Genesis 28:3

Summary

The verse records a blessing formula invoking 'El Shaddai ("God Almighty", H0410G/H7706) to bless, make fruitful, and multiply the addressee, with the stated outcome that he will become a qehal 'ammim ("company of peoples", H6951/H5971A).

Key words

• 'El Shaddai ("God Almighty", H0410G + H7706) — a construct-form divine title combining the generic noun for "God" with the epithet "Shaddai," functioning as the subject of the three following verbs.
• yevarekh ("may he bless", H1288) — piel imperfect, an intensive stem conveying a full or effective blessing, grammatically marked as a wish/future action.
• yafrekha ("may he make fruitful", H6509) — hiphil imperfect with vav, causative form ("cause to be fruitful"), continuing the blessing sequence begun by yevarekh.
• yarbekha ("may he multiply", H7235A) — hiphil imperfect with vav, causative, parallel in form to yafrekha, extending the same chain of wished-for actions.
• hayita ("you will become", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, shifting from the imperfect chain to a perfect form that marks the resulting or consequent state: becoming a qehal 'ammim.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of four verbs governed by the same subject, 'El Shaddai. The first three — yevarekh, yafrekha, yarbekha — are imperfects (the latter two prefixed with vav), a grammatical pattern that in blessing formulas expresses successive wished-for or potential actions: bless, make fruitful, multiply. The shift to hayita, a vav-consecutive (sequential) perfect, marks a change in aspect from the ongoing/future verbs to a resulting state — "and you will have become." This grammatical shift is significant: the perfect form signals that becoming a qehal 'ammim ("company of peoples") is presented as the outcome or endpoint of the preceding blessing sequence, rather than another parallel wish.

The phrase qehal 'ammim uses two nouns in construct relationship: qahal ("assembly, company") construct to 'ammim ("peoples"), yielding "an assembly of peoples" — a collective noun paired with a plural noun, emphasizing multiplicity within unity.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the divine title as ho de theos mou ("but my God"), differing from the Hebrew 'El Shaddai ("God Almighty") and lacking the "Almighty" epithet; the Vulgate instead reads Deus... omnipotens, matching "Almighty" more closely. Where the Hebrew has singular qehal ("company"), the LXX uses plural synagōgas ethnōn ("congregations of nations"), and the Vulgate reads turbas populorum ("crowds/multitudes of peoples"), both pluralizing what the Hebrew presents as one singular construct noun (qehal, "company of").