Genesis 49:25

מֵאֵל אָבִיךָ וְיַעְזְרֶךָּ וְאֵת שַׁדַּי וִיבָרְכֶךָּ בִּרְכֹת שָׁמַיִם מֵעָל בִּרְכֹת תְּהוֹם רֹבֶצֶת תָּחַת בִּרְכֹת שָׁדַיִם וָרָֽחַם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

מֵאֵ֨ל אָבִ֜יךָ וְיַעְזְרֶ֗ךָּ וְאֵ֤ת שַׁדַּי֙ וִיבָ֣רְכֶ֔ךָּ בִּרְכֹ֤ת שָׁמַ֙יִם֙ מֵעָ֔ל בִּרְכֹ֥ת תְּה֖וֹם רֹבֶ֣צֶת תָּ֑חַת בִּרְכֹ֥ת שָׁדַ֖יִם וָרָֽחַם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ ἐβοήθησέν σοι ὁ θεὸς ὁ ἐμός, καὶ εὐλόγησέν σε εὐλογίαν οὐρανοῦ ἄνωθεν, καὶ εὐλογίαν γῆς ἐχούσης πάντα· ἕνεκεν εὐλογίας μαστῶν καὶ μήτρας,

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Deus patris tui erit adjutor tuus, et omnipotens benedicet tibi benedictionibus cæli desuper, benedictionibus abyssi jacentis deorsum, benedictionibus uberum et vulvæ.

Spanish

¡Que te ayude el Dios de tu padre! ¡Que te bendiga el Dios Todopoderoso con las bendiciones del alto cielo, con las bendiciones de las profundidades de la tierra, con las bendiciones de los pechos y del vientre!

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Del Dios de tu padre, el cual te ayudará, y del Omnipotente, el cual te bendecirá con bendiciones de los cielos de arriba, con bendiciones del abismo que está abajo, con bendiciones del seno y de la matriz.

English

by the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you, with blessings of the heavens above, with blessings of the depths below, with blessings of the breasts and womb.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse continues Jacob's blessing on Joseph, invoking two divine designations — "the God of your father" and "Shadday" — as sources of help and blessing. The blessing is structured in three parallel pairs: blessings of heaven above and the deep below, followed by blessings of breasts and womb.

Key words

'El ("[the] God of", H0410G) — construct form meaning "God of," grammatically bound to 'aviykha ("your father"), naming the divine source by relation to the ancestor rather than by an independent title.
Shadday (H7706) — an independent divine title ("Almighty"), introduced with the object marker 'et (H0853), marking it as a distinct addressee of the action, parallel to 'El 'aviykha.
yevarkhekha ("he will bless you", H1288) — piel (intensive) imperfect with vav, describing an intensified or repeated act of blessing, continuing the verbal sequence begun with ya'zerekha ("he will help you").
birkhot ("blessings of", H1293) — feminine plural construct, repeated three times (lines 14, 18, 22), structuring the verse into three matched pairs of blessing.
rovetzet ("lying", H7257) — qal participle, feminine singular, describing the tehom ("deep", H8415) as continuously "lying" or "crouching," a durative image rather than a completed action.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence extends the preceding verse's blessing formula through two divine names joined by parallel verbs: 'El 'aviykha triggers ya'zerekha ("he will help you"), and Shadday triggers yevarkhekha ("he will bless you"). Both verbs carry the vav-consecutive imperfect pattern, marked in the grammar as continuing or purposive force ("and let him help/bless"), rather than simple narrative past.

The blessing itself is organized as three construct chains, each beginning with birkhot ("blessings of"): heaven above (shamayim me'al), the deep lying beneath (tehom rovetzet tachat), and breasts and womb (shadayim varacham). The spatial contrast between "above" (me'al, H5921A) and "beneath" (tachat, H8478G) frames the first two pairs vertically, while the final pair shifts to bodily/generative blessing. The consonantal similarity between Shadday (H7706, "Almighty") and shadayim (H7699A, "breasts") is a feature of the Hebrew text, though the data marks them as separate lexical items.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'El 'aviykha ("the God of your father") as "ὁ θεὸς ὁ ἐμός" ("my God"), differing from the Hebrew's reference to the father's God. The LXX also translates the verbs as aorist ("ἐβοήθησέν," "εὐλόγησέν" — "helped," "blessed"), a past-tense rendering, while the Vulgate uses future forms ("erit adjutor," "benedicet"), aligning more closely with the Hebrew imperfect. For tehom ("the deep"), the LXX has "γῆς ἐχούσης πάντα" ("of earth having all things"), diverging from the Hebrew's "deep lying beneath," whereas the Vulgate's "abyssi jacentis deorsum" ("abyss lying below") tracks the Hebrew image closely.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.