Genesis 27:40

Summary

This verse concludes Isaac's blessing to Esau, describing his future condition: he will live by the sword and serve his brother, but a time will come when he breaks free from that servitude. The Hebrew structure moves through four verbs in sequence, outlining a trajectory from subjugation to eventual liberation.

Key words

• tich.Yeh ("you will live", H2421) — qal imperfect, expressing ongoing/future action; paired with 'al-charbecha ("on/by your sword", H5921A + H2719), it frames survival as bound to armed conflict.
• ta.'a.Vod ("you will serve", H5647G) — qal imperfect describing continued or future subordination to "your brother" ('achicha, H0251G).
• ta.Rid ("you will be restless", H7300) — hiphil (causative) imperfect from a root conveying restlessness or breaking loose; introduced by ka'asher ("as/when", H0834D), it marks the turning point of the sentence.
• fa.rak.Ta ("you will tear off", H6561) — qal sequential perfect, the narrative's resolving action, describing the removal of the "yoke" ('ullo, H5923, "his yoke").
• ha.Yah ("it will be", H1961) — qal sequential perfect that structurally links the servitude clause to the future liberation clause, functioning as a narrative hinge ("and it will happen that...").

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of four verbs, each carrying the narrative forward. The first two — tich.Yeh ("you will live") and ta.'a.Vod ("you will serve") — are simple imperfects describing a lasting condition: existence tied to the sword and subordination to the brother. The third section pivots with ha.Yah ("it will be") followed by the relative clause ka'asher tarid ("as/when you become restless"), using the hiphil form ta.Rid (H7300), which conveys an active or intensified form of restlessness or breaking away, rather than passive endurance. This grammatical shift from simple (qal) to causative (hiphil) marks a change in agency: the subject moves from being acted upon (serving) to initiating action (becoming restless, then tearing off).

The final verb, fa.rak.Ta ("you will tear off", H6561), is a qal sequential perfect, syntactically continuing the "when" clause to its consequence: the removal of the yoke ('ullo, "his yoke", construct form indicating possession — the brother's yoke) from "your neck" (tzavarecha). The construct chains here (charbecha, "your sword"; 'achicha, "your brother"; tzavarecha, "your neck") each attach a personal pronominal suffix, keeping the second-person address consistent throughout.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tich.Yeh ("you will live") with ζήσῃ ("you will live"), matching the Hebrew, but shifts the sense of ta.Rid ("you will be restless", H7300) to καθέλῃς ("you should overthrow/take down"), and renders fa.rak.Ta ("you will tear off") as ἐκλύσεις ("you will loosen/release"), a softer image than the Hebrew's tearing. The Vulgate's cum excutias et solvas ("when you shake off and loosen") similarly interprets the yoke-removal with two verbs where the Hebrew has one main verb (fa.rak.Ta) governed by the prior clause. The Spanish RV1909 renders ta.Rid as "te enseñorees" ("you rule/dominate"), while SBLIBRE renders it as "no lo soportes más" ("you no longer bear it"), showing divergent interpretations of the restlessness verb's exact nuance.