Genesis 49:19

Summary

The verse describes Gad using a threefold wordplay on his name: raiding bands will attack him, but he in turn will attack "at the heel." The Hebrew text builds this through repetition of the same verbal root across the two clauses of the blessing.

Key words

• Gad ("Gad", H1410G) — the proper name that anchors the sound-play with the following words.
• geDud ("a marauding band", H1416) — masculine singular noun sharing the root ג-ו-ד with the verbs that follow, functioning as the subject of the first clause.
• yegudeNu ("it will attack him", H1464) — qal imperfect 3rd person masculine singular with the pronominal suffix "him," making Gad the grammatical object of the raiding band's action.
• Hu' ("he", H1931) — independent personal pronoun placed before the second verb, giving contrastive emphasis to Gad's own action versus what is done to him.
• yaGud ("he will attack", H1464) — same root repeated, now with Gad (via Hu') as subject rather than object.
• 'aKev ("a heel", H6119) — masculine singular noun marking the manner or point of Gad's counter-attack.

What the text says

The verse is built on a single triliteral root, ג-ו-ד, appearing three times: as the noun geDud ("band") and as the two verbs yegudeNu and yaGud ("it will attack / he will attack"). This repetition creates a paronomasia with the name Gad itself, since the consonants overlap. Grammatically, the sentence has two parallel clauses: in the first, geDud is the subject and Gad (via the suffix on yegudeNu) is the object — "a band will attack him." In the second clause, the independent pronoun Hu' is placed before the verb yaGud, a construction that shifts emphasis onto Gad as the acting subject, reversing the roles of the first clause. The final word, 'aKev ("heel"), specifies the mode of Gad's counter-attack, though the Hebrew does not state whose heel is meant, leaving the referent grammatically unspecified.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders geDud as πειρατήριον ("band of raiders/pirates") and both verbs as πειρατεύσει ("will raid"), preserving the repetition of a single root as in the Hebrew. However, where the Hebrew has the singular noun 'aKev ("heel"), the LXX has κατὰ πόδας ("according to the feet") with a plural pronoun αὐτῶν ("them"), shifting from a singular object to a plural one.

The Vulgate diverges more substantially: it renders geDud as accinctus ("girded, armed") rather than "a band," and uses praeliabitur ante eum ("will fight before him"), reversing the direction of the action compared to the Hebrew's "a band will attack him." Its second clause, ipse accingetur retrorsum ("he himself will be girded backward"), also differs from the Hebrew's active "he will attack the heel," presenting a passive image instead.