Genesis 18:18

Summary

The verse states that Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation, and that through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. The Hebrew construction emphasizes certainty about Abraham's future status and the resulting blessing extending to all nations.

Key words

• haYo ("certainly to become", H1961) — infinitive absolute paired with the finite verb to intensify certainty; literally "becoming, he will become."
• yihYeh ("he will become", H1961) — qal imperfect, expressing future/ongoing action; together with the infinitive absolute it forms an emphatic construction often rendered "will surely become."
• goy ("a nation", H1471A) — singular noun marking Abraham's collective future identity as a people.
• nivrekhu ("they will be blessed", H1288) — niphal (passive/reflexive) sequential perfect; the niphal stem indicates the nations receive blessing rather than perform an action themselves; the sequential perfect continues the narrative logic from the preceding clause.
• kol goyei ha'aretz ("all the nations of the earth", H3605 + H1471A + H0776G) — construct chain where kol ("all") governs goyei ("nations of"), itself in construct with ha'aretz ("the earth"), producing a totalizing scope.

What the text says

The clause opens with ve'Avraham ("and Abraham"), placing Abraham as the topic before the verb, which in Hebrew syntax often signals emphasis or contrast with a preceding statement. The verbal pairing haYo yihYeh — infinitive absolute followed by the same root in imperfect — is a common Hebrew intensifying device that has no exact one-word English equivalent; it underscores certainty rather than mere possibility, which translations render as "will surely become" or "will certainly be."

The second half of the verse shifts grammatical voice: nivrekhu, a niphal form of the root brk ("to bless", H1288), places the nations in the passive role of being blessed rather than acting themselves. This is joined to the first clause by a narrative vav, which in Hebrew prose typically marks sequential or consequential action — here linking Abraham's becoming a great nation to the subsequent blessing of "all the nations of the earth." The phrase kol goyei ha'aretz uses a double construct chain (kol + goyei + ha'aretz) to express totality: not just nations, but literally "all the nations of the earth," maximizing the scope of those affected.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew nivrekhu ("they will be blessed", passive) with ἐνευλογηθήσονται ("they will be blessed"), preserving the passive sense. The Vulgate uses benedicendae sint ("are to be blessed"), a passive periphrastic construction that also maintains the passive voice but frames it with a sense of obligation or futurity ("are to be"). The BSB and SBLIBRE both render the emphatic Hebrew verb pair as "will surely become" or "de Abraham saldrá" ("from Abraham will come forth"), the latter shifting from the Hebrew's "becoming" language to an idiom of origination not explicit in the Hebrew verb hayah ("to be/become", H1961).