Genesis 27:32

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Isaac his father said to him, "Who are you?" He said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau."

World English Bible · Public Domain

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עֵשָֽׂו

ʻÊsâv

H6215

“Esau”

Noun, Proper

Appears 97× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 25:25

Full BDB Definition

Origin: apparently a form of the pass. part. of H6213 in the original sense of handling

TWOT: None

Esau = "hairy" - eldest son of Isaac and Rebecca and twin brother of Jacob; sold the birthright for food when he was hungry and the divine blessing went to Jacob; progenitor of the Arab peoples

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

11: words
9: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
5 nouns
2 pronouns
1 preposition
1 particle

Verb forms

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיֹּ֕אמֶר Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר to say H559 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 19 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 11 Hebrew tokens and 21 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Genesis 27:32 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 27:18 He came to his father, and said, "My father?" He said, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?"

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Genesis 27:32 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר ל֛וֹ יִצְחָ֥ק אָבִ֖יו מִי אָ֑תָּה וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אֲנִ֛י בִּנְךָ֥ בְכֹֽרְךָ֖ עֵשָֽׂו

Isaac his father said to him, "Who are you?" He said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau."

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 27:32 Septuagint · lemma form

καί εἶπον αὐτός ισαακ ὁ πατήρ αὐτός τίς εἰμί σύ ὁ δέ εἶπον ἐγώ εἰμί ὁ υἱός σύ ὁ πρωτότοκος ησαυ

And Isaac his father said to him, Who are you? And he said, I am your firstborn son Esau.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַאֲמַר לֵהּ יִצְחָק אֲבוּהִי מָן אָתְּ וַאֲמַר אֲנָא בְּרָךְ בּוּכְרָךְ עֵשָׂו

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַאֲמַר לֵיהּ יִצְחָק אָבוֹי וַאֲמַר לֵיהּ מַאן אַנְתְּ וַאֲמַר אֲנָא בְּרָךְ בּוּכְרָךְ עֵשָו

And Izhak his father said to him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy firstborn, Esau.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Genesis 27:32 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Gen 27:32 And Isaac his father said unto him, Who [art] thou? And he said, I [am] thy son, thy firstborn Esau.

Ver. 32. Thy firstborn Esau.] But have you forgot that you sold your first birthright to your brother Jacob, who now hath outwitted you?

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

32. thy son, thy firstborn, Esau] For this triple emphasis, cf. Gen_22:2. Esau answers, as if he were surprised that Isaac should have asked who he was, or possibly at the agitated manner of the questioner.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And Isaac his father said unto him, who art thou?.... Hearing another voice more like Esau's than what he had heard before surprised him, and therefore in haste puts this question:

and he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau; all which was true in a sense; he was his son, and he was Esau, and he was his firstborn by nature, but not by right, for he had sold his birthright.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Pulpit Commentary

And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? The language indicates the patriarch"s surprise. And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. The emphatic tone of Esau"s answer may have been dictated by a suspicion, already awakened by Isaac"s question, that all was not right (Inglis). Esau"s claim to be regarded as Isaac"s firstborn, after having bartered away his birthright, is considered by some to be unwarranted (Wordsworth); but it is doubtful if Esau attached the importance to the term "firstborn" which this objection presupposes.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

said to him

"said to Esau"

Isaac trembled

"Isaac began to shake"

hunted this game

Game refers to a wild animal that people hunt and kill. See how "game" was translated in Genesis 27:7.

translationWords

Isaac

ancestor

firstborn

Esau

bless

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Ramban (Nachmanides)

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban / Nachmanides)

WHO ART THOU? When Esau said to him, Let my father arise, Isaac thought that it was Jacob, i.e., that because Jacob knew that he had eaten of Esau’s venison and blessed Esau, he too prepared savory meats so that he should bless him also. Therefore he asked, Who art thou?, in order to know the truth.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 11 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻÊsâv (“Esau”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Esau” (ʻÊsâv) shape what this verse is saying?
Genesis 27:18 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
“to say” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «וַיֹּ֥אמֶר» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 21 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 2 words in this verse.
“to say” occurs 2× in this single verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.