Genesis 31:12

Summary

The speaker instructs the addressee to look up and observe that the male goats mating with the flock are marked with three colors or patterns, then gives the reason: he has seen everything that Laban has been doing to him.

Key words

• sa ("lift up", H5375M) — qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular; a direct command to perform the action of raising the eyes.
• re'eh ("see", H7200G) — qal imperative, paired with sa by the conjunction u ("and", H9002), forming a double command: lift up (the eyes) and see.
• 'atudim ("male goats", H6260) — masculine plural noun with the definite article ha (H9009), identifying the specific animals to be observed.
• 'olim ("are going up", H5927K) — qal participle, masculine plural, functioning as a verbal adjective describing the goats as those "going up on" the flock ('al ha-tson).
• ra'iti ("I have seen", H7200G) — qal perfect, 1st person singular, marking a completed action that grounds the causal clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588A).

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative verb va-yo'mer ("and he said", H0559) followed by two imperatives joined by u: sa na 'eineikha ("lift up, please, your eyes") and u-re'eh ("and see"). The particle na (H4994) softens the command, giving it the tone of an urging or entreaty rather than a bare order. The object of sight is introduced by kol ("all", H3605) in construct with ha-'atudim ha-'olim 'al ha-tson — literally "all the male goats that are going up on the flock" — where the participle 'olim describes an ongoing or characteristic action rather than a single completed event.

Three adjectives — 'aqudim ("striped", H6124), nequdim ("speckled", H5348), and berudim ("mottled", H1261), the last joined by u — describe the coloring of these goats, all in masculine plural agreement with 'atudim. The clause is grammatically simple description, without a copula, since Biblical Hebrew does not require "to be" in such predications. The causal clause begins with ki ("for", H3588A), followed by the perfect ra'iti ("I have seen"), the direct object marker 'et (H0853), and a relative clause introduced by 'asher ("that", H0834A) naming Laban and his action, expressed by the participle 'oseh ("doing", H6213A) — again a participle indicating an ongoing or repeated pattern of behavior toward the addressee, marked by the suffixed preposition lakh ("to you", H9005+H9032).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the single Hebrew term 'atudim ("male goats") with two Greek terms, tragous and krious ("goats" and "rams"), where the Hebrew names only goats. The LXX also expands ha-tson ("the flock") into ta probata kai tas aigas ("the sheep and the goats"), splitting the collective Hebrew noun into two categories. The Vulgate generalizes further, rendering 'atudim ha-'olim 'al ha-tson as "universos masculos ascendentes super feminas" ("all the males going up on the females"), removing the specific reference to goats and flock found in the Hebrew. The three Hebrew color-adjectives ('aqudim, nequdim, berudim) are rendered with four terms in the LXX (dialeukous, poikilous, spodoeideis, rantous) and three differently chosen terms in the Vulgate (varios, maculosos, respersos), showing lexical divergence in how the coloring is categorized across versions.