Genesis 27:38

Summary

Esau responds to his father with a question about whether only one blessing was available, then pleads for a blessing of his own. The verse closes with a narrative description of Esau raising his voice and weeping.

Key words

• ha ("¿", H9008) — interrogative particle prefixed to v'rakhah, turning the statement into a question: "Is it one blessing...?"
• 'achat ("one", H0259) — cardinal number modifying v'rakhah ("blessing", H1293), emphasizing the singularity Esau questions.
• hi' ("it/she", H1931) — personal pronoun functioning as the copula ("is") in this verbless-type question, linking "blessing" to "one."
• barecheni ("bless me", H1288) — piel stem imperative, second-person masculine singular with first-person suffix; the piel (intensive) form of the root ברך is the same stem used throughout the blessing narrative, marking this as a formal request for the ritual act itself, not merely a wish.
• vayyisa qolo ("and he lifted his voice", H5375N + H6963A) — qal narrative verb with construct noun "voice of him," an idiomatic pairing with vayyevk ("and he wept", H1058) describing the manner of weeping.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the interrogative particle ha (H9008) attached directly to v'rakhah (H1293), producing a question without a separate verb "to be" — the pronoun hi' (H1931) itself supplies that function: literally "the-blessing one is-she to-you, father?" This construction is common in Biblical Hebrew for yes/no questions built on noun clauses. Esau's plea follows with the piel imperative barecheni (H1288), the same intensive verbal stem (ברך) used earlier in the chapter for Isaac's blessing act, now directed at Esau's own request. The adverb gam ("also", H1571) paired with the independent pronoun 'ani ("I", H0589) stresses inclusion — "me too, also I" — reinforcing that Esau seeks the same kind of blessing already given to his brother.

The final clause uses a stock narrative pairing: vayyisa qolo (lifting the voice) followed immediately by vayyevk (weeping), both in qal narrative form with the vav-consecutive chain (va-, H9001) that carries the story forward action by action. The construct phrase qol-o ("voice of-him", H6963A + H9023) is a common Hebrew idiom for weeping audibly rather than silently.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text says Esau spoke 'el-'aviv ("to his father", H0413 + H0001G + H9023), without naming him. The LXX supplies the proper name, rendering "πρὸς Ἰσαὰκ τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ" ("to Isaac his father"), making explicit what the Hebrew leaves as a pronoun-suffixed noun. The Vulgate, in describing the weeping, adds the phrase "ejulatu magno" ("with great wailing"), an expansion not present in the Hebrew's simpler vayyevk ("and he wept", H1058), which carries no adjective or intensifier in the source text.