Genesis 21:33

Summary

The verse reports two actions of the unnamed male subject (contextually Abraham) at Beer Sheba: planting a tamarisk tree, and invoking the name of Yehovah there under the epithet "El of perpetuity." The sentence closes the Abimelech narrative with a cultic act tied to a specific place-name.

Key words

• 'Eshel ("a tamarisk tree", H0815) — singular masculine noun, the object planted; a specific tree species named without article.
• va-yiqra ("and he called", H7121H) — qal narrative verb continuing the narrative chain begun by va-yitta' ("and he planted"), marking sequential action.
• shem ("[the] name of", H8034) — construct noun ("name of..."), linking to Yehovah as what is invoked; the construct chain expresses "the name belonging to Yehovah."
• 'El ("[the] God of", H0410G) — construct noun, forming a bound phrase with the following word rather than standing as an independent title.
• 'olam ("perpetuity", H5769H) — abstract noun completing the construct chain "El of perpetuity," i.e., a genitive relation rather than an adjective.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built from two coordinated narrative clauses joined by the vav-consecutive: va-yitta' 'eshel ("and he planted a tamarisk") and va-yiqra... be-shem Yehovah ("and he called... on the name of Yehovah"). Neither clause contains an explicit subject noun in the words given; the 3rd-person masculine singular verb forms carry the subject, which must be recovered from the surrounding narrative (the referent is not lexically present in this verse's word list). The location is given by the preposition be ("in") attached to the place name Be'er Shava' ("Beer Sheba").

The final phrase, 'El 'olam, is grammatically a construct chain: 'El ("God of", construct form) governs 'olam ("perpetuity"), producing a genitive relation — "God of perpetuity/eternity" — rather than a noun modified by an adjective. This construct structure is a nuance not always visible in translations that render it as "the Eternal God," which reads as noun + adjective instead of noun + noun in construct.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew lacks an explicit subject noun in this verse; the LXX, Vulgate, and modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) all supply "Abraham" explicitly as the one who plants and calls. The LXX renders 'eshel ("tamarisk tree", H0815) as ἄρουραν ("arable field/land"), differing from the Hebrew botanical term. The LXX also translates the place-name Be'er Shava' descriptively as "the well of the oath" (τῷ φρέατι τοῦ ὄρκου) rather than transliterating it as a proper name, unlike the Vulgate's "Bersabee" and the Hebrew's proper noun. Finally, the construct phrase 'El 'olam ("God of perpetuity") appears in the LXX and Vulgate as an adjectival construction, "Θεὸς αἰώνιος" / "Domini Dei æterni" ("eternal God"), differing grammatically from the Hebrew's noun-noun construct chain.