Genesis 24:2

Summary

Abraham speaks to his servant, described as "the old one of his house" and "the one ruling over all that belonged to him," and issues a command: to place his hand under Abraham's thigh. This gesture accompanies what follows as a solemn instruction, though the verse itself only records the command and its physical form.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — qal narrative verb, marking the sequential unfolding of the story ("and then he said").
• zeqan ("the old of", H2205H) — construct-form adjective, linking directly to beito ("his house"), producing the phrase "the elder of his household," identifying the servant's status rather than naming him.
• ha-moshel ("was ruling", H4910) — qal participle with definite article, functioning as a descriptive title: "the one who rules/manages," presenting an ongoing role rather than a single completed action.
• sim-na ("put, please", H7760H + H4994) — qal imperative combined with the particle na, softening the command into a polite request rather than a blunt order.
• tachat yerekhi ("under my thigh", H8478L + H3409) — construct chain specifying the exact location for the hand, with the first-person suffix -i ("my") marking it as Abraham's own body.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative verb va-yomer ("and he said", H0559), followed by the subject Avraham (H0085) and the addressee introduced by el ("to", H0413) plus avdo ("his servant", H5650). The servant is not named but characterized through two appositional construct phrases: zeqan beito ("the elder of his house", H2205H + H1004M) and ha-moshel be-khol asher lo ("the one ruling over all that was his", H4910 + H3605 + H0834A). Both phrases stack descriptive information onto "servant" without a separate verb of being, a common feature of Hebrew apposition that Greek and Latin render with relative clauses or genitive constructions instead.

The direct speech itself is compact: the imperative sim ("put", H7760H) is softened by the particle na ("please", H4994), then followed by the object yadekha ("your hand", H3027X + H9021) and the locative phrase tachat yerekhi ("under my thigh", H8478L + H3409 + H9020). The construct chain tachat yerekhi precisely anchors the action to Abraham's own body, marked by the first-person suffix. The grammar presents a single continuous instruction, moving from identification of the addressee to the specific physical command, without narrative interruption.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders zeqan beito ("the old of his house", H2205H + H1004M) as tō presbyterō tēs oikias autou ("the elder of his house"), closely matching the Hebrew construct structure. The Vulgate instead uses servum seniorem domus suae ("elder servant of his house"), explicitly inserting "servant" (servum) where the Hebrew construct phrase leaves "servant" (avdo, H5650) as the head noun already stated earlier in the verse, making the description slightly more redundant in Latin than in Hebrew. Modern versions like BSB translate ha-moshel (H4910) as "who managed," turning the Hebrew participle into a relative clause with a finite verb, a common shift since Hebrew participles denote ongoing states without tense-marking as English relative clauses do.