Genesis 22:18

Summary

The verse closes God's oath to Abraham after the binding of Isaac, stating that all nations of the earth will find blessing through Abraham's offspring, as a consequence of Abraham's obedience. The sentence structures a causal link between the patriarch's action and a universal outcome.

Key words

• hitbarakhu ("they will bless themselves", H1288) — hithpael perfect, third person plural; the hithpael stem typically marks reflexive or reciprocal action, distinct from a straightforward passive.
• zar'a-kha ("your offspring", H2233H + H9021) — masculine singular noun in construct with a second-person suffix; grammatically singular though it refers collectively to descendants.
• kol goyei ha-aretz ("all nations of the earth", H3605 + H1471A + H9009 + H0776G) — a construct chain (kol construct + goyei construct + ha-aretz) meaning literally "all of the nations of the earth."
• 'ekev ("consequence", H6118) — construct noun functioning here as a causal connector, introducing the reason for the blessing.
• asher shama'ta ("that you have listened", H0834A + H8085H) — relative particle plus qal perfect, marking a completed act of obedience that grounds the promise.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative vav on hitbarakhu, linking this clause to the preceding oath sequence. The verb form is hithpael, a stem often used for reflexive or reciprocal senses ("bless themselves," "bless one another"), rather than a niphal passive form ("be blessed"). The grammatical data marks this as a sequential perfect continuing the flow of the divine speech, with "they" (the nations) as the implied subject acting through zar'akha, "your offspring," introduced by the preposition be ("by/in").

The second half of the verse is built around 'ekev asher, "consequence that," a construct phrase functioning causally: the entire clause that follows — shama'ta be-koli, "you have listened to my voice" — supplies the grounds for the blessing just stated. The qal perfect shama'ta denotes a completed action, and be-koli ("to my voice") uses the preposition be with the construct noun qol plus the first-person suffix, denoting the object of Abraham's obedience.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the verb with ἐνευλογηθήσονται, a future passive form ("will be blessed"), where the Hebrew hitbarakhu is hithpael, a form associated with reflexive or reciprocal nuance rather than straightforward passivity. The Vulgate's benedicentur similarly reads as passive future ("will be blessed"). Modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) follow this passive rendering as well, so the reflexive/reciprocal potential of the Hebrew stem is not distinguished from the passive sense in these versions.