Genesis 27:35

Summary

Genesis 27:35 records Isaac's reply to Esau, explaining that his brother came be-mirmah ("with deceit", H4820) and took the blessing intended for him. The verse consists of two short clauses reporting completed past actions using narrative verb forms.

Key words

• ba' ("he came", H0935G) — qal perfect, marking a completed action: the brother's arrival is presented as an accomplished fact, not ongoing.
• 'achikha ("your brother", H0251G + H9021) — construct noun with second-person masculine suffix, identifying the subject relationally ("brother of you") rather than by name.
• be-mirmah ("with deceit", H9003 + H4820) — preposition + feminine singular noun, describing the manner in which the coming happened; it modifies the verb ba', not the taking.
• va-yiqqach ("and he took", H3947G) — qal narrative form, continuing the sequence of events introduced by the vav; it presents the taking as the next event following the arrival.
• birkhatekha ("your blessing", H1293 + H9021) — construct noun with second-person masculine suffix, the direct object of va-yiqqach, marking the blessing as belonging to the addressee (Esau).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of two narrative clauses joined by the vav consecutive: va-yomer ("and he said") introduces direct speech, and within that speech, ba' 'achikha be-mirmah ("your brother came with deceit") is followed by va-yiqqach birkhatekha ("and he took your blessing"). Both main verbs, ba' and va-yiqqach, present sequential completed actions typical of Hebrew narrative syntax, giving the sentence the flavor of a report of discrete events rather than a general description.

The phrase be-mirmah is a prepositional phrase attached to the first verb, ba' ("he came"), specifying the manner of the coming — "with deceit" — rather than directly modifying the act of taking the blessing. This placement means the Hebrew text frames the deceit as characterizing the brother's approach or arrival, while the taking of the blessing is stated as a separate, sequential action introduced by the vav.

The two possessive constructions, 'achikha ("your brother") and birkhatekha ("your blessing"), both carry the second-person masculine singular suffix, tying the statement directly to the addressee — the one who lost the blessing.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Ἐλθὼν ... μετὰ δόλου ἔλαβεν) and the Vulgate (venit ... fraudulenter, et accepit) both preserve the two-verb sequence and attach the deceit to the coming, matching the Hebrew structure. The SBLIBRE Spanish rendering ("vino y me engañó, y se llevó") restructures this into three actions — coming, deceiving, and taking — introducing "me engañó" ("he deceived me") as a distinct verb not present as a separate lexical item in the Hebrew, where mirmah functions as a noun modifying the manner of coming rather than a finite verb of deceiving.