Genesis 24:27

Summary

The servant of Abraham speaks a blessing over Yehovah, identified as the God of his master Abraham, praising him for not abandoning his chesed ("covenant loyalty", H2617A) and emet ("faithfulness", H0571G) toward his master. He then states that Yehovah has led him on the journey to the house of his master's relatives.

Key words

• baruch ("[be] blessed", H1288) — qal passive participle, masculine singular; describes Yehovah as the recipient of blessing, a fixed formulaic opening.
• chasdo ("his covenant loyalty", H2617A + H9023) — construct noun with 3ms suffix, paired with the following word to form a two-part description of what "he has not left."
• amito ("his faithfulness", H0571G + H9023) — construct noun with 3ms suffix, joined to the previous word by va ("and", H9002), forming the hendiadys chasdo va'amito.
• lo azav ("he has not left", H3808 + H5800A) — negation plus qal perfect; the perfect aspect marks a completed, settled state — the loyalty has not been withdrawn up to the present moment of speech.
• nachani ("he has led me", H5148 + H9030) — qal perfect verb with 1cs object suffix, placing the action's completion on the speaker's own journey.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative verb vayomer ("and he said", H0559), followed directly by the participle baruch ("blessed", H1288) placed before the divine name Yehovah (H3068G) — a word order in which the predicate precedes the subject, typical of blessing formulas. Yehovah is then further specified by the construct chain elohei adoni Avraham ("God of my master Abraham," H0430G + H0113 + H9020 + H0085), stacking three construct relationships to anchor the deity's identity to the master's name.

The relative clause introduced by asher ("who", H0834A) contains the negated perfect lo azav ("he has not left", H3808 + H5800A), whose object is the compound noun phrase chasdo va'amito ("his covenant loyalty and his faithfulness", H2617A/H0571G, both with 3ms suffixes H9023). Both nouns share the same suffix referent and are joined by the conjunction va (H9002), presenting them as a linked pair rather than separate qualities. The phrase me'im adoni ("from with my master", H9006 + H5973B + H0113 + H9020) specifies whom this loyalty has not been withdrawn from.

The second clause shifts to first person with the independent pronoun anokhi ("I", H0595), placed for emphasis before the prepositional phrase badderekh ("on the journey", H9003 + H1870L). The verb nachani ("he has led me", H5148 + H9030) again uses the qal perfect, this time with the divine name Yehovah as subject following the verb. The final construct chain beit achei adoni ("house of the relatives of my master", H1004B + H0251H + H0113 + H9020) closes the verse, naming the destination of the guided journey.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chasdo va'amito ("his covenant loyalty and his faithfulness") as δικαιοσύνην καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ("righteousness and truth"), shifting chesed toward a term more associated with justice than covenant loyalty. The Vulgate uses misericordiam et veritatem suam ("his mercy and his truth"), closer to a covenantal-relational sense. The LXX also adds εὐόδωκεν ("has prospered/made the way successful") for nachani ("he has led me"), introducing a nuance of successful outcome not explicit in the Hebrew verb, which denotes leading or guiding without specifying success.