Hebrew yishkon ("he will dwell", H7931) is rendered by the Vulgate as figet tabernacula ("he will pitch tents") and by the LXX as katoikēsei ("he will dwell"), both closer to the literal dwelling sense; the BSB's "he will live in hostility toward all his brothers" adds an interpretive nuance of conflict not present in the Hebrew verb yishkon itself.