Genesis 21:26
וַיֹּאמֶר אֲבִימֶלֶךְ לֹא יָדַעְתִּי מִי עָשָׂה אֶת־הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה וְגַם־אַתָּה לֹא־הִגַּדְתָּ לִּי וְגַם אָנֹכִי לֹא שָׁמַעְתִּי בִּלְתִּי הַיּֽוֹם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֲבִימֶ֔לֶךְ לֹ֣א יָדַ֔עְתִּי מִ֥י עָשָׂ֖ה אֶת־הַדָּבָ֣ר הַזֶּ֑ה וְגַם־אַתָּ֞ה לֹא־הִגַּ֣דְתָּ לִּ֗י וְגַ֧ם אָנֹכִ֛י לֹ֥א שָׁמַ֖עְתִּי בִּלְתִּ֥י הַיּֽוֹם׃
καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔγνων τίς ἐποίησεν τὸ πρᾶγμα τοῦτο· οὐδὲ σύ μοι , οὐδὲ ἐγὼ ἤκουσα ἀλλὰ σήμερον.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Responditque Abimelech: Nescivi quis fecerit hanc rem: sed et tu non indicasti mihi, et ego non audivi præter hodie.
Abimelec contestó: “No sé quién pudo haber hecho esto. Tú no me lo habías informado, y yo me vengo a enterar apenas hoy”.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y respondió Abimelech: No sé quién haya hecho esto, ni tampoco tú me lo hiciste saber, ni yo lo he oído hasta hoy.
Abimelech replied, “ I do not know who has done this. You did not tell me, so I have not heard about it until today.”
✦ What the text says
Summary
Abimelech responds to a complaint (implied from the prior verse) by denying knowledge of the act in question. He states he did not know who was responsible, that Abraham had not informed him, and that he himself only learned of it on the present day.
Key words
- yada'ti ("I know", H3045) — qal perfect, 1st person: a completed state of knowledge, negated by lo' ("not", H3808); expresses "I have not known / do not know."
- 'asah ("has he done", H6213A) — qal perfect, 3rd person masculine: describes the completed act itself, the object of Abimelech's ignorance.
- higgadta ("you told", H5046) — hiphil perfect, 2nd person masculine: a causative form, "you caused to be told / you declared," directed at Abraham.
- shama'ti ("I heard", H8085G) — qal perfect, 1st person: parallels yada'ti, reinforcing that Abimelech's lack of information is total until the moment of speaking.
- bilti ("except", H1115) — construct noun functioning as a restrictive particle, limiting the negated verb shama'ti to a single exception: hayyom ("the day", H3117G).
What the text says
The verse is built on three parallel clauses, each opening with a negation (lo', H3808) followed by a qal or hiphil perfect verb in first or second person: "I did not know" (lo' yada'ti), "you did not tell me" (lo' higgadta li), "I did not hear" (lo' shama'ti). This triple repetition of negated perfect verbs creates a rhetorical accumulation of denial, each clause reinforcing the previous one. The conjunction gam ("also", H1571) appears twice, at the start of the second and third clauses, linking them as parallel additions: "and also you," "and also I."
The final clause uses bilti ("except", H1115) with hayyom ("the day", H3117G) to create a restrictive construction: the negation "I have not heard" is qualified by a single exception, "except today." This construction places the moment of speech itself as the boundary of Abimelech's knowledge — everything before this day is covered by the negation, and the exception marks the present as the first time he learns of the matter.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the third clause with ἀλλὰ σήμερον ("but today"), using an adversative conjunction rather than a restrictive particle equivalent to bilti. The Vulgate uses præter hodie ("except today"), which stays closer to the restrictive sense of the Hebrew bilti. The LXX also omits an equivalent for the second occurrence of gam ("also") before ἐγὼ ("I"), rendering it simply as οὐδὲ ἐγὼ ("neither I"), where the Hebrew retains gam ("also", H1571) as a distinct additive marker.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.