Genesis 22:10

Summary

Genesis 22:10 narrates two sequential actions by Abraham: he stretches out his hand, then takes the knife, with the stated purpose of slaughtering his son. The verse uses a chain of narrative verb forms typical of Biblical Hebrew storytelling to mark the rapid succession of events.

Key words

• va-yishlach ("he stretched out", H7971K) — qal narrative form, indicating a completed action linked sequentially to what precedes ("and then he stretched out").
• yad-o ("his hand", H3027G + H9023) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, literally "hand-of-him," forming a single possessive unit.
• va-yiqqach ("he took", H3947G) — second narrative qal verb, continuing the chain begun by va-yishlach, marking the next discrete action.
• ha-ma'akhelet ("the knife", H3979) — feminine singular noun with definite article, specifying a particular, already-known implement.
• li-shchot ("to slaughter", H7819A) — qal infinitive with prefixed preposition li (H9005), expressing purpose or intended result of the preceding action.

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative verbs joined by the vav-consecutive construction: va-yishlach ("and he stretched out") and va-yiqqach ("and he took"). Both share Abraham as subject, though the subject 'Avraham (H0085) is stated explicitly only once, after the first verb, and understood for the second. This construction is standard in Hebrew narrative prose, where the vav (H9001) chains successive completed actions rather than marking simple conjunction as in English "and."

The object of the first verb is yad-o ("his hand"), a construct-plus-suffix phrase functioning as a single noun phrase marked by the direct object marker 'et (H0853). The object of the second verb, ha-ma'akhelet ("the knife"), carries the definite article, presupposing that the knife was already introduced or expected in the narrative context. The final clause, introduced by the infinitive li-shchot ("to slaughter") with the preposition li (H9005), expresses the purpose of taking the knife — the infinitive construction in Hebrew does not carry tense on its own but depends on the finite verb before it. The object of this infinitive is ben-o ("his son"), again a construct-plus-suffix phrase, marked by 'et.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the sequence with an infinitive construction (λαβεῖν, "to take") linking the stretching of the hand directly to the purpose of taking the knife, differing structurally from the Hebrew's two independent narrative verbs (va-yishlach / va-yiqqach). The Vulgate similarly uses two finite verbs (extendit... et arripuit) followed by a purpose clause (ut immolaret), which more closely mirrors the two-verb-plus-purpose structure of the Hebrew than the LXX's single infinitival chain.