Genesis 49:17

Summary

The verse compares Dan to a snake and a viper positioned on a road and path, biting a horse's heels so that its rider falls backward. It is part of Jacob's poetic pronouncements over his sons in Genesis 49.

Key words

• ye.hi- ("may he be", H1961) — qal jussive of the verb "to be", expressing a wish or prediction rather than a flat statement of fact.
• na.Chash ("a snake", H5175) — masculine singular noun, the first of two animal images applied to Dan.
• she.fi.Fon ("a viper", H8207) — masculine singular noun, paired with na.Chash in synonymous parallelism.
• no.sheKh ("[one which] bites", H5391A) — qal participle with definite article ha. ("the", H9009), describing an ongoing or characteristic action ("the one who bites") rather than a single event.
• i.yi.Pol ("he fell", H5307G) — qal narrative form (vav-consecutive), shifting the sentence from description to a resulting event ("and then he fell").

What the text says

The verse opens with the jussive ye.hi- ("may he be", H1961), a grammatical form expressing wish or characterization rather than simple present tense — it frames Dan's identity as a pronounced blessing/description rather than a neutral fact. This is followed by two parallel noun phrases: na.Chash ("a snake", H5175) 'a.lei- De.rekh ("on a road", H5921A + H1870L), and she.fi.Fon ("a viper", H8207) 'a.lei- 'O.rach ("on a path", H5921A + H0734). The repetition of 'a.lei- ("on", H5921A) with two near-synonymous terms for road (De.rekh, 'O.rach) and two near-synonymous terms for snake (na.Chash, she.fi.Fon) creates a poetic parallelism typical of Hebrew verse.

The participle no.sheKh ("[one which] bites", H5391A), marked with the definite article ha. ("the", H9009), functions almost like a relative clause: "the one that bites the heels of a horse" ('i.ke.vei- Sus, H6119 + H5483M, a construct chain meaning "heels of a horse"). Participles in Hebrew narrative/poetic verse often describe habitual or characteristic action rather than a single instance, reinforcing the image of Dan's stealth as an ongoing trait.

The final clause shifts grammatically: va-yi.Pol ("and he fell", H9001 + H5307G) uses the narrative vav-consecutive construction, which typically sequences completed past events in Hebrew narrative, here describing the result of the snake's bite. ro.khe.V-o ("its rider", H7392 + H9023) is a participle in construct with a pronominal suffix, literally "the one riding of it/him," referring back to the horse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders she.fi.Fon ("a viper", H8207) with the participle ένκαθήμενος ("lying in wait"), an interpretive addition not present as a separate lexical item in the Hebrew noun. The Vulgate translates she.fi.Fon as "cerastes" (a horned viper), a specific species name, while the Hebrew term is a more general word for viper. The Vulgate also renders the plural 'i.ke.vei- Sus ("heels of a horse", singular Sus in Hebrew) as "ungulas equi" using a singular "equi" but "ungulas" (hooves) as plural, slightly shifting the anatomical image from "heels" to "hooves."