Genesis 16:13

Summary

The verse narrates that Hagar gave a name to Yehovah after he spoke to her, calling him "a God of seeing" (or "the God who sees"). She then explains this naming with a statement about her own act of seeing, using a grammatically compact and debated phrase involving the words "after" and "seeing."

Key words

• tikra ("she called", H7121G) — qal narrative verb; the subject is Hagar (unnamed in the Hebrew of this verse), performing the naming act.
• dover ("spoke", H1696G) — qal participle with definite article ha- (H9009), functioning as a substantive: "the one speaking," identifying Yehovah by his prior action rather than by a separate title.
• El ro'i ("God of seeing", H0410G + H7210) — construct chain: El ("God," construct form) governs ro'i ("seeing," a noun). The construct links the two nouns as "God of seeing," i.e., a God characterized by the noun "seeing."
• acharei ("backs of", H0310A) — plural construct form of a term meaning "after" or "behind"; in construct it introduces the following participle as its governed noun.
• ro'i ("the one who sees", H7200G) — qal participle in construct form with a first-person suffix (H9030, "me"), meaning "the one seeing me."

What the text says

The verse divides into two parts joined by ki ("for", H3588A): the naming act itself, and Hagar's spoken justification for it. In the first part, the direct object of tikra is shem-Yehovah ("the name of Yehovah," H8034 construct + H3068G), further specified by the participial phrase ha-dover eleha ("the one speaking to her"). The content of the name follows without a copula in Hebrew: atah El ro'i — literally "you, God of seeing," the construct chain functioning as a predicate naming.

The second part reproduces Hagar's own words, introduced by amrah (H0559, qal perfect, "she said"). This clause is grammatically dense: the interrogative particle ha- (H9008) combines with gam ("also", H1571) and halom ("here", H1988), followed by the perfect verb ra'iti ("I have seen", H7200G) and the construct phrase acharei ro'i — literally "the backs/after of the one seeing me." The construct use of acharei with the participle ro'i (bearing the first-person suffix "me") produces a phrase that can be parsed as "after [the vision of] the one who sees me" or "the back parts of the one who sees me," depending on how the construct relationship and the interrogative force of ha- are resolved.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders acharei ro'i as "posteriora videntis me" ("the back parts of the one seeing me"), preserving the spatial sense of acharei ("after/behind," H0310A). The LXX instead uses ἐνώπιον ("before, in front of"), reversing this spatial orientation relative to the Hebrew and Vulgate. The SBLIBRE Spanish version departs further, rendering the clause as "¿Acaso he visto a Dios y sigo con vida?" ("Have I seen God and remained alive?"), which does not correspond word-for-word to the Hebrew construct chain acharei ro'i as presented in the word-by-word data.