Genesis 22:13

Summary

Abraham raises his eyes and sees a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. He goes, takes the ram, and offers it as a burnt offering in the place of his son.

Key words

• va-yiSa ("he lifted up", H5375M) — qal narrative form; with einav ("his eyes") it forms the idiom "he lifted his eyes," meaning he looked up.
• einav ("eyes", H5869A) — dual noun in construct with the suffix "his," reflecting the paired body part.
• ne'echaz ("it was caught", H0270) — niphal perfect: a passive/stative form indicating the ram is found already trapped, not that Abraham traps it.
• ayil ("ram", H0352A) — masculine singular noun; appears once without the article (introducing the animal) and later with the article ha-ayil ("the ram," word 26), referring back to it.
• tachat beno ("in place of his son", H8478H + H1121A) — construct chain: tachat ("in place of") governs ben ("son") with the suffix "his," expressing substitution.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of five narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs — va-yiSa ("he lifted"), va-yar ("he saw," word 8), va-yelekh ("he went," word 20), va-yiqqach ("he took," word 23), and va-ya'ale ("he offered up," word 28) — each marked by the narrative vav (H9001) that moves the action forward step by step: looking, seeing, going, taking, offering. This chain gives the verse a rapid, sequential rhythm typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative.

The description of the ram uses the niphal verb ne'echaz ("it was caught," H0270), a passive form that presents the animal as already ensnared bassevakh be-qarnav ("in the thicket by its horns") before Abraham arrives — the text does not say Abraham catches it. The final clause, ya'alehu le-olah tachat beno ("he offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son"), uses the hiphil verb ya'ale (H5927I, causative "he caused to go up") for the act of offering, and the construct phrase tachat beno (H8478H + H1121A) to mark substitution — "son" here appears without a proper name in the Hebrew.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds a numeral, rendering ayil as "κριὸς εἷς" ("one ram"), a quantifier not present in the Hebrew. For ba-sevakh ("in the thicket," H5442), the LXX transliterates the Hebrew word as "σαβέκ" ("in the plant sabek") rather than translating it, while the Vulgate translates it as "vepres" ("brambles/briars"). Most notably, where the Hebrew and Vulgate say only "in place of his son" (tachat beno / "pro filio"), the LXX specifies "ἀντὶ Ἰσαὰκ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ" ("in place of Isaac his son"), inserting the proper name that the Hebrew clause does not contain at this point.