Genesis 28:13

Summary

Genesis 28:13 describes Yehovah standing near or above the ladder in Jacob's vision and speaking a self-identification formula, tracing continuity with Abraham and Isaac before promising the land beneath Jacob to him and his offspring. The verse pivots from a scene-setting interjection to direct divine speech introduced by a narrative verb form.

Key words

• niTzav ("[was] standing", H5324) — niphal participle, describing Yehovah's posture as an ongoing state rather than a single completed action; participles in Hebrew narrative often "freeze" a scene for the reader.
• 'aLav ("on it/him", H5921A + suffix) — preposition with third-person masculine singular suffix; the referent (the ladder seen earlier in the vision, or Jacob himself) is not specified by the Hebrew form alone, since the suffix is grammatically masculine and could match either antecedent depending on context.
• 'eloHei ("[the] God of", H0430G) — plural noun in construct state; the plural form for "God" is standard in the construct chain "God of Abraham," functioning as a title rather than indicating multiple deities.
• 'etteNennah ("I will give it", H5414G) — qal imperfect first-person with an attached object suffix (-nah, "her/it"), referring back to ha'Aretz ("the land", feminine); the imperfect aspect marks the giving as a future or continuing action tied to the promise.
• zar'Ekha ("your offspring", H2233H + suffix) — construct singular noun with second-person suffix, a collective term for descendants, coordinated with the second-person pronoun as joint recipient of the land.

What the text says

The verse opens with the interjection hiNneh ("there!", H2009), a device that shifts the narrative into vivid immediacy, followed by the subject YHWH and the participle niTzav, which portrays Yehovah already positioned in the scene rather than arriving within it. The narrative vav-consecutive verb vaYomer ("and he said") then moves the action forward into direct speech. The speech itself begins with the formula 'aNi YHWH, "I [am] Yehovah," followed by a construct chain — 'eloHei 'avraHam 'aVikha, "God of Abraham your father," and 'eloHei yitzChak, "God of Isaac" — establishing genealogical continuity through construct nouns rather than independent clauses. The land is introduced with the definite article on ha'Aretz and specified by a relative clause using 'aSher with the participle shoKhev ("lying"), describing Jacob's physical position. The verb 'etteNennah carries the promise, its suffix grammatically anchoring the object back to the feminine noun "land," and the sentence closes by extending the recipients to zar'Ekha.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew suffix in 'aLav is masculine, while the LXX renders the phrase with the feminine Greek pronoun αὐτῆς, matching the feminine Greek noun for "ladder" and thus specifying that referent explicitly, something the Hebrew form leaves grammatically open. The Vulgate similarly clarifies by naming scalæ ("ladder") directly rather than relying on a pronoun. Additionally, the LXX inserts μὴ φοβοῦ ("do not fear"), a phrase not present in the Hebrew text or in the Vulgate as given.