Genesis 9:20

Summary

The verse opens a new narrative unit introducing Noah as "a man of the ground" who begins the action of planting a vineyard. The Hebrew uses two consecutive narrative verbs to mark the sequence: he began, and he planted.

Key words

• va-yachel ("and he began", H2490C) — hiphil narrative form; the causative stem here functions as "he began/started," introducing a new action in the story sequence.
• Noach ("Noah", H5146) — proper name, subject of both verbs in the verse.
• 'ish ("man of", H0376G) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be linked to the following noun to form a phrase ("man of X").
• ha-'adamah ("the ground", H0127G) — feminine singular noun with definite article, completing the construct phrase begun by 'ish.
• va-yitta' ("and he planted", H5193) — qal narrative form, the second sequential verb, describing the specific action that follows the general statement of "beginning."

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative verb chains joined by the vav-consecutive construction (rule for words 1 and 7): va-yachel ("and he began") and va-yitta' ("and he planted"). This grammatical pattern signals sequential action in Biblical Hebrew narrative — first Noah "began," then he "planted." The verb yachel (H2490C) is in the hiphil stem, a causative form, though here it functions idiomatically as "he began to..." rather than expressing a direct causation of another party.

Between the two verbs sits the phrase 'ish ha-'adamah ("man of the ground/soil"), a construct chain where 'ish (H0376G, construct form) is grammatically bound to ha-'adamah (H0127G, with definite article). This construct relationship means the two nouns function as a single conceptual unit — "man of the ground" — describing Noah's identity or role before the narrative states what he did. The construct noun 'ish cannot stand independently in this grammatical position; it requires the following noun to complete its meaning.

The structure thus presents identity ('ish ha-'adamah) sandwiched between two sequential actions (began / planted), with the vineyard (kerem, H3754) as the object introduced only at the end of the second clause.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'ish ha-'adamah ("man of the ground") as ἄνθρωπος γεωργὸς γῆς ("man, a farmer of the earth"), adding the occupational term "farmer" (γεωργός) not explicit in the Hebrew construct phrase. The Vulgate similarly renders it as vir agricola ("a man, a farmer"), also supplying "farmer" as an interpretive gloss for the construct relationship. The Hebrew itself states only "man of the ground," without an explicit occupational term equivalent to "farmer."