Genesis 26:4

Summary

Genesis 26:4 records a divine promise addressed to a single individual (second-person masculine singular): the multiplication of his offspring like the stars, the gift of "all these lands," and the blessing of all nations of the earth through his offspring. The three clauses are joined sequentially by the narrative vav.

Key words

• hirbeiti ("I will multiply", H7235A) — hiphil (causative) verb, sequential perfect, first person: the causative stem marks the subject as the active cause of the increase, not merely its beneficiary.
• zar'akha ("your offspring", H2233H + H9021) — masculine singular construct noun with second-person singular suffix; grammatically singular, though it denotes a collective. It repeats three times (lines 4-5, 13-14, 24-25), anchoring all three promises to the same referent.
• ha'el ("these", H0411) — demonstrative particle modifying "the lands" (ha'aratzot), specifying a determinate set of territories rather than lands in general.
• hitbarakhu ("they will bless themselves", H1288) — hithpael (reflexive/reciprocal) verb, sequential perfect, third person plural: the subject (nations) is grammatically both agent and recipient of the action of blessing.
• goyei ha'aretz ("nations of the earth", H1471A + H0776G) — construct chain, masculine plural construct governing a definite noun, meaning "the nations belonging to/of the earth."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence links three verbal clauses with the narrative vav (ve-, H9001), each carrying a sequential perfect verb in first person: hirbeiti ("I will multiply"), natati ("I will give"), and, shifting to third person plural, hitbarakhu ("they will bless themselves/be blessed"). This chain structure presents the three promises as a continuous unfolding sequence rather than isolated statements.

The verb hitbarakhu (H1288) is in the hithpael stem, a reflexive or reciprocal binyan. This form allows for readings ranging from "will bless themselves" (reflexive, nations invoking the addressee's offspring as a model when pronouncing blessings on themselves) to a more passive-like "will be blessed" (a common way hithpael functions with certain roots). The Hebrew grammatical form itself does not resolve which nuance is intended; it simply marks the subject goyei ha'aretz as grammatically self-involved in the action of barakh ("to bless", root of H1288).

The word zera ("offspring", H2233H) appears three times, each in construct form with the second-person suffix -kha ("your"), grammatically singular despite denoting a group. The direct object markers 'et (H0853, lines 3 and 15) indicate that "your offspring" and "all the lands" function as direct objects of "I will multiply" and "I will give," a marker with no independent lexical meaning, simply signaling the accusative case in Hebrew syntax.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders hitbarakhu (hithpael, H1288) with the Greek passive future ἐνευλογηθήσονται ("will be blessed"), collapsing the reflexive/reciprocal nuance of the Hebrew stem into a straightforward passive. The Vulgate similarly uses the passive benedicentur ("will be blessed"). Both the LXX (ταύτην, "this") and Vulgate (has, "these") render the Hebrew demonstrative ha'el ("these") consistently with the Hebrew text, agreeing that the lands referenced are a specified, delimited group.