Genesis 28:1

Summary

The verse narrates a sequence of four actions by Isaac toward Jacob: he summoned him, blessed him, gave him a command, and spoke a direct prohibition. The content of the command is that Jacob must not take a wife from among the daughters of Canaan.

Key words

• yiqra' ("he summoned", H7121G) — qal narrative verb, third masculine singular; opens the chain of sequential actions typical of Hebrew narrative.
• yevarekh ("he blessed", H1288) — piel narrative verb; the piel stem here carries an intensive nuance of formal blessing rather than a simple statement.
• yetzavvehu ("he commanded him", H6680) — piel verb with pronominal suffix hu ("him", H9033) attached directly to the verb, fusing subject, action, and object into one word.
• tiqqach ("you must take", H3947I) — qal imperfect, second masculine singular; the imperfect form conveys an instruction with ongoing/future force rather than a completed act.
• mibbenot ("from the daughters of", H1323G construct + H9006) — feminine plural construct noun bound to Kena'an ("Canaan", H3667A), forming a possessive chain "daughters of Canaan."

What the text says

The verse is built on a chain of four narrative verbs joined by the va- ("and", H9001) prefix, each marked for sequential past action: yiqra' ("he summoned"), yevarekh ("he blessed"), yetzavvehu ("he commanded him"), and yomer ("he said"). This chain structure is a standard feature of Hebrew narrative prose, presenting the four actions as a single continuous sequence of events performed by Isaac.

The direct object marker 'oto ("him", H0853 + H9033) after yevarekh explicitly marks Jacob as the recipient of the blessing, while in yetzavvehu the same pronominal element is suffixed directly onto the verb rather than appearing as a separate word. The content of the command itself shifts from narrative report to direct speech, introduced by yomer lo ("he said to him"), and the instruction is phrased with the negation lo' ("not", H3808) plus the imperfect tiqqach ("you must take", H3947I), which grammatically expresses a prohibition with continuing force rather than a single forbidden act. The object of the prohibition, ishah ("a wife", H0802H), is further specified by the construct phrase mibbenot Kena'an ("from the daughters of Canaan"), where the plural construct noun benot ("daughters of", H1323G) binds grammatically to the place name Kena'an ("Canaan", H3667A), indicating the group from which no wife is to be taken.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders ishah ("a wife") as conjugem ("spouse"), a slightly more formal term than the Hebrew ishah. The LXX and Vulgate both express the prohibition with a direct negative command (Οὐ λήμψῃ, Noli accipere), matching the Hebrew's negated imperfect construction without notable divergence in meaning.