Genesis 18:3

Summary

Genesis 18:3 records Abraham addressing a single figure ("my lord") with a polite conditional request: if he has found favor in that person's sight, he asks that this one not pass by without stopping at his servant's tent. The verse is built entirely as direct speech, framed by two clauses softened with the particle "please."

Key words

• 'adonai ("Lord/my lord", H0113) — singular construct noun + 1st person suffix ("my"). The consonantal-vocalic form matches the divine title, though grammatically it functions here as "my lord," addressed to one entity, matching the singular verb yomar ("he said").
• matzati ("I have found", H4672) — qal perfect, 1st person, expressing a completed action: "I have found" rather than an ongoing search.
• chen ("favor", H2580) — masculine singular noun, object of the idiom "to find favor in the eyes of."
• na' ("please", H4994) — appears twice (lines 6 and 13), an interjection of politeness attached first to the conditional 'im ("if") and then to the negated verb ta'avor ("you pass by"), marking the whole speech as a courteous entreaty.
• ta'avor ("you pass by", H5674A) — qal jussive, 2nd person masculine, expressing a wish/request rather than a flat statement ("may you not pass by").

What the text says

The sentence divides into two balanced clauses. The first, 'im-na' matzati chen be'eineikha ("if please I have found favor in your eyes"), uses the perfect matzati to present the finding of favor as an accomplished fact, while na' softens the conditional into a polite request rather than a genuine doubt. The second clause, 'al-na' ta'avor me'al 'avdekha ("please do not pass from upon your servant"), repeats na' with the negated jussive ta'avor, producing a formal request rather than a command. The verb ta'avor is followed by the compound preposition me'al ("from upon"), literally describing movement away from a position over/near the servant, which the glosses render as "pass by."

The subject addressed throughout is singular: the narrative verb yomar ("he said") introduces the speech, and the vocative 'adonai together with the singular suffixes on 'eineikha ("your eyes") and 'avdekha ("your servant") consistently point to one addressee.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'adonai as Kyrie ("Lord," vocative singular) and translates the second clause simply as mē parelthēis ("do not pass by"), without a separate word for the double Hebrew na'. The Vulgate similarly gives Domine and ne transeas servum tuum ("do not pass by your servant"), collapsing the two occurrences of na' into the single politeness marker implied by the imperative construction. The Hebrew's repeated na' — marking both the conditional and the prohibition as polite requests — is not distinctly represented in either the Greek or Latin renderings.