Genesis 27:33

Summary

Isaac reacts with intense trembling upon realizing he has already given his blessing before Esau's arrival. He asks who brought him game, recounts eating and blessing that person, and declares that the blessing already given will stand.

Key words

va-yechrad — yeCherad ("he trembled", H2729): qal narrative verb opening the sequence, marking Isaac's immediate physical reaction as the next event in the story chain.

charadah ("trembling", H2731): a feminine singular noun that functions as a cognate object of the verb yechrad — literally "he trembled a trembling," an internal accusative construction that intensifies the verb by repeating its root as a noun.

gedolah ("great", H1419A) + 'ad-me'od ("up to muchness", H5704+H3966): the adjective modifies charadah, and the phrase 'ad me'od adds a further degree marker, stacking two intensifiers onto the single noun "trembling."

ha-tzad ("the hunted [one]", H6679A): a qal participle with definite article, functioning substantively as "the one who hunted" — grammatically a description of ongoing/characteristic action rather than a finite past-tense verb.

gam-barukh yihyeh ("also blessed he will be", H1571+H1288+H1961): barukh is a qal passive participle ("blessed"), paired with the imperfect yihyeh ("he will be"), producing a construction that describes a state extending into future time rather than a single completed act.

What the text says

The verse opens with two narrative vav-forms (yechrad, yo'mer) that carry the story forward: "and he trembled... and he said." The trembling itself is expressed not just by the verb but reinforced by the cognate noun charadah ("trembling") as its direct object, itself further modified by the adjective gedolah ("great") and the intensifying phrase 'ad me'od ("up to muchness"). This stacking of root-repetition plus double intensifiers is a feature of the Hebrew that a single English adverb like "violently" or "greatly" cannot fully reproduce.

Isaac's question uses the interrogative mi ("who?") together with the interjection 'efo' ("then"), producing an emphatic "who then is he" construction, followed by the participial phrase ha-tzad tzayid ("the one hunting game"), which characterizes the unknown person by an ongoing action rather than naming a single past event.

The closing clause pairs the passive participle barukh ("blessed") with the imperfect verb yihyeh ("he will be"). The participle denotes a state already established, while the imperfect extends that state forward, producing a statement about the persistence of a status already conferred rather than a new act of blessing.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yechrad... charadah gedolah 'ad me'od as exestē... ekstasin megalēn sphodra ("he was astonished... a great astonishment exceedingly"), preserving the cognate-object structure but shifting the semantic field from "trembling" to "astonishment." The Vulgate similarly splits this into two verbs, expavit ("he was terrified") and admirans ("marveling"), adding an interpretive layer ("ultra quam credi potest," "beyond what can be believed") not present in the Hebrew wording. The final Hebrew clause gam barukh yihyeh ("also blessed he will be") appears in the Vulgate as a question, et erit benedictus? ("and will he be blessed?"), differing from the declarative form of the Hebrew and the LXX's imperative-like eulogēmenos estō ("let him be blessed").