Genesis 9:13

Summary

God states that he has placed his bow in the clouds, and specifies that this object will function as a sign of a covenant between himself and the earth. The verse combines two verbal forms — a completed action followed by a sequential future — to link a past act with an ongoing consequence.

Key words

• qashti ("my bow", H7198) — construct singular noun with a 1st-person suffix; identifies the object as belonging to the speaker.
• natati ("I set / I have given", H5414) — qal perfect, 1st person; describes a completed action, though many translations render it as present or future ("I set", "I have set").
• 'anan ("cloud", H6051) — masculine singular noun with the definite article prefix (be-ha-, "in the"), locating the bow spatially.
• hayetah ("it will become", H1961) — qal sequential perfect (way·yiqtol-type continuation using ve- + perfect), 3rd fem. singular; carries the narrative forward from the completed act of setting the bow to its future role.
• 'ot ("sign of", H0226) — feminine singular construct noun; grammatically bound to the following noun berit, forming the phrase "sign of a covenant."

What the text says

The verse opens with the object marker 'et attached to qashti ("my bow"), placed before the verb natati — an order that foregrounds the bow as the topic. The verb natati is a qal perfect, marking a completed action ("I have set/given"), not a present continuous act; the grammar itself commits the placing of the bow to the past relative to the moment of speaking. The clause then shifts with ve-hayetah, a sequential perfect that picks up the narrative thread and projects it into the future: "and it will become." This verb agrees in gender (feminine) with qashti ("bow"), confirming that the subject of "it will become" is the bow itself. The phrase 'ot berit ("sign of a covenant") uses a construct chain: 'ot is grammatically bound to berit, so the bow is not simply "a sign" in isolation but specifically "a sign belonging to a covenant." The final clause, beini u-vein ha-'aretz ("between me and between the earth"), repeats the preposition bein twice, a common Hebrew construction for marking the two parties of a relationship, here God and "the earth" (ha-'aretz, with the definite article).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew and the Vulgate both include the phrase "sign of a covenant" ('ot berit / signum foederis). The Swete LXX text given here, however, omits explicit vocabulary for "sign" and "covenant," rendering the clause simply as "it will be between me and the earth" (ἔσται εἰς ἀνὰ μέσον ἐμοῦ καὶ τῆς γῆς), without a term corresponding to 'ot or berit.