וַיֵּרָא
Vayera
Genesis 18:1–22:24 — three visitors, Sodom, Abimelech, Isaac and Ishmael, the Binding
Mega Bible
parasha sheet
theothermatthewmiller.com
The parasha by the numbers
Most frequent roots
כִּי for, that, because
34
Averaging 14.2 words a verse. The longest verse is
19:8 at 29 words
— Lot offering the mob his two daughters, אוֹצִיאָה־נָּא אֶתְהֶן אֲלֵיכֶם; the shortest,
21:24, has only 4
— וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָהָם אָנֹכִי אִשָּׁבֵעַ, Abraham agreeing to swear to Abimelech.
What the parasha calls God
Four designations, and a hand-off that happens twice. Chapter 18 is the Name's, ה'
ten times and אֱלֹהִים not once; אֱלֹהִים takes over in Gerar
(six of chapter 20's eight) and holds chapter 21, eleven times. The Binding splits five and five:
אֱלֹהִים tests and commands, and ה' enters with the angel's
call (22:11). Four of the six אֲדֹנָי are Abraham's plea for Sodom (18:27–32); Abimelech
echoes it: אֲדֹנָי הֲגוֹי גַּם־צַדִּיק תַּהֲרֹג (20:4).
Thirteen words that occur nowhere else in the Bible
19:29 הַהֲפֵכָה ‹הֲפֵכָה› H2018
destruction
19:38 בֶּן עַמִּי ‹בֶּן־עַמִּי› H1151
Ben-Ammi, a son of Lot
21:16 כִּמְטַחֲוֵי ‹טָחָה› H2909
to stretch a bow, as an archer
21:20 קַשָּׁת H7199
a bowman
22:9 וַיַּעֲקֹד ‹עָקַד› H6123
to tie with thongs
22:22 כֶּשֶׂד H3777
Kesed, a relative of Abraham
22:22 חֲזוֹ H2375
Chazo, a nephew of Abraham
22:22 פִּלְדָּשׁ H6394
Pildash, a relative of Abraham
22:22 יִדְלָף H3044
Jidlaph, a Mesopotamian
22:24 רְאוּמָה H7208
Reumah, a Syrian woman
22:24 טֶבַח H2875
Tebach, the name of a Mesopotamian and of an Israelite
22:24 גַּחַם H1514
Gacham, a son of Nahor
22:24 תַּחַשׁ H8477
Tachash, a relative of Abraham
Hapax legomena, counted against the whole Tanakh: thirteen of this parasha's 438
roots are used exactly once in all of Scripture, and 189 appear only once here. Nine sit in
chapter 22: וַיַּעֲקֹד (22:9), the verb that named the Binding, and eight names in the
last five verses, the sixty-word report of Nahor's family. Two are Hagar's archery, the bowshot
כִּמְטַחֲוֵי and the bowman קַשָּׁת, and two follow Sodom:
הַהֲפֵכָה, the overthrow, and בֶּן־עַמִּי, the son who becomes Ammon.
Biblical → Modern Hebrew
19:29 הֲפֵכָה
the overthrow of Sodom becomes a revolution
וַיְשַׁלַּח אֶת־לוֹט מִתּוֹךְ הַהֲפֵכָה — God sent Lot out from the midst of the overthrow (19:29). הֲפֵכָה occurs only here, but its relative מַהְפֵּכָה is the Bible's word for Sodom's fate: מַהְפֵּכַת סְדֹם וַעֲמֹרָה (Deut. 29:22; cf. Amos 4:11). Modern Hebrew kept the root and turned it round: a מַהְפֵּכָה is a revolution, a הַפִּיכָה a coup. The word for a catastrophe that leaves nothing standing now means turning a world over on purpose.
22:9 וַיַּעֲקֹד
a once-only verb becomes the name of the story
The Torah never calls Genesis 22 a sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham וַיַּעֲקֹד אֶת־יִצְחָק בְּנוֹ, bound his son (22:9), and this is the only use of the root עקד in the Bible. Tradition named the chapter after its single hapax: עֲקֵדַת יִצְחָק. In Modern Hebrew the עֲקֵדָה is shorthand for the sacrifice of sons, above all a generation lost to the nation's wars, and a poem or play on the עקדה is close to a genre.
