Genesis 27:37
וַיַּעַן יִצְחָק וַיֹּאמֶר לְעֵשָׂו הֵן גְּבִיר שַׂמְתִּיו לָךְ וְאֶת־כָּל־אֶחָיו נָתַתִּי לוֹ לַעֲבָדִים וְדָגָן וְתִירֹשׁ סְמַכְתִּיו וּלְכָה אֵפוֹא מָה אֶֽעֱשֶׂה בְּנִֽי׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיַּ֨עַן יִצְחָ֜ק וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לְעֵשָׂ֗ו הֵ֣ן גְּבִ֞יר שַׂמְתִּ֥יו לָךְ֙ וְאֶת־כָּל־אֶחָ֗יו נָתַ֤תִּי לוֹ֙ לַעֲבָדִ֔ים וְדָגָ֥ן וְתִירֹ֖שׁ סְמַכְתִּ֑יו וּלְכָ֣ה אֵפ֔וֹא מָ֥ה אֶֽעֱשֶׂ֖ה בְּנִֽי׃
ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ Ἰσαὰκ εἶπεν τῶ Ἠσαύ Εἰ κύριον αὐτὸν ἐποίησά σου, καὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς αὖ τοῦ ἐποίησα αὐτοῦ οἰκέτας, σίτῳ καὶ οἴνῳ ἐστήρισα αὐτόν· σοὶ δὲ τί ποιήσω, τέκνον;
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Respondit Isaac: Dominum tuum illum constitui, et omnes fratres ejus servituti illius subjugavi; frumento et vino stabilivi eum: et tibi post hæc, fili mi, ultra quid faciam?
Isaac le contestó a Esaú: “Ya lo he puesto como señor tuyo, y a todos sus parientes los he puesto como sus servidores; lo he provisto de trigo y de vino. ¿Qué puedo hacer ahora por ti, hijo mío?”
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Isaac respondió y dijo á Esaú: He aquí yo le he puesto por señor tuyo, y le he dado por siervos á todos sus hermanos: de trigo y de vino le he provisto: ¿ qué, pues, te haré á ti ahora, hijo mío?
But Isaac answered Esau: “ Look, I have made him your master and given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?”
✦ What the text says
Summary
Isaac responds to Esau's request after realizing he has already blessed Jacob. He explains that the blessing already given cannot be undone: he has made Jacob lord over Esau, given him all his brothers as servants, and sustained him with grain and wine. Isaac ends by asking what, if anything, remains that he can do for Esau.
Key words
- ge.Vir ("lord", H1376) — a noun in construct-like usage here functioning as a predicate complement; it designates the status Isaac has conferred on Jacob relative to Esau.
- sam.Ti ("I have appointed", H7760A) — qal perfect, first person; the perfect aspect marks the action as completed and irreversible from Isaac's point of view.
- na.Ta.ti ("I have given", H5414G) — qal perfect, first person, parallel to sam.Ti; reinforces that the transfer of authority over the brothers is already finished.
- se.makh.Ti ("I have sustained", H5564) — qal perfect, first person; completes the triad of perfect verbs describing what has already been settled (rank, servants, provisions).
- 'e.'e.Seh ("will I do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, first person; contrasts with the preceding perfects by expressing an open, future/uncertain action — what remains possible now.
What the text says
The verse is built on a grammatical contrast between three qal perfect verbs — sam.Ti ("I have appointed", H7760A), na.Ta.ti ("I have given", H5414G), and se.makh.Ti ("I have sustained", H5564) — and a single qal imperfect, 'e.'e.Seh ("will I do", H6213A). The perfects present three completed acts: establishing Jacob as ge.Vir ("lord", H1376) over Esau, transferring "all his brothers" (kol + 'e.Cha, H3605/H0251G, in construct) to him as 'a.va.Dim ("servants", H5650), and sustaining him with da.Gan ("grain", H1715) and ti.Rosh ("new wine", H8492). Each of these verbs carries a first-person pronominal suffix or agreement referring back to Jacob as recipient, marked structurally through the direct object markers and suffixes ('Et, H0853; the -o and -i suffixes, H9033).
Against this wall of finished actions, Isaac's closing question shifts to the imperfect 'e.'e.Seh, which in Biblical Hebrew typically expresses an action not yet completed, potential, or open-ended. The juxtaposition — three perfects followed by one imperfect — grammatically enacts the problem: the past acts are fixed, while what remains to be done is genuinely unresolved. The vocative be.N + -i ("O son... my", H1121A/H9020) closes the sentence, addressing Esau directly at the point of unresolved possibility.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the opening hen ("here!", H2005) interrogatively as Εἰ ("if/whether"), producing a rhetorical-question tone absent from the Hebrew's declarative interjection. The Vulgate's ultra quid faciam ("what more shall I do") makes explicit an "additional" nuance that is only implicit in the Hebrew imperfect 'e.'e.Seh, which itself does not contain a word for "more" or "further."
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.