Genesis 17:22

Summary

The verse marks the end of the divine speech to Abraham (the preceding covenant discourse) and describes God's departure. Two sequential verbs report first the completion of the speaking and then God's ascent from Abraham's presence.

Key words

• va-y'khal ("and he finished", H3615G) — piel narrative form; the piel stem gives an intensive/completive nuance to "finish," and the narrative vav links this action as the next event in the sequence following the preceding speech.
• le-dabber ("to speak", H1696G) — piel infinitive construct, functioning as the complement of "finished," expressing the action that was brought to completion ("finished speaking").
• va-yaal ("and he went up", H5927G) — qal narrative form of the verb "to go up"; the simple (qal) stem presents the ascent as a plain, non-intensive action, continuing the narrative chain.
• Elohim ("God", H0430G) — grammatically plural noun, here the subject of the singular verb yaal, functioning as the proper name/designation for God in this clause.
• me-al ("from upon/from with", H9006 + H5921A) — compound preposition combining "from" and "upon/with," indicating separation from a position of proximity to Abraham.

What the text says

The verse contains two clauses joined by narrative vav-consecutive forms, a standard Biblical Hebrew construction for sequential past events. The first clause, va-y'khal le-dabber itto ("and he finished speaking with him"), uses the piel verb y'khal with an infinitive complement le-dabber, marking the closure of the preceding dialogue. The subject of "finished speaking" is not explicitly named in this verse but is understood from context as the speaker of the prior discourse; the pronominal suffix on itto ("with him") refers to the addressee, Abraham.

The second clause, va-yaal Elohim me-al Avraham ("and God went up from upon Abraham"), introduces Elohim explicitly as the subject of the ascent. The verb yaal is qal, a simple active form, contrasting with the piel intensive of the first verb. The compound preposition me-al — "from" plus "upon/with" — describes spatial separation from a position of closeness, rendered in the word-by-word gloss as "from with," indicating that God had been in a position over or with Abraham before departing.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew me-al ("from upon/with") is rendered by the LXX as apo ("from"), a simpler preposition that does not preserve the "upon" component present in the Hebrew compound. The Vulgate's ascendit Deus ab Abraham ("God ascended from Abraham") similarly uses a single preposition ab ("from"), matching the LXX's simplification rather than the compound structure of the Hebrew me-al.