Genesis 27:44

Summary

Rebekah instructs Jacob to stay with her brother Laban for a period of time, until the anger of his brother (Esau) subsides. The verse expresses a temporary arrangement bounded by a future condition.

Key words

• yashavTa ("you will remain", H3427) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain from the preceding instructions; conveys an instruction/command with future-oriented sense ("you shall stay").
• yamim ("days", H3117G) — masculine plural noun, paired with the following numeral to indicate a span of time.
• 'achadim ("ones", H0259) — cardinal number, masculine plural, modifying yamim; together the phrase denotes an indefinite short duration ("a few days" / "some days").
• tashuv ("it will turn back", H7725I) — qal imperfect, third person feminine, agreeing with the feminine noun chamat ("anger"); marks an unfulfilled future action — the anger's eventual reversal.
• chamat ("[the] anger of", H2534) — feminine singular noun in construct state, linked to 'achikha ("your brother"), forming the phrase "the anger of your brother."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on ve-yashavTa, tying this instruction directly to what precedes it in Rebekah's speech. The sequential perfect form here functions as a directive continuing the flow of commands rather than reporting a completed past action — a grammatical feature that Hebrew narrative perfects can carry when chained after other imperatives or instructions.

The phrase yamim 'achadim ("days, ones") uses the plural cardinal number 'achad in an unusual plural form to express an indefinite, short period — rendered by the various versions as "a few days," "some days," "a while," or "a time." The construction does not specify an exact number, only vagueness of duration.

The temporal boundary is marked by 'ad 'asher ("until that"), introducing a subordinate clause with the imperfect verb tashuv ("it will turn back/return"), whose subject is the feminine noun chamat ("anger of"). The verb shuv in this context describes the anger's action of subsiding — literally "turning back" — agreeing grammatically in gender with its subject. The construct chain chamat 'achikha ("anger of your brother") specifies whose anger is in view, with the pronominal suffix -kha ("your") attached to 'achi ("brother").

Differences between versions

The Vulgate uses requiescat ("rest/be still") for the Hebrew tashuv ("turn back"), a different verbal image — rest versus reversal/turning — though both describe the anger's cessation. The LXX excerpt provided stops at "some days" (hēmeras tinas) and does not include the clause about the brother's anger turning back, so no direct comparison is possible for that portion from the given text.