Genesis 33:13

Summary

Jacob answers Esau's offer to travel together by explaining that the children are frail and the nursing flocks and herds need care. He warns that forcing them to travel hard for even one day would cause the flock to die.

Key words

• adoni ("my lord", H0113) — noun in construct form with the 1st-person suffix "my," the polite address Jacob uses for his brother Esau throughout their encounter.
• yodea' ("knowing", H3045) — qal participle, describing Esau's ongoing state of knowledge rather than a single completed action ("my lord is one who knows").
• rakkim ("weak/tender", H7390) — masculine plural adjective agreeing with hayeladim ("the children"), describing their physical fragility.
• 'alot ("nursing", H5763) — feminine plural qal participle, describing the flock and cattle as currently in the state of suckling young.
• depaqum ("they will drive them hard", H1849) — qal sequential perfect with 3rd-person plural subject and 3rd-person masculine plural object suffix ("them"), continuing the narrative sequence begun by yode'a.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula vayomer elav ("and he said to him"), followed by Jacob's direct speech. The core clause "adoni yodea" uses a participle rather than a finite verb, framing Esau's knowledge as a present, ongoing condition ("my lord knows/is aware") rather than a single past act of learning. The subordinate clause introduced by ki ("that/if") lists two conditions: the children are rakkim ("weak," H7390), and the flock and cattle are 'alot ("nursing," H5763) — both descriptive participial/adjectival constructions that portray states rather than actions.

The second half of the verse shifts to sequential perfects (u-defaqum, "and they will drive them," H1849; va-metu, "and they will die," H4191), a verb form that continues a chain of consequence: if the animals are driven hard one day (yom echad), all the flock (kol ha-tzon, H6629G) will die. Notably, the subject of defaqum is grammatically 3rd-person plural ("they"), an impersonal or indefinite construction — the text does not specify who would do the driving.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verb u-defaqum (H1849) has a 3rd-person plural, impersonal subject ("if they drive them hard"), while the LXX renders this with a 1st-person singular future, καταδιώξω ("if I drive them hard"), and the Vulgate similarly uses fecero laborare ("if I shall make [them] labor"), both attributing the driving directly to Jacob himself.

Additionally, where the Hebrew specifies kol ha-tzon ("all the flock/sheep," H6629G) as what will die, the LXX generalizes to πάντα τὰ κτήνη ("all the livestock/cattle"), broadening the scope beyond the Hebrew's more specific term for flock animals.