Genesis 27:25

Summary

Isaac asks Jacob (believing him to be Esau) to bring the food close so he can eat and pronounce a blessing. The narrative then reports, in a rapid sequence of verbs, that the food and wine were brought, eaten, and drunk.

Key words

• haggishah ("bring near", H5066H) — hiphil (causative) imperative with a paragogic he ending, giving the command extra emphasis: "bring it near, now."
• tzeid ("game of", H6718A) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linked to the following word to form the phrase "game of my son."
• ben ("son", H1121A) — masculine singular noun in construct state, completing the construct chain "game of my son"; the possessive "my" is added by the suffix on the next letter.
• lema'an ("so that", H4616) — subordinating particle introducing the purpose clause that follows.
• tevarekhekha ("it may bless you", H1288) — piel (intensive) jussive form; the subject of this verb is not "I" but nafshi ("my self/soul", H5315I), a construct noun with a pronominal suffix.

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative vav-chain (va-yomer, "and he said") that moves the story forward, followed by Isaac's direct speech. The imperative haggishah carries a paragogic he, a form often used in Biblical Hebrew to intensify a request. The phrase mitzeid beni is a construct chain: literally "from-the-game-of my-son," where "game" and "son" are grammatically bound together, with "my" attached as a suffix to "son." This construction does not place "son" in direct address (vocative); it functions as a possessive description of whose game is being eaten.

The purpose clause lema'an tevarekhekha nafshi is notable because the grammatical subject of the piel jussive verb "bless" is nafshi ("my soul/self"), not a first-person pronoun "I" directly. The verb agrees with this feminine noun. After the speech, the text returns to a chain of short narrative vav-forms — "he brought near," "he ate," "he brought," "he drank" — each marking sequential completed actions in the qal or hiphil stem, giving the report a terse, rapid pace typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative style.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew construct phrase mitzeid beni ("from the game of my son") differs structurally from the Greek and Latin. The LXX reads ἀπὸ τῆς θήρας σου, τέκνον ("from your game, child"), converting the construct "my son" into a vocative "child" plus a second-person possessive "your." The Vulgate similarly reads de venatione tua, fili mi ("from your hunting, my son"), also shifting to direct address with "your" rather than preserving the Hebrew's construct chain "game of my son."