Genesis 48:4

Summary

This verse reports a divine promise, quoted by Jacob, in which God announces that he will make the addressee fruitful, multiply him into a company of peoples, and give him and his descendants a specific land as a permanent possession. The speech uses a chain of first-person verb forms describing future divine action.

Key words

• hinneni ("here I am", H2005+H9040) — the interjection with 1st-person suffix introduces the divine speech with immediacy, paired with a participle rather than a finite future verb.
• maprekha ("about to make you fruitful", H6509) — hiphil (causative) participle, construct with the 2nd-person suffix "you" (H9031); a participle after hinneni signals an action presented as already underway or imminent, not a simple future.
• hirbitikha / netatikha / netatti (H7235A, H5414I, H5414G) — each is a hiphil or qal "sequential perfect," a form that continues the chain begun by the participle, listing successive divine acts: multiplying, making into a company of peoples, and giving the land.
• qehal amim ("company of peoples", H6951 + H5971A) — construct chain: "company of" governs the plural noun "peoples," describing the scale of the promised multiplication.
• achuzat olam ("possession of perpetuity", H0272 + H5769G) — construct chain literally "possession of perpetuity," rendered as "everlasting possession"; the construct form ties the noun "possession" directly to the abstract noun "perpetuity/eternity."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure moves from a vivid present-tense opening (hinneni + participle maprekha, "here I am, one making you fruitful") into a series of sequential perfect verbs (hirbitikha, netatikha, netatti) that carry the sense of the initial participle forward as future actions: multiplying, forming into a company of peoples, and giving the land. This grammatical chain — participle followed by sequential perfects — is a common way in Biblical Hebrew narrative to present a series of connected future events as flowing from one continuous divine intention, rather than as isolated statements.

The construct chains qehal amim ("company of peoples") and achuzat olam ("possession of perpetuity") each link two nouns tightly: the first noun is defined by the second. Qehal amim frames the promised multiplication in terms of a collective body composed of "peoples" (plural), while achuzat olam frames the land grant not simply as ownership but as a "possession" characterized by the quality of "perpetuity."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the opening as a present-tense statement (αὐξάνω, "I make grow") rather than reflecting the Hebrew's hinneni + participle construction. Where the Hebrew has qehal amim ("company of peoples," H6951+H5971A), the LXX has "συναγωγὰς ἐθνῶν" ("assemblies of nations"), using "nations" (ἔθνη) rather than a term parallel to "peoples." The Vulgate's "turbas populorum" ("multitudes of peoples") stays closer to the Hebrew's "peoples" terminology than the LXX's "nations."