Genesis 33:15

Summary

Esau proposes to leave part of his retinue with Jacob, and an unnamed speaker (understood as Jacob) declines, asking why this would be needed and reaffirming that his aim is simply to gain favor in his lord's eyes.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — repeated twice (positions 2 and 15) as a narrative qal verb form, marking two speech turns without explicitly naming the second speaker.
• 'atzigah ("let me place", H3322) — hiphil (causative) form combined with the particle na ("please", H4994), expressing a polite request: "let me set/leave."
• 'em.tza' ("let me find", H4672) — qal imperfect, here functioning with volitive/cohortative force ("let me find") rather than simple future.
• chen ("favor", H2580) — masculine singular noun, object of the verb 'em.tza', forming the fixed idiom "to find favor."
• 'einei 'adoni ("eyes of my lord", H5869H + H0113 + H9020) — a construct chain: dual noun 'einei ("eyes of") governs 'adoni ("my lord," with 1st-person suffix), producing the idiom "in the eyes of my lord" = "in his sight/opinion."

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel speech units, each introduced by va-yomer ("and he said", H0559). The first unit belongs explicitly to 'Esav ("Esau", H6215G), named as subject. The second unit repeats the identical verb form with no subject stated, so the identity of the second speaker must be inferred from the dialogue's content and from the surrounding narrative — the Hebrew grammar itself does not mark the shift in speaker.

Esau's offer uses the hiphil cohortative-style construction 'atzigah-na ("let me place, please", H3322 + H4994), softened by na, followed by the object phrase min-ha'am 'asher itti ("some of the people who are with me"), built with the relative particle 'asher ("which/who", H0834A) and the preposition 'itti ("with me", H0854 + suffix H9030).

The reply opens with the interrogative lamah zeh ("why this?", H4100 + H2088), a compact rhetorical question with no verb of its own, followed by 'emtza'-chen be'einei 'adoni ("let me find favor in the eyes of my lord"). The construct chain 'einei 'adoni places the dual noun "eyes" in construct with "my lord," so the sentence's real subject of concern is not the retinue itself but the speaker's standing in Esau's sight.

Differences between versions

The LXXSWETE text for Esau's line is abbreviated compared to the Hebrew, lacking a clear equivalent of 'atzigah-na and the relative clause 'asher itti; the surviving Greek reads simply "with you, from the people who [are] with me," omitting the request marker. For the second speech, the LXX renders lamah zeh ("why this?") as "ἵνα τί τοῦτο" (a comparable rhetorical question), but then adds "ἱκανὸν ὅτι" ("it is sufficient that") before "I have found favor," a phrase not present in the Hebrew. The Vulgate expands both speeches considerably: Esau's request becomes "ut de populo qui mecum est, saltem socii remaneant viae tuae" ("that at least companions from the people with me remain for your journey"), and the reply adds "Non est... necesse: hoc uno tantum indigeo" ("it is not necessary; I need only this one thing"), material with no counterpart in the Hebrew wording, which simply poses the question lamah zeh without such explanatory clauses.