Genesis 24:62

Summary

The verse states that Isaac had come from the direction of Beer-lahai-roi, and that he was dwelling in the region of the Negev. It sets the geographical scene just before Isaac's servant returns with Rebekah.

Key words

• ba' ("he came", H0935G) — qal perfect, marking a completed action: Isaac's arrival is presented as already accomplished.
• mi-Bo' ("from going/coming", H0935G) — the same root repeated as a qal infinitive with the preposition mi ("from"), producing the idiomatic construction "he came from coming," which describes movement away from a point of origin.
• Hu' ("he", H1931) — an independent personal pronoun placed before the participle, giving explicit emphasis to the subject before describing his ongoing state.
• yoshev ("dwelling", H3427) — a qal participle, expressing continuous or habitual action rather than a single completed event: Isaac's residence in the Negev is presented as an ongoing condition, not a one-time act.
• 'Eretz ("land of", H0776G) — a feminine singular noun in construct state, linking directly to ha-Negev ("the Negev") to form the phrase "land of the Negev."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence divides into two clauses joined by ve ("and", H9002). The first clause uses the perfect verb ba' followed by the infinitive mi-Bo' from the same root (H0935G), a construction that literally reads "he came from coming [to] Beer-lahai-roi." This repetition of the same verbal root in two different forms (perfect + infinitive) is a feature of Biblical Hebrew that indicates the action of arriving is tied to a prior movement from a specific place; it cannot be rendered by a single English verb without losing this internal doubling.

The second clause shifts from a completed-action perfect to a participle, yoshev ("dwelling", H3427), preceded by the independent pronoun Hu' ("he", H1931). This pronoun-plus-participle structure marks a background, ongoing state — Isaac's habitual residence in "the land of the Negev" ('Eretz ha-Negev) — contrasted with the punctual event of his coming from Beer-lahai-roi.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew treats Be'er Lachai Ro'i as a compound proper place name (three elements marked H0883 in the data). The LXX does not render it as a toponym in the same way: it speaks of Isaac "going through the desert" and reaching "the well of the vision" (τὸ φρέαρ τῆς ὁράσεως), translating the ro'i element as "vision" rather than treating the whole phrase as a fixed name. The Vulgate similarly glosses the name descriptively — "the well... whose name is of the Living and Seeing one" — rather than transliterating it as a single place name, as the Hebrew structure does.