Genesis 31:3

Summary

Yehovah speaks directly to Jacob, commanding him to return to his ancestral land and his kindred, and attaches to this command a promise of divine presence: "I will be with you."

Key words

• shuv ("return", H7725) — qal imperative, second person masculine singular. A direct command with no softening particle, addressed straight to Jacob.
• 'Eretz ("land of", H0776) — feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be followed by another noun to complete its sense ("land of...").
• 'avoteikha ("your fathers", H0001) — masculine plural noun (from the root for "father") with second person masculine singular pronominal suffix "-kha", construct to 'Eretz.
• moladtekha ("your kindred/birthplace", H4138) — feminine singular noun in construct, also carrying the "-kha" suffix; paired with 'avoteikha via the conjunction u ("and").
• 'eh'yeh ("I will be", H1961) — qal imperfect, first person singular, prefixed with the conjunction ve ("and"). The imperfect form here follows an imperative and functions as a purpose or consequential continuation: "so that I may be" or "and I will be."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative construction vayomer ("and he said", H0559), the standard verb form used in Hebrew narrative to advance the storyline. The subject is Yehovah (H3068), introduced with the preposition 'el ("to", H0413) directing the speech toward Ya'aqov ("Jacob", H3290).

The core of the divine speech is built on two grammatical elements: the imperative shuv ("return") and the following imperfect 'eh'yeh ("I will be"). This sequence — imperative followed by vav-prefixed imperfect — is a common Hebrew pattern where the second verb expresses either the purpose of the first action or its guaranteed result. Here it links Jacob's return to the promise of accompaniment: the movement commanded and the presence promised are grammatically tied together in one continuous statement rather than presented as two separate assertions.

The destination is expressed through two construct chains sharing the same second person suffix -kha ("your"): 'eretz 'avoteikha ("land of your fathers") and moladtekha ("your kindred"), joined by the conjunction u ("and"). Both nouns depend grammatically on the pronoun "your," binding the geographic destination (land) and the social/familial destination (kindred) into a single compound goal for Jacob's return.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'avoteikha ("your fathers", plural) with the singular τοῦ πατρός σου ("your father"), narrowing the plural ancestral reference found in the Hebrew to one figure. The Vulgate, by contrast, preserves the plural with patrum tuorum ("of your fathers"), matching the Hebrew construct more closely than the Greek does.