Genesis 23:12

Summary

Genesis 23:12 reports that Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. The verse is a brief narrative action following negotiations, marking a gesture of respect or formal acknowledgment directed at the local inhabitants.

Key words

• va-yishtachu ("and he bowed down", H7812): a narrative-form verb using the vav-consecutive, indicating a sequential action ("and then he bowed"); the verbal stem (hishtaphel/hitpael-type bowing form) denotes a reflexive act of prostration performed by the subject.
• Avraham ("Abraham", H0085): proper noun, subject of the verb, identifying who performs the bowing.
• li-fnei ("before/to the face of", H9005 + H6440G): a preposition combined with the construct plural noun "face of," together forming the idiomatic expression "before" or "in the presence of."
• 'am ("people of", H5971A): masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it is grammatically bound to the following word, yielding "people of [the land]."
• ha-aretz ("the land", H9009 + H0776G): definite article plus feminine singular noun, completing the construct chain begun by 'am, specifying whose people are meant — "the people of the land."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows the standard narrative pattern: a vav-consecutive verb (va-yishtachu) opens the clause, placing this action in sequence with what precedes it in the chapter. The subject Avraham follows the verb, which is typical Hebrew verb-subject word order in narrative prose. The phrase lifnei ("before," literally "to the face of") introduces the recipient of the bowing gesture, and this is followed by a construct chain: 'am ha-aretz, "the people of the land." In construct chains, the first noun ('am, "people of") is grammatically dependent on the second (ha-aretz, "the land"), producing a single compound phrase referring to a specific group — the local inhabitants — as distinct from Abraham, who is identified elsewhere in the chapter as a foreigner among them. The sentence contains no additional modifiers or subordinate clauses; it is a single, direct narrative statement describing one completed action.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (Adoravit Abraham coram populo terræ) renders the verb with adoravit, a Latin term that can denote worship or reverence more broadly, whereas the Hebrew va-yishtachu and the Greek prosekynēsen both specifically denote a physical bowing or prostration gesture without inherently implying worship in a cultic sense. The BSB adds "Again" as an interpretive framing device not present as a discrete lexical item in the Hebrew text itself, which begins simply with the vav-consecutive verb form.