Genesis 22:8

Summary

Abraham answers Isaac's earlier question about the sacrificial animal, stating that God will provide the sheep for the burnt offering. The verse closes with both continuing their journey together.

Key words

• Elohim ("God", H0430G) — masculine plural noun functioning as subject; here used as the grammatical agent of the verb that follows.
• yir'eh ("he will see", H7200J) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular; the imperfect aspect conveys future or ongoing action, here rendered "will see/provide."
• lo ("for himself", H9005+H9033) — preposition with third person masculine singular suffix, attached directly to the verb yir'eh, indicating the action is directed toward or for God's own purpose.
• seh ("sheep", H7716) — common gender singular noun with definite article (ha, H9009), the specific object that God "will see/provide."
• beni ("my son", H1121A+H9020) — masculine singular construct noun with first-person singular suffix, Abraham's direct address to Isaac.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure places Elohim ("God", H0430G) as the subject immediately followed by the verb yir'eh ("he will see", H7200J) in the qal imperfect. The root of yir'eh is the same verb used for "seeing," and in this construction it carries the sense of God "seeing to" or "providing" the sheep. The verb is immediately followed by lo ("for himself", H9005+H9033), a preposition plus pronominal suffix that reflexively ties the action back to God — the seeing/providing is done by God for God's own purpose or plan, before the object (the sheep) is even named.

Only after the verb-plus-suffix combination does the sentence introduce the actual object: ha-seh ("the sheep", H9009+H7716), followed by le'olah ("for a burnt offering", H9005+H5930A). The address beni ("my son", H1121A+H9020) closes Abraham's statement, marked by the construct form of ben ("son") with the first-person suffix "my."

The final clause repeats the narrative pattern from earlier in the chapter: vayelekhu ("and they went", H1980G) in the qal narrative form, followed by shenei-hem ("the two of them", H8147+H9028) in construct-dual form, and closed by the adverb yachdav ("together", H3162B).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew yir'eh-lo ha-seh le'olah, beni ("God will see/provide for himself the sheep for a burnt offering, my son") more briefly as "Ὁ θεὸς ὄψεται" ("God will see/provide"), without explicitly naming "the sheep" or repeating "my son" in that clause; it also adds material not present in this Hebrew verse ("ἅμα ἦλθον ἐπὶ τὸν τόπον..."). The Vulgate's Deus providebit sibi victimam holocausti interprets yir'eh ("he will see", H7200J) as providebit ("will provide"), a semantic shift from the base sense of "seeing" toward "providing," which several modern translations (BSB, SBLIBRE) follow.