Genesis 22:11

Summary

The verse narrates the intervention of "the messenger of Yehovah" (mal'akh Yehovah, H4397/H3068), who calls out to Abraham from the heavens, repeating his name twice, and receives from him the reply "here I am."

Key words

• va-yiqra ("and he called", H7121) — qal verb with narrative vav, marking the next event in the story's sequence; the subject is the messenger introduced in the following word.
• mal'akh ("messenger/angel of", H4397) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be bound to the following name (Yehovah) to form "messenger of Yehovah."
• ha-shamayim ("the heavens", H8064) — masculine plural noun with definite article, preceded by min ("from", H4480), indicating the spatial origin of the call.
• Avraham Avraham ("Abraham, Abraham", H0085) — the proper name repeated twice without connecting particle, both instances identical in form.
• hinneni ("here I am", H2009 + H9040) — interjection hinneh with the first-person suffix "I/me" attached, functioning as a single-word reply.

What the text says

The verse is built on three consecutive narrative clauses, each introduced by the vav that chains one action to the next: "and he called," "and he said," "and he said" again. This structure creates a rapid back-and-forth: the messenger calls (va-yiqra), then speaks the name (va-yomer... Avraham Avraham), and Abraham answers with a third va-yomer introducing his own single-word reply, hinneni.

The subject of the first verb, mal'akh Yehovah ("messenger of Yehovah"), is expressed through a construct chain: mal'akh ("messenger of", H4397) is grammatically bound to Yehovah (H3068), so the two nouns function as one unit, "messenger of Yehovah," rather than as two separate entities. The location of the call is marked by min ha-shamayim ("from the heavens", H4480 + H8064), with the preposition min indicating source or point of origin.

The double vocative Avraham Avraham has no conjunction between the two occurrences of the name in the Hebrew — it is simply the name stated twice in immediate succession. Abraham's answer, hinneni (H2009 + H9040), combines the presentative particle hinneh ("behold" or "here") with a first-person pronominal suffix, producing a single word that functions as a complete response — "here [am] I."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the double vocative as Ἀβραὰμ Ἀβραάμ, matching the Hebrew repetition, and translates hinneni with ἰδοὺ ἐγώ ("behold, I"), a two-word phrase corresponding to the single Hebrew word with its attached suffix. The Vulgate renders hinneni as the single Latin word "Adsum" ("I am present"), which, like the Hebrew, compresses the meaning into one word but uses a different verbal root (presence) rather than the presentative-plus-pronoun structure of the Hebrew.