Genesis 27:41

Summary

The verse describes Esau's lasting resentment toward Jacob because their father Isaac had given Jacob the blessing intended for the firstborn. Esau resolves internally to kill Jacob, planning to act after the period of mourning for their father has passed.

Key words

• yistom ("he bore a grudge against", H7852) — qal narrative verb, marking the ongoing emotional state that opens the sequence of events.
• berakhah ("blessing", H1293) — feminine singular noun with definite article, referring to the specific blessing previously given to Jacob.
• berakho ("he had blessed him", H1288) — piel perfect, an intensive/factitive verb form indicating a completed, deliberate act of blessing, with the pronominal suffix "him" attached.
• yikrevu ("they will draw near", H7126G) — qal imperfect plural, describing the future approach of the days of mourning.
• ahargah ("I will kill", H2026) — the gloss indicates first-person future action ("I will kill"); the grammar note labels the form as an infinitive, though the gloss reflects a first-person verbal sense within the clause introduced by ve- ("and").

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on yistom, continuing the story sequence begun earlier in the chapter. Esau's grudge is directed 'al ("on/because of", H5921A) the berakhah — the blessing — which is further specified by the relative clause asher berakho aviv ("which his father had blessed him with"), using the piel perfect to stress the completed, formal nature of the blessing act. The construct chain avi ("father of", H0001G) with the suffix marks possession throughout.

The second half of the verse shifts to Esau's internal speech, introduced by vayomer... belibo ("and he said in his heart"), a common Hebrew idiom for silent thought rather than spoken words. The clause yikrevu yeme 'evel avi ("the days of mourning of my father will draw near") uses a qal imperfect (yikrevu) to project a future event — the mourning period — as the condition preceding action. The construct chain yeme 'evel avi ("days of mourning of my father") stacks three nouns in succession, each modifying the next, a typical feature of Hebrew genitive constructions. The final clause, joined by ve- ("and") to ahargah ("I will kill"), expresses Esau's intended action against Ya'akov achi ("Jacob my brother"), with achi ("brother of me") again using a construct + suffix pattern.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders yistom as "oderat...semper" ("he always hated"), adding a temporal adverb ("always") not present in the Hebrew verb itself. The LXX renders the final clause with a purpose construction, "ἵνα ἀποκτείνω" ("so that I may kill"), framing Esau's killing as the goal of waiting for the mourning days, whereas the Hebrew simply joins the two future actions with the conjunction ve- ("and I will kill") without an explicit purpose marker.