Genesis 27:6

Summary

Rebekah speaks to her son Jacob, informing him that she has overheard a conversation between his father Isaac and his brother Esau. The verse introduces her report through two nested speech-formulas, both marked by lemor ("saying", H0559).

Key words

• 'a.me.Rah ("she said", H0559) — qal perfect, 3rd feminine singular, marking Rebekah's completed act of speaking that opens the verse.
• le.mor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct, used twice (after "to Jacob her son" and after "to Esau your brother"), a standard Hebrew device introducing direct speech.
• sha.Ma'.ti ("I have heard", H8085G) — qal perfect, 1st person singular, expressing a completed act of perception from Rebekah's point of view.
• me.da.Ber ("speaking", H1696G) — piel participle, masculine singular, describing Isaac's ongoing action as heard by Rebekah — the participle conveys an action in progress at the moment overheard, not a finished one.
• be.Nah ("her son", H1121A + H9024) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, identifying Jacob's relation to Rebekah before the report begins.

What the text says

The verse is built on two layers of embedded speech. The outer layer is introduced by ve.riv.Kah 'a.me.Rah 'el-ya.'a.Ko be.Nah le.mor — "and Rebekah said to Jacob her son, saying," a doubled construction combining the perfect verb 'a.me.Rah ("she said") with the infinitive le.mor ("saying"), a common Biblical Hebrew pattern that frames the upcoming quotation. Within that quotation, Rebekah reports her own perception using hi.Neh sha.Ma'.ti ("here! I have heard"), where the interjection hi.Neh (H2009) draws attention to the immediacy of her statement, and the perfect verb sha.Ma'.ti marks the hearing as a completed event prior to the moment of speaking.

The object of her hearing is expressed through a participial clause: 'a.Vi.kha me.da.Ber 'el-'e.Sav 'a.Chi.kha le.mor — "your father speaking to Esau your brother, saying." Here the piel participle me.da.Ber ("speaking") does not mark tense the way a finite verb would; instead it presents Isaac's speech as an action perceived in its unfolding, which is why English and Spanish renderings use "speaking" or "hablando" rather than a completed "spoke." A second le.mor then opens the following verse, where Isaac's actual words will be quoted.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds τὸν ἐλάσσω ("the younger"), a descriptive qualifier for Jacob not present in the Hebrew text at this point. The Vulgate renders me.da.Ber ("speaking") as the participle loquentem, matching the Hebrew grammatical form, while the Vulgate also omits an equivalent for hi.Neh ("here!"), moving directly to "Audivi" ("I have heard").