Genesis 22:19

Summary

This verse closes the Genesis 22 narrative by describing Abraham's return to his servants, their joint departure, and his settling in Beer-sheba. The verse uses a chain of four narrative verbs to mark sequential action.

Key words

• va-yYashov ("and he returned", H7725G) — qal narrative form of the verb "to return," marking the first sequential action: Abraham going back.
• ne'arav ("his servants", H5288) — masculine plural noun in construct with the pronominal suffix -o ("his"), identifying the young men left behind earlier in the chapter.
• va-yYaqumu ("and they arose", H6965B) — qal narrative plural verb, third in the sequence, indicating the servants' collective rising to depart.
• yachDav ("together", H3162B) — adverb specifying that the departure was a joint action of Abraham and his servants.
• va-yYeshev ("and he dwelt", H3427) — qal narrative verb, singular, marking Abraham's settling as the final action, distinct from the plural verbs describing group movement.

What the text says

The verse is built entirely on the narrative vav construction (va-, H9001), which chains five verbs — yashov ("returned"), yaqumu ("arose"), yelekhu ("went"), and yeshev ("dwelt") — into a single sequential report: return, rise, go, dwell. This chaining creates a tight temporal sequence in Hebrew without needing separate connecting words; each va- signals "and then," advancing the action step by step.

A grammatical distinction appears between the verbs describing group action (yaqumu, yelekhu, both plural) and those describing Abraham alone (yashov, yeshev, both singular). The servants act as a group starting from verse 19's second clause, while Abraham's individual actions bracket the verse: he alone returns to the servants at the start, and he alone dwells at the end, even though the journey to Beer-sheba was made "together" (yachdav, H3162B). This adverb explicitly marks the shared nature of the travel, contrasting with the solitary framing of Abraham's return and settling.

The place name Be'er Shava' ("Beer-Sheba", H0884) appears twice, once as destination ('el-Be'er Shava', "to Beer-sheba") and once as location of dwelling (bi-Ve'er Shava', "in Beer-sheba"), using different prepositions (H0413 "to" versus H9003 "in") that mark direction versus static location.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Be'er Shava' ("Beer-sheba") as "τὸ φρέαρ τοῦ ὅρκου" ("the well of the oath"), translating the place name descriptively rather than transliterating it, unlike the Hebrew proper noun. The Vulgate transliterates it as "Bersabee," closer to the Hebrew form. The Vulgate also compresses the Hebrew's four-verb sequence into three main verbs ("reversus est... abierunt... habitavit"), omitting a separate rendering for yaqumu ("they arose", H6965B), which the Hebrew and LXX (anastantes) both preserve as a distinct action before departure.