Genesis 38:17

Summary

The verse records a two-part exchange: the man (Judah) promises to send gedi 'izzim ("a kid of goats", H1423/H5795) from the flock, and the woman (Tamar) responds with a conditional demand for a pledge ('eravon, H6162) to be held until the promised animal is delivered.

Key words

• 'anokhi ("I", H0595) — independent personal pronoun placed before the verb, adding emphasis to the speaker's identity as the one who will send.
• 'ashallach ("I will send", H7971G) — piel imperfect first-person form; the piel stem here carries an intensive or directed nuance of sending, distinct from a simple qal action.
• gedi ("a kid of", H1423) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be paired with the following word to form "a kid of goats."
• 'im ("if", H0518A) — conditional particle opening Tamar's reply, making her agreement to the arrangement contingent on receiving something first.
• shalchekha ("your sending", H7971G + H9041) — qal infinitive of the same root used in verse's first verb, with a second-person pronominal suffix, meaning literally "until your sending" — i.e., until the moment he sends the kid.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure alternates between two speakers using the narrative vav (H9001) construction typical of biblical Hebrew dialogue: va-yo'mer ("and he said") followed later by va-tomer ("and she said"). Judah's statement opens with the emphatic pronoun 'anokhi ("I") before the verb 'ashallach ("I will send"), a word order that foregrounds the speaker's personal commitment to the action. The object of his promise, gedi-'izzim min ha-tzon ("a kid of goats from the flock"), uses a construct chain (gedi + 'izzim) that tightly binds the animal type to its category.

Tamar's reply pivots on the conditional particle 'im ("if"), which subordinates her willingness to the fulfillment of a condition: receiving 'eravon ("a pledge", H6162). The temporal boundary of this arrangement is marked by 'ad shalchekha ("until your sending"), where the infinitive form of the same root used earlier (sh-l-ch, "to send") returns with a pronominal suffix, creating a lexical link between Judah's promise and Tamar's condition — the pledge remains in effect precisely until the act of sending is completed.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'anokhi with Ἐγὼ ("I") and adds σοι ("to you"), making explicit a recipient that is only implied in the Hebrew through context. The Vulgate's Mittam tibi similarly supplies "to you," a dative object not grammatically present in the Hebrew verb 'ashallach itself, which carries no explicit indirect object marker in this clause.