Genesis 24:26

Summary

Genesis 24:26 narrates a two-step physical action: the man lowers himself and then prostrates himself before Yehovah. The verse is composed of two sequential verbs joined by the narrative vav, both describing gestures of reverence directed at the divine name.

Key words

• va-yiqqod ("and he bowed low", H6915) — qal verb with narrative vav, expressing the first, immediate action ("and then he bowed").
• ha-'ish ("the man", H0376G) — definite noun with article, identifying the subject performing the gesture.
• va-yishtachu ("and he bowed down", H7812) — verb in the hishtaphel form (a stem denoting the act of prostrating oneself), also with narrative vav, marking the second sequential action.
• la-YHWH ("to Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine name preceded by the preposition la ("to", H9005), indicating the recipient of the gesture.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two verbs chained by the narrative vav construction (va-), a syntactic device that presents actions as sequential events in a narrative: "and he bowed low... and he bowed down." This doubling uses two distinct roots — qadad (H6915) and shachah (H7812) — which the word-by-word data glosses respectively as "he bowed low" and "he bowed down," suggesting two related but grammatically separate physical gestures rather than a single repeated action.

The subject, ha-'ish ("the man", H0376G), is stated only once, before the first verb, and governs both verbal actions through the narrative chain. The second verb, va-yishtachu, is followed directly by the prepositional phrase la-YHWH ("to Yehovah"), specifying the target of the prostration. The preposition la (H9005) attaches directly to the divine name, a common construction linking an act of bowing to its recipient.

The verse contains no other clauses, objects, or qualifiers beyond this двух-part sequence: subject, first verb, second verb, prepositional phrase with the divine name.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint (LXX) adds material not present in the Hebrew word-by-word data: it includes εὐδοκήσας ("having been pleased/consented") before the verb for prostration, and appends καὶ εἶπεν ("and he said") at the end, introducing a new clause absent from the Hebrew text given here. The Vulgate (Inclinavit se homo, et adoravit Dominum) follows the two-verb structure of the Hebrew more closely, rendering the two actions as "bowed himself" and "adored," without the additional elements found in the LXX.