Genesis 27:13

Summary

Rebekah responds to Jacob's fear of being cursed by declaring that any curse would fall on her instead. She then commands him with two imperatives to obey her voice and go fetch the items she requested.

Key words

'i.mo ("his mother", H0517) — feminine singular noun in construct with the pronominal suffix "his," identifying Rebekah as the speaker who takes responsibility for the outcome.

qil.la.te.kha ("your curse", H7045) — feminine singular noun in construct form with the suffix "your," placed before the preposition phrase 'a.lai ("on me"), producing the emphatic word order "on me [be] your curse."

'akh ("only", H0389) — an adverb that narrows the scope of what follows, isolating the command to obedience as the sole condition she demands.

she.ma' ("listen", H8085H) — qal imperative, second person masculine singular, a direct command form addressed to Jacob to heed her voice.

lekh qach ("go, fetch", H1980G / H3947J) — two consecutive qal imperatives, both second person masculine singular, stacked without a coordinating structure other than the conjunction ve ("and") between them, forming a compact double command.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause 'a.lai qil.la.te.kha ("on me [be] your curse") places the prepositional phrase 'a.lai ("on me", H5921A + suffix H9030) before the noun qil.la.te.kha ("your curse"). This fronting gives prominence to "on me" as the first element of the statement, before the noun that names what falls on her. The verb "to be" is not present in the Hebrew; the sentence relies on juxtaposition, a common feature of Hebrew nominal clauses, where the reader supplies an implicit "be" or "let it be."

The address be.ni ("O son," H1121A + H9020, "my son") stands appositionally after the curse-clause, marking direct speech to Jacob within the sentence rather than opening it, which is a natural placement in Hebrew discourse.

The adverb 'akh ("only", H0389) restricts the following imperative she.ma' ("listen", H8085H) to a single condition. This is followed by a second imperative chain, ve.lekh qach-li ("and go, fetch for me"), where lekh ("go", H1980G) and qach ("fetch [them]", H3947J) are two separate qal imperative verbs joined only by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), a construction in which the first imperative functions almost as a call to action preceding the second, main command. The final li ("for me", H9005 + H9030) marks the beneficiary of the action, tying the fetching back to Rebekah's original request.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders be.ni ("my son", H1121A + H9020) as τέκνον ("child"), a slightly different relational term than the Hebrew "my son." The Vulgate's fili mi ("my son") corresponds closely to the Hebrew. The Hebrew imperative sequence lekh qach ("go, fetch", H1980G + H3947J) is rendered in the LXX as a participle plus imperative (πορευθεὶς ἔνεγκαί, "having gone, bring"), restructuring the two Hebrew commands into a participial clause followed by a single imperative, while the Vulgate similarly uses a participle (pergens, "going") followed by an imperative (affer, "bring").