Genesis 26:5

Summary

Genesis 26:5 gives the divine reason (spoken to Isaac) why the promise applies to him: Abraham listened to God's voice and kept a series of four terms describing divine requirements. The verse is structured as a causal clause followed by a chain of objects joined by construct relationships to a first-person suffix, all belonging to God.

Key words

• 'E.kev ("consequence", H6118) — construct noun opening the clause, functioning here as a causal conjunction ("because/as a consequence of") that introduces the reason for the preceding promise.
• sha.Ma' ("he listened", H8085H) — qal perfect, third person, denoting a completed past action: Abraham's listening is presented as an accomplished fact, not ongoing.
• va.yish.Mor ("and he kept", H8104G) — qal narrative form (vav-consecutive), continuing the sequence of completed actions after sha.Ma', linking "listening" and "keeping" as sequential events in Abraham's life.
• mish.mar.T + -i ("my duty/charge", H4931 + H9020) — feminine singular construct noun with first-person suffix, the first of four terms describing what Abraham kept, all belonging to God ("my").
• chu.ko.Ta + -i ("my statutes", H2708 + H9020) — feminine plural construct with suffix, third in the four-part list, paired here with mitz.vo.Ta-i ("my commandments", H4687) and to.ro.Ta-i ("my laws", H8451).

What the text says

The verse opens with 'E.kev 'a.Sher-, a construct noun plus relative particle that together function adverbially as "because," marking this verse as the causal ground for what precedes (the oath/promise to Isaac). The subject Abraham performs two verbs: sha.Ma' ("he listened," qal perfect) and va.yish.Mor ("and he kept," narrative form), both third-person masculine singular, describing his relationship to God's voice (be-ko.L-i, "to my voice") and to four items.

These four items — mish.mar.T-i ("my duty"), mitz.vo.Ta-i ("my commandments"), chu.ko.Ta-i ("my statutes"), to.ro.Ta-i ("my laws") — are all nouns in construct form carrying the first-person suffix -i ("my"), meaning each term is grammatically bound to God as possessor. The first three are joined without a conjunction (asyndeton), while the last is joined by ve- ("and"). This grammatical listing, with no other connective words between the first three nouns, gives the string a cumulative, almost liturgical rhythm in the Hebrew that is not visible in translations using consistent conjunctions ("and... and... and...").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mish.mar.T-i ("my duty/charge", H4931, singular) as τὰ προστάγματά μου ("my ordinances", plural), shifting the number from Hebrew singular to Greek plural. The Vulgate similarly pluralizes with "præcepta," and additionally renders chu.ko.Ta-i ("my statutes") as "cæremonias" ("ceremonies"), a lexical choice not directly reflected in the Hebrew term's semantic range as given. The RV1909 and SBLIBRE Spanish versions follow the fourfold Hebrew listing closely, preserving four distinct terms as in the Hebrew source.