Genesis 33:11

Summary

Jacob asks Esau to accept the gift already sent ahead, giving two reasons introduced by ki ("for/that"): that God has favored him and that he lacks nothing. The narrative closes with Esau's initial reluctance and eventual acceptance after Jacob insists.

Key words

• kach ("take", H3947H) — qal imperative, a direct command softened by the following particle na.
• na' ("please", H4994) — a particle of entreaty attached to the imperative, marking polite request rather than blunt order.
• birkhati ("my blessing", H1293) — feminine singular noun in construct form with the 1st-person suffix "my," referring to the gift as a "blessing" rather than a neutral object.
• hubat ("it was brought", H0935P) — hophal (causative passive) perfect, meaning the grammatical subject ("blessing") is the one acted upon; the agent who brought it is not named in the verb form.
• chananni ("he has shown favor to me", H2603A) — qal perfect with 1st-person object suffix, a completed action stating that favor has already been granted.

What the text says

The verse opens with the imperative kach ("take") softened by na' ("please"), forming a polite request rather than a command. Its direct object is birkhati ("my blessing"), a construct noun with a possessive suffix, so the gift itself is labeled a "blessing" belonging to Jacob. This noun is qualified by a relative clause, asher hubat lakh ("which was brought to you"), where the verb hubat is hophal — a passive causative form. Grammatically, this removes the subject who performed the bringing; the text states only that the blessing "was brought," not who brought it, though earlier narrative context supplies the agent.

Two coordinated ki clauses follow, both functioning as grounds for the request: ki channani Elohim ("for God has shown favor to me"), using a qal perfect verb with the 1st-person suffix indicating completed action, and ve-ki yesh-li-khol ("and that there is to me everything"), an existential construction (yesh + preposition li, "to me") expressing possession without a verb "to have." The clause literally states that "everything exists for me," a common Hebrew way of expressing sufficiency or completeness of possession.

The final two verbs, vayyiftzar ("and he urged/pressed") and vayyiqqach ("and he took"), are both narrative (vav-consecutive) forms, moving the story forward: Jacob pressed, and only then did the acceptance occur.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew birkhati ("my blessing") is rendered in the LXX as τὰς εὐλογίας μου ("my blessings," plural), while the Vulgate keeps a singular form, benedictionem. Regarding the hophal passive hubat ("it was brought," agent unstated), both LXX (ἤνεγκα, "I brought") and Vulgate (attuli, "I have brought") shift to an active first-person verb, explicitly naming Jacob as the one who brought the gift, a specification absent from the Hebrew passive form itself.