22:1 נִסָּה
a test that proves a person becomes an attempt
וְהָאֱלֹהִים נִסָּה אֶת־אַבְרָהָם — God tested Abraham (22:1), a trial that shows what a person is made of. Modern Hebrew uses the same verb for any attempt: נִסִּיתִי, "I tried"; a נִסּוּי is a lab experiment, and נִסָּיוֹן is an attempt and the experience on a CV. Balashon asks whether נֵס, a miracle, is the same family: Abraham's ten trials against Egypt's ten miracles. The Mega Bible annotation cites Ma'agarim (Mendele, 1862, among the early examples) and Ben-Yehuda.
21:20 רֹבֶה קַשָּׁת
an archer becomes a rifle
Of Ishmael in the wilderness: וַיְהִי רֹבֶה קַשָּׁת — he became an archer (21:20). קַשָּׁת, "bowman", is a once-only word, and Hagar had sat down כִּמְטַחֲוֵי קֶשֶׁת, a bowshot off (21:16), the parasha's other archery hapax. The participle רֹבֶה, a shooter (its root is debated), is the form Modern Hebrew uses for the weapon: רוֹבֶה is a rifle. The man who shoots gave his name to the thing he shoots with. Sources: Ma'agarim (Mendele, 1862) and Ben-Yehuda.
Attested · National Library of Israel
נתנו בידי רובה כדי להגן על חיי-ולמרבה הצער גם להרוג בשעת סכנה
A State Archives sheet whose headline puts a רובה, "rifle", in a soldier's hands "to protect my life, and unfortunately also to kill in a moment of danger." Plain public vocabulary.
Nine narrative units, by word count
וַיֵּרָא
Three visitors; Sarah laughs
189 words
חָלִלָה לְּךָ
Abraham pleads for Sodom
248 words
סְדֹם
The angels, Lot, the overthrow
440 words
בְּנוֹת לוֹט
Lot's daughters: Moab & Ammon
123 words
גְּרָר
Abimelech takes Sarah
282 words
יִצְחָק
Isaac born; Hagar & Ishmael sent out
278 words
בְּאֵר שָׁבַע
Treaty with Abimelech
158 words
הִנֵּנִי
The binding of Isaac
307 words
נָחוֹר
Nahor's family
60 words
The overthrow of Sodom is the longest unit, 440 words, and Nahor's family the
shortest, 60: the parasha spends more than seven times as many words on a city's
end as on the news, in its last verses, that Rebekah has been born. The Binding, famous for its
restraint, takes 307.
More from the Modern Hebrew layer
18:4 עֵץ
the tree under which they rest → Modern Hebrew splits "wood" (עץ) from the Aramaic אִילָן for a tree; Balashon on Kutscher's Tu BiShvat question
18:6 סֹלֶת
fine flour for Sarah's cakes → semolina (Balashon, "solet and semolina")
18:8 חֶמְאָה
what Abraham serves with milk → butter (Balashon, "chemah")
18:25 חָלִלָה לְּךָ
"far be it from You" → חַס וְחָלִילָה, God forbid (Balashon, "chalila and chas")
19:24 גָּפְרִית
Sodom's brimstone → גַּפְרוּר, a match; Ben-Yehuda's מַדְלֵק lost out (Balashon, "gafrur")
21:6 צְחֹק
Sarah's laughter → laughter, play, mockery and intimacy (Balashon, "tzchok")
21:23 נִין וָנֶכֶד
descendants → great-grandson and grandson (Balashon, "neched and achyan")
Devices marked in the Mega Bible
18:26 סְדֹם
synecdoche · Rashi
19:24 גׇּפְרִית וָאֵשׁ
hendiadys · Orlinsky
20:4 הֲגוֹי
synecdoche · Radak; Seforno
20:16 לְאָחִיךְ
sarcasm · Prager
21:23 וּלְנִינִי וּלְנֶכְדִּי
wordplay · Orlinsky
22:19 אַבְרָהָם
synecdoche · Ibn Ezra; Radak
Uriel Simon on Vayera
Prof. Uriel Simon z"l read this parasha as the place where Abraham's contradictions meet: he argues with
God over Sodom, and on Moriah, and then to his son, he answers with a single word,
הִנֵּנִי (22:1, 7).
מתוך ביטחון גמור בשיפוט המוסרי העצמי שלