Genesis 26:10

Summary

Abimelech confronts Isaac after discovering that Rebekah is his wife rather than his sister, as Isaac had claimed. He points out the danger Isaac's deception created: a member of Abimelech's people could have taken Rebekah as a wife, which would have brought guilt upon the kingdom.

Key words

• zot ("this", H2063) — demonstrative particle combined with the interrogative mah ("what", H4100) forms the rhetorical question "what is this [that] you have done," expressing shock or rebuke.
• sha.Khav ("he lay with", H7901I) — qal perfect, third person masculine singular, describing a completed hypothetical action; paired with ki-m'at ("like a little," H9004+H4592) to mean "it was nearly the case that..."
• 'Achad ha-'Am ("one of the people", H0259+H5971A) — construct phrase where 'Achad is feminine singular construct governing ha-'Am, literally "one of the people," identifying an unspecified member of Abimelech's community.
• 'ishTekha ("your wife", H0802H+H9021) — construct noun with second-person masculine singular suffix, marking Rebekah as belonging to Isaac as wife (not sister, as Isaac had claimed earlier in the narrative).
• he.ve.Ta ("you will bring", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, continuing the verbal chain from sha.Khav; the causative stem indicates Isaac would have caused guilt to come upon the people, not merely that guilt would happen.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure uses a chain of verbs in the perfect tense connected by the narrative vav (va, H9001), which in this context expresses a hypothetical or counterfactual sequence rather than straightforward past narration: "he almost lay... and you would have brought." The particle ki-m'at ("like a little," H4592) functions idiomatically to mean "it was a close call that..." — indicating a near-miss scenario rather than an event that actually occurred.

The direct object marker 'et (H0853, untranslated) before 'ishtekha ("your wife") grammatically marks Rebekah as the object of the hypothetical action shakhav ("lay with"). The hiphil form of heveta ("you would have brought," H0935P) is causative, meaning the grammar itself assigns responsibility to Isaac for potentially causing the guilt ('asham, H0817), not merely that guilt would have arisen circumstantially.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'asham ("guilt," H0817) as ἄγνοιαν ("ignorance"), differing significantly from the Hebrew term, which denotes guilt or a guilt-offering rather than a state of not-knowing. The Vulgate translates 'asham as "grande peccatum" ("great sin"), adding the intensifier "grande" ("great") not present in the Hebrew text, which simply states 'asham without a qualifying adjective. The Vulgate also renders ki-m'at shakhav as "potuit coire" ("he was able to lie with"), framing it as possibility rather than the Hebrew's near-miss idiom ("it was almost the case that...").