Genesis 20:14
וַיִּקַּח אֲבִימֶלֶךְ צֹאן וּבָקָר וַעֲבָדִים וּשְׁפָחֹת וַיִּתֵּן לְאַבְרָהָם וַיָּשֶׁב לוֹ אֵת שָׂרָה אִשְׁתּֽוֹ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּקַּ֨ח אֲבִימֶ֜לֶךְ צֹ֣אן וּבָקָ֗ר וַעֲבָדִים֙ וּשְׁפָחֹ֔ת וַיִּתֵּ֖ן לְאַבְרָהָ֑ם וַיָּ֣שֶׁב ל֔וֹ אֵ֖ת שָׂרָ֥ה אִשְׁתּֽוֹ׃
ἔλαβεν δὲ ία δίδραχμα, πρόβατα καὶ μόσχους καὶ παῖδας καὶ παιδίσκας, καὶ ἔδωκεν τῷ Ἀβράμ· καὶ ἀπέδωκεν αὐτῷ Σάρραν τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Tulit igitur Abimelech oves et boves, et servos et ancillas, et dedit Abraham: reddiditque illi Saram uxorem suam,
Entonces Abimelec tomó ovejas y vacas, esclavos y esclavas, y se los regaló a Abraham; además, le devolvió a su esposa Sara.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Entonces Abimelech tomó ovejas y vacas, y siervos y siervas, y diólo á Abraham, y devolvióle á Sara su mujer.
So Abimelech brought sheep and cattle, menservants and maidservants, and he gave them to Abraham and restored his wife Sarah to him.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Genesis 20:14 narrates that Abimelech took livestock and servants and gave them to Abraham, and then returned Sarah, described as Abraham's wife, to him. The verse contains two sequential actions connected by narrative verb forms.
Key words
- yi.Kach ("he took", H3947G) — qal narrative form of the verb "to take"; the narrative vav prefix marks this as the first sequential action of the verse.
- tzon ("sheep", H6629G) and va.Kar ("cattle", H1241) — common gender singular nouns naming the livestock Abimelech takes; both function as collective terms rather than plural counts.
- 'a.va.Dim ("[male] servants", H5650) and she.fa.Chot ("female servants", H8198) — masculine and feminine plural nouns respectively, forming a paired list of human household staff alongside the animals.
- i.Ya.shev ("he restored", H7725G) — hiphil (causative) narrative form of the root meaning "to return"; the causative stem indicates Abimelech causes Sarah to go back, distinguishing this action from the simple "giving" (yi.Ten) of the livestock and servants.
- 'ish.T...o ("his wife", H0802H construct + suffix) — feminine singular noun in construct form with a pronominal suffix, identifying Sarah's relationship to Abraham as the direct object of the restoring.
What the text says
The verse is built as a chain of three narrative actions, each introduced by the vav-consecutive prefix on a qal or hiphil verb: yi.Kach ("he took"), yi.Ten ("he gave"), and i.Ya.shev ("he restored"). This sequence structures the verse as: Abimelech takes the goods → gives them to Abraham → returns Sarah to him. The livestock and servants (tzon, va.Kar, 'a.va.Dim, she.fa.Chot) are grouped as one list connected by the conjunction va ("and", H9002) before each item, forming a single object of the verbs "took" and "gave."
The final clause is grammatically distinct: it uses the hiphil stem i.Ya.shev rather than repeating yi.Ten ("he gave"), marking the return of Sarah as a causative action ("caused to go back") rather than a simple transfer. The direct object marker 'et (H0853, untranslated) precedes sa.Rah ("Sarah"), and she is further specified by 'ish.T...o ("his wife"), a construct-plus-suffix form meaning "wife of him," identifying the relationship explicitly within the object phrase.
Differences between versions
The LXX begins with "ἔλαβεν δὲ ία δίδραχμα" (Abimelech took... didrachms), a phrase not corresponding to any Hebrew word in this verse's word-by-word data; the Hebrew text lacks any term for coins or monetary units at this point. The Vulgate ("Tulit igitur Abimelech oves et boves...") and the Hebrew align closely in listing sheep, cattle, servants, and maidservants without a monetary reference.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.