Genesis 17:5

Summary

God declares that Abram's name will no longer be used, and that he will instead be called Abraham, giving as reason that he has been made "a father of a multitude of nations." The verse contains a wordplay linking the new name to the phrase describing his destiny.

Key words

• yikkare ("it will be called", H7121H) — niphal imperfect, passive voice: the name-calling happens to Abram, no explicit agent named in the Hebrew clause.
• shimkha ("your name", H8034 + H9021) — noun in construct form with pronominal suffix, appears twice (vv. 5a, 5b), structurally binding the old and new names to the same referent.
• ki ("for/that", H3588A) — subordinating particle introducing the reason clause; marks the shift from the naming statement to its justification.
• av-hamon goyim ("father of a multitude of nations", H0001G + H1995A + H1471A) — a chain of three nouns in construct state, each depending on the next, producing a single compact phrase "father-of-multitude-of-nations."
• netatikha ("I have made you", H5414I) — qal perfect with 1st person subject and 2nd person object suffix, expressing a completed act on God's part with Abram/Abraham as direct recipient.

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel clauses joined by a narrative ve- (H9001): the negative statement that Abram will no longer be called by that name (ve-lo-yikkare... et-shimkha Avram, H9002+H3808+H7121H) and the positive sequential clause that his name will become Abraham (ve-hayah shimkha Avraham, H1961). The niphal form of yikkare keeps the grammatical focus on the name itself as the passive subject of the action, rather than stating outright who does the calling. The causal clause introduced by ki (H3588A) explains the new name through the construct chain av-hamon goyim — literally "father of a multitude of nations" — which phonetically anticipates the sounds of the new name Avraham (H0085), since the added syllable in the name echoes hamon (H1995A, "multitude"). The final verb netatikha (H5414I) is a qal perfect, presenting God's action as already accomplished rather than as a future promise, which sets the naming as consequence rather than mere prediction.

Differences between versions

The LXX introduces an adversative conjunction, "ἀλλ'" ("but"), where the Hebrew ve- (H9001) is a simple narrative connector, sharpening the contrast between the old and new names more than the Hebrew syntax requires. The Vulgate shifts the grammatical subject in the second clause: instead of "your name will be Abraham" it reads "appellaberis Abraham" ("you will be called Abraham"), moving the passive verb from the name to the person, a variation not present in either the Hebrew or the LXX phrasing.