Genesis 27:7

Summary

This verse quotes Isaac's instructions (as reported by Rebekah) to bring game, prepare savory food, and allow him to eat, so that he may bless before Yehovah before his death. The sentence is structured as a chain of imperatives followed by purpose clauses.

Key words

• ha.Vi.'a ("bring", H0935P) — hiphil imperative (causative "bring/cause to come") with paragogic he (H9012) added for emphasis, intensifying the command.
• Tza.yid ("wild game", H6718A) — masculine singular noun, the direct object of the bringing.
• mat.'a.Mim ("savory foods", H4303) — masculine plural noun, the dish to be prepared from the game.
• 'o.Khe.lah ("let me eat", H0398) — qal form linked by the conjunction va ("and", H9002), expressing the purpose/result of the preceding commands: eating leads to the following action.
• 'a.va.rekh ("I may bless", H1288) — piel (intensive) imperfect with prefixed va — the sequential/purpose form ("so that I may bless"), governed by the pronominal suffix Khah ("you", H9031) attached to it.
• mo.T-i ("my death", H4194 + H9020) — construct noun with 1st person suffix, forming the phrase "before my death."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with two imperative verbs in sequence: ha.Vi.'a ("bring", H0935P), intensified by the paragogic he (H9012), and 'a.seh ("prepare", H6213H). Both commands are directed at the addressee and take first-person object suffixes (li, "to me / for me", H9030) — the game and the food are to be brought and prepared "for me." This construction places the speaker as the beneficiary of both actions.

The verb 'o.Khe.lah ("let me eat", H0398) is joined by the conjunction va and functions as a purpose or consequential clause following the imperatives: the game and food are gathered and cooked so that eating can occur. The next clause, introduced by another va-prefixed verb, 'a.va.rekh ("I may bless", H1288) in the piel stem, continues this chain of purpose — the intensive stem here conveys a formal or solemn act of blessing rather than a casual one. The object of the blessing is marked by the suffix Khah ("you", H9031) attached directly to the verb.

The phrase li-f.Nei Yah.weh ("before Yehovah", H6440G + H3068G) uses the construct form f.Nei ("face of"), a common idiom meaning "in the presence of." This same construct noun is repeated in li-f.Nei mo.T-i ("before my death"), creating a structural parallel between the two "before" phrases — one spatial/relational (before Yehovah) and one temporal (before my death) — both governed by the same preposition-plus-construct-noun pattern.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Tza.yid ("wild game", H6718A) as θήραν ("hunt/quarry"), and adds the conjunction ἵνα ("so that") with a participle φαγὼν ("having eaten") to link eating and blessing more explicitly as cause-and-result, where the Hebrew uses two parallel va-prefixed verb forms without a subordinating conjunction. The Vulgate's de venatione tua ("from your hunting") supplies "tua" ("your"), a specification not present in the Hebrew Tza.yid, which lacks a possessive suffix.