Genesis 21:12

Summary

God speaks to Abraham, telling him not to be distressed over Ishmael and Hagar, and instructing him to heed Sarah's words, because the lineage that will bear Abraham's name as offspring will come through Isaac.

Key words

• yera' ("it be displeasing", H7489A) — qal jussive; expresses a negated wish/command ("let it not be evil/displeasing"), governed by al ("may not", H408), the standard negation for prohibitions with jussive verbs.
• be'eineikha — construct noun 'einei ("view/eyes", H5869I) in dual form with 2ms suffix kha ("your", H9021), literally "in your eyes," an idiom for subjective perception or judgment.
• shema' ("listen", H8085H) — qal imperative, a direct command to Abraham, contrasted grammatically with the preceding jussive prohibition.
• yikkare' ("it will be named", H7121H) — niphal (passive) imperfect; the passive voice removes the explicit agent of naming, focusing on the result rather than who names.
• zara' ("offspring", H2233H) — masculine singular noun, collective in sense despite singular form, referring to descendants as a group.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative verb vayomer ("he said", H559) introducing direct speech from Elohim ("God", H430G) to Avraham ("Abraham", H85). The first command uses a negated jussive, al-yera' be'eineikha — literally "let it not be evil/displeasing in your eyes" — an idiom describing Abraham's subjective reaction to the situation concerning hana'ar ("the lad", H5288) and amatekha ("your slave woman", H519), the latter in construct form linking her to Abraham via the suffix.

The second half shifts to a direct imperative, shema' beqolah ("listen to her voice", H8085H + H6963A), instructing Abraham to comply with whatever Sarah ("Sarah", H8283) tells him, introduced by the relative clause kol asher tomar ("all that she says", H3605 + H834A + H559). The clause explaining why closes with ki ("for", H3588A) introducing a causal statement: the passive verb yikkare' ("it will be named", H7121H) indicates that offspring, zara' (H2233H), will be reckoned or called through Yitzchak ("Isaac", H3327), marked by the preposition be ("in", H9003) attached to his name.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders al-yera' be'eineikha ("may it not be evil in your eyes") as Μὴ σκληρὸν ἴστω τὸ ῥῆμα ("let not the matter/word be harsh"), shifting the idiom from "eyes" (perception) to "word" (rhēma), a different image for the same sense of distress. The Vulgate's Non tibi videatur asperum ("let it not seem harsh to you") similarly abandons the "eyes" idiom in favor of "seem," closer to English/Spanish translations like BSB's "distressed" and SBLIBRE's "angusties," which also do not reflect the literal "eyes" wording of the Hebrew.