Genesis 24:33

Summary

The verse describes food being set before Abraham's servant, who declines to eat until he has delivered his message. His host then grants permission, telling him to speak.

Key words

• yusam ("it was put", H7760H) — hophal (causative-passive) narrative form: the food "was placed" by an unnamed agent, the passive construction keeping focus on the servant rather than who served him.
• le'ekhol ("to eat", H0398) — qal infinitive expressing purpose: "to eat," explaining why the food was set out.
• lo' 'okhal ("I will not eat", H3808 + H0398) — negation plus qal imperfect: a durative/future sense, "I will not be eating," marking a firm refusal rather than a single completed act.
• dibbarti ("I have spoken", H1696G) — piel perfect: completed intensive action, "I have spoken/declared," used inside the conditional clause introduced by 'ad 'im ("until", H5704 + H0518H).
• dabber ("speak", H1696G) — piel imperative: a direct command form, "speak!", contrasting with the perfect dibbarti used earlier in the same root.

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative vav chain typical of Hebrew storytelling: va-yusam ("and it was put") begins the sequence, followed by le-fanav ("before him", H6440G with 3ms suffix H9023), indicating the food was placed in front of the servant. The purpose clause le'ekhol ("to eat") uses the infinitive construct with le- prefix, a common Hebrew way to express intent without a separate finite verb.

The servant's response uses lo' 'okhal ("I will not eat"), an imperfect verb negated, which in Hebrew narrative can carry a modal or volitional force — not simply "I will not" as future fact, but "I refuse to." The temporal boundary is marked by the compound 'ad 'im ("until"), followed by dibbarti devarai ("I have spoken my words/matters"), where devarai is a plural construct noun with a 1cs suffix (H1697H + H9020), literally "words-of-me." The perfect tense dibbarti here functions prospectively within the conditional clause — the action is treated as completed at the future point when the condition is met, a nuance smoother English translations render as "until I have told."

The closing exchange contrasts the piel perfect dibbarti ("I have spoken") with the piel imperative dabber ("speak!") from the same root (H1696G), a wordplay visible only in Hebrew: the servant announces his intent to speak, and the host immediately commands him to do so using the identical verbal root in a different conjugation.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders le'ekhol ("to eat") with the plural ἄρτους ("loaves/bread") absent from the Hebrew, which has no explicit noun for the food beyond the infinitive "to eat." The Hebrew leaves the subject of yusam ("it was put") unnamed via the passive form; the LXX shifts to active voice, παρέθηκεν ("he/they set before"), supplying an implied agent not explicit in the Hebrew text.