Genesis 26:22

Summary

Genesis 26:22 narrates Isaac's move to another location, where he digs a well that causes no dispute. He names this well Rechovot ("Rehoboth") and declares that Yehovah has made room for him and his household, anticipating growth in the land.

Key words

• va-ya'teq ("and he moved on", H6275) — hiphil narrative form, causative in stem, indicating Isaac himself causes his own relocation (transitive sense of "moving away").
• rachavu ("they disputed", H7378) — qal perfect, third person plural, marking a completed action negated by lo' ("not", H3808) — the absence of strife over this well contrasts with the prior narrative context implied by the story.
• shemah ("its name", H8034) — construct noun with third feminine singular suffix -ha ("her/its"), referring back to be'er ("well", H0875), grammatically feminine.
• hirchiv ("he has made space", H7337) — hiphil perfect, causative stem, third person singular, with Yehovah as subject — the verbal root matches the place name Rechovot, creating a wordplay between the naming and the stated reason.
• farinu ("we will be fruitful", H6509) — qal form functioning as sequential perfect, continuing the sequence begun by hirchiv, first person plural.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a chain of narrative vav-forms (va-ya'teq, va-yachpor, va-yiqra, va-yomer), each advancing the story: Isaac moves, digs, names, and speaks. This chain is briefly interrupted by a non-narrative clause, ve-lo' rachavu 'aleiha ("and they did not dispute over it"), using a qal perfect with negation rather than a narrative form — marking this as a stated fact rather than a sequential event, contrasting with the flow of action around it.

The naming itself, va-yiqra' shemah Rechovot, uses the construct noun shem ("name", H8034) with a feminine suffix agreeing with be'er ("well"), the grammatical antecedent. The place name Rechovot shares its root with the verb hirchiv ("he has made space", H7337) in Isaac's following speech, so the noun functions as a description of the action Isaac attributes to Yehovah (H3068G): the making of room.

The closing clause pairs hirchiv (hiphil perfect) with farinu ("we will be fruitful", H6509), marked as a sequential perfect that continues the verbal chain begun by hirchiv. This grammatical linkage presents the two ideas — space being made and fruitfulness following — as consequentially connected within a single statement attributed to Isaac.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Rechovot as Εὐρυχωρία ("spaciousness"), a translation of the meaning rather than a transliteration, while the Vulgate similarly gives Latitudo ("breadth/width"). Both versions interpret the name descriptively rather than preserving it as a proper noun, unlike the Hebrew, which presents Rechovot as a place name in construct with shem.