Genesis 9:16

Summary

Genesis 9:16 states that the bow will be present in the cloud, and that seeing it will prompt an act of remembering the perpetual covenant. The verse specifies the parties of this covenant as being God and every living creature on the earth.

Key words

• ha.ye.Tah ("it will be", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative sequence begun in the prior verses; the feminine form agrees with qeshet ("bow").
• re.'i.Ti. ("I will see", H7200G) — qal sequential perfect, first person, with the attached pronominal suffix ha ("her/it") referring back to the bow.
• li.z.Kor ("to remember", H2142) — qal infinitive with the preposition li ("to"), expressing purpose: seeing the bow leads to this action.
• be.Rit ("covenant of", H1285) — feminine singular noun in construct state, linked to o.Lam ("perpetuity", H5769G) to form the phrase "covenant of perpetuity."
• bein...u.Vein ("between...and between", H0996G) — repeated construct form marking the two parties joined by the covenant: Elohim and "every living creature."

What the text says

The verse is built on two sequential perfect verbs — ha.ye.Tah ("it will be") and re.'i.Ti. ("I will see") — both continuing the narrative flow established earlier in the chapter. The subject of the first verb is ha.Qeshet ("the bow", H7198), located be.'a.Nan ("in the cloud", H6051). The second verb carries a pronominal suffix ha attached directly to it, meaning "I will see her/it," referring back to the bow without repeating the noun.

The infinitive li.z.Kor ("to remember") expresses the purpose of the seeing: the act of perceiving the bow is tied grammatically to the act of remembering. What is remembered is be.Rit o.Lam, a construct chain literally "covenant of perpetuity" — the head noun be.Rit is modified by o.Lam ("perpetuity", H5769G) to specify the nature of the covenant.

The parties to this covenant are marked by the repeated preposition bein ("between", H0996G), first before Elohim ("God", H430G) and then again (u.Vein) before the phrase kol-Ne.fesh chai.Yah ("every living creature", H3605 + H5315K + H2416A) — the noun Ne.fesh ("creature") is feminine, modified by the feminine adjective chai.Yah ("living"). This is further specified by be.khol-ba.Sar ("among all flesh", H3605 + H1320), qualified by the relative clause 'a.Sher 'al-ha.'A.retz ("which is on the earth").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the first party of the covenant as ἀνὰ μέσον ἐμοῦ ("between me"), a first-person form, where the Hebrew text has bein Elohim ("between God", H430G), a third-person noun. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew structure with inter Deum ("between God"), matching the third-person form found in the Hebrew text.