Genesis 17:8

Summary

Genesis 17:8 records a divine promise to give Abraham and his descendants the land of Canaan as a permanent possession, coupled with a declaration that God will be their God. The verse uses two sequential perfect verbs to mark two connected future actions.

Key words

• na.ta.Ti ("I will give", H5414G) — qal sequential perfect, 1st person singular; continues the narrative sequence begun earlier in the chapter, indicating a future act following prior statements.
• zar.'a.kha ("your offspring", H2233H) — masculine singular noun in construct with the suffix -kha ("your"); singular in form though it refers to descendants collectively.
• me.gu.Rei.kha ("your sojournings", H4033) — masculine plural noun in construct, from a root associated with temporary dwelling; modifies 'E.retz ("land of", H0776G) to produce "the land of your sojournings."
• 'a.chu.Zat ("a possession of", H0272) — feminine singular noun in construct with o.Lam ("perpetuity", H5769G), forming the phrase "a possession of perpetuity."
• ha.Yi.ti ("I will become", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, 1st person singular, paired with na.ta.Ti to form the second half of the promise; followed by le- + lo.Him ("God", H0430G), literally "for/into God."

What the text says

The verse divides into two clauses joined by the narrative ve- ("and", H9001). The first clause centers on na.ta.Ti ("I will give", H5414G), whose object is marked twice by the untranslated direct object marker 'et (H0853): first 'E.retz me.gu.Rei.kha ("the land of your sojournings") and second kol-'E.retz Ke.na.'an ("all the land of Canaan"). The repetition of the object marker with an appositional restatement clarifies that "the land of your sojournings" and "all the land of Canaan" refer to the same territory, the second phrase specifying the first. The recipients are marked by the construct chain le-kha... u-le-zar.'a.kha 'a.cha.Rei.kha ("to you... and to your offspring after you"), where zar.'a (H2233H) is grammatically singular but functions to denote a lineage extending beyond Abraham himself, as reinforced by 'a.cha.Rei.kha ("after you").

The phrase la-'a.chu.Zat o.Lam ("for a possession of perpetuity") uses two nouns in construct, so the land is defined as belonging to a category of permanent holding rather than temporary residence — a grammatical contrast with me.gu.Rei.kha ("your sojournings"), which denotes non-permanent dwelling. The second clause pairs ha.Yi.ti ("I will become", H1961) with the double preposition-plus-noun construction la-hem le-lo.Him ("for them, for God"), a Hebrew idiom in which the doubled le- prefix marks a predicate relationship ("I will become to them as God") rather than simple possession.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders me.gu.Rei.kha ("your sojournings", H4033) as ἣν παροικεῖς ("which you sojourn in" or "reside in"), a relative clause rather than a construct noun phrase, and translates 'a.chu.Zat o.Lam with a doubled term, κατάσχεσιν εἰς κατάσχεσιν αἰώνιον ("possession, for a possession eternal"), differing structurally from the single Hebrew construct chain. The Vulgate's terram peregrinationis tuæ ("land of your pilgrimage") mirrors the Hebrew construct sense of me.gu.Rei.kha more closely than the LXX's relative clause. Modern Spanish (SBLIBRE) reorders the verse, placing "in eternal possession" earlier and rendering me.gu.Rei.kha as "where you now live as foreigners," an interpretive expansion not present as a separate clause in the Hebrew syntax.