Genesis 26:28

Summary

The men of Gerar tell Isaac that they have clearly observed that Yehovah is with him, and on that basis propose establishing a sworn agreement (alah) and a covenant (berit) between themselves and him. The verse reports both their perception and their proposal in direct speech, introduced twice by the verb "to say."

Key words

• ra'o ("certainly ", H7200G) — infinitive absolute placed before the finite verb; it reinforces the following perfect form, producing the doubled construction "seeing we have seen," i.e., an emphatic assertion of certainty.
• ra'inu ("we have seen", H7200G) — qal perfect, 1st person plural; marks a completed act of perception, paired with the infinitive absolute above to intensify it.
• alah ("an oath", H0423) — feminine singular noun; the specific term for a sworn oath, distinct from the covenant term used later in the verse.
• berit ("a covenant", H1285) — feminine singular noun; names the formal agreement the speakers propose to "cut" (see nikhretah).
• nikhretah ("let us make", H3772H) — qal form associated with "cutting," the standard verb used with berit for establishing a covenant.

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative va-yomeru ("and they said," H0559), introducing direct speech built on an emphatic construction: the infinitive absolute ra'o (H7200G) immediately followed by the perfect ra'inu (H7200G) of the same root. This doubling is a grammatical device in which the infinitive absolute has no independent meaning of its own but exists to strengthen the finite verb that follows it, so the clause asserts perception as certain rather than tentative. The content of what was seen is introduced by ki (H3588A), here functioning as a subordinating "that," followed by the perfect hayah (H1961) — "he has been" — describing a completed state of Yehovah's presence "with you" ('immakh, H5973A + H9032).

The second half of the verse contains a second speech act, marked again by va-yomer (H0559, "and we said"), introducing the proposal itself. The jussive tehi (H1961, "let it be") combined with the particle na (H4994, "please") softens the request into a polite suggestion rather than a demand. The noun alah (H0423, "an oath") is placed "between us and between you," using the repeated construct noun beino-/beinei- (H0996G) in both plural and singular grammatical forms across the phrase — a stylistic repetition that frames the relationship as mutual and bounded on both sides. The clause closes with the cohortative-like ve-nikhretah berit 'immakh ("and let us cut a covenant with you"), pairing the cutting-verb nikhretah (H3772H) with berit (H1285), the standard collocation for establishing a covenant in this corpus.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders alah (H0423, "oath") with ara (a term also carrying a sense of "curse" in Greek usage), where the Hebrew simply designates a sworn oath; the Vulgate uses juramentum ("oath"), closer to the Hebrew term. The Vulgate also compresses the double speech markers (va-yomeru... va-yomer) into a single reported statement introduced by "responderunt," where the Hebrew text preserves two distinct speech-introductions within the verse.