Genesis 21:11

Summary

The verse states that "the matter" was displeasing to Abraham "exceedingly," using the idiom "in the eyes of" to express his subjective reaction, and specifies the cause as being "on account of his son" — without naming the son in the Hebrew text itself.

Key words

• yera ("it was displeasing", H7489A) — qal verb, narrative form (introduced by the vav that chains it to the previous events); the root here conveys something being "bad" or "evil" in a subjective, emotional sense rather than morally evil.
• davar ("matter", H1697I) — masculine singular noun with the definite article ha (H9009), meaning "the matter/word/thing" — a general term referring back to the situation just narrated.
• me'od ("exceedingly", H3966) — an intensifier that modifies the degree of displeasure, strengthening yera.
• 'einei ("[the] eyes of", H5869I) — feminine dual construct; together with the preposition be ("in", H9003) it forms the idiom "in the eyes of," expressing perception or judgment from someone's viewpoint, not literal sight.
• odot ("[the] causes of", H0182) — feminine plural construct, combined with 'al ("on", H5921A) to form the idiom "on account of," introducing the reason for the displeasure.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows a verb-first structure typical of narrative: va-yera ("and it was displeasing") opens the clause, followed by its subject ha-davar ("the matter"), then the intensifier me'od ("exceedingly"), then the phrase describing whose perspective is affected — be-'einei Avraham ("in the eyes of Abraham"). This idiom does not describe physical sight but frames Abraham's subjective reaction to the situation. The final phrase, 'al odot beno ("on account of his son"), uses a construct chain with the plural noun odot to express causation — literally something like "upon the causes of his son," a Hebrew idiom for "because of" or "concerning."

Notably, the Hebrew text refers to the son only as beno ("his son", H1121A + suffix H9023), without naming him. The identity of "his son" must be inferred from surrounding context in the chapter rather than from this verse itself.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds the proper name Ἰσμαήλ ("Ishmael") explicitly at the end of the verse, specifying the referent of "his son" where the Hebrew leaves it unnamed. The Vulgate ("Dure accepit hoc Abraham pro filio suo" — "Abraham took this harshly on behalf of his son") does not preserve the "in the eyes of" idiom, instead using the adverb "dure" ("harshly") with the verb "accepit" ("he took/received"), producing a different grammatical structure than the Hebrew's verb-subject-idiom construction.