Genesis 27:42

Summary

The verse reports that Rebekah was informed of Esau's words, after which she sent for her younger son Jacob and told him that Esau, his brother, is finding comfort in the intention of killing him.

Key words

• va-yuggad ("and it was told", H5046) — hophal (causative-passive) narrative verb: the subject "words" is not an agent acting but something caused to be reported; no one performing the telling is named.
• dibrei ("words of", H1697G) — masculine plural construct, linking directly to Esav: "the words of Esau," i.e., what Esau had said (reported speech, content unspecified in this verse).
• bnah ha-gadol ("her son, the older/great one", H1121A + H1419K) — construct noun + suffix "her" plus article + adjective, marking Esau's status relative to Rebekah as the elder son.
• mitnachem ("comforting himself", H5162G) — hithpael (reflexive) participle: describes Esau's ongoing internal state — he is in the process of consoling himself, not a completed or momentary act.
• le-horegekha ("by killing you", H2026) — qal infinitive with prefixed preposition le- and 2ms suffix: expresses the means or object of that self-consolation — "in/by the killing of you," i.e., the killing is what he is consoling himself with/through.

What the text says

The sentence opens with a hophal verbal form, va-yuggad ("and it was told", H5046), which frames the information reaching Rebekah as a report from an unspecified source — the grammar itself withholds the identity of the informant. The object of that report is et-divrei Esav benah ha-gadol ("the words of Esau her son, the great/older one"), a construct chain that ties the reported words tightly to Esau's identity as the firstborn, using the construct noun dibrei ("words of", H1697G) followed by the further construct ben ("son of", H1121A) with pronominal suffix "her."

The core statement Rebekah relays to Jacob centers on the participle mitnachem ("comforting himself", H5162G), a hithpael form indicating a reflexive, ongoing action — Esau is depicted as being in a continuous state of self-consolation, not simply "planning" or "threatening" in a punctual sense. This state is then qualified by two prepositional phrases: lekha ("to/concerning you", H9005+H9031) and le-horegekha ("by killing you", H2026 + H9031), the second built on the qal infinitive harog ("to kill", H2026) with a 2ms suffix, expressing the means by which that self-comforting occurs — Esau finds comfort through the prospect or act of killing his brother.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the hithpael participle mitnachem with ἀπειλεῖ ("threatens"), shifting the nuance from Esau's internal reflexive state of "comforting himself" to an outward act of threatening. The Vulgate follows this same sense with minatur ("threatens"), diverging from the Hebrew's reflexive/self-directed framing of consolation toward a more direct verbal threat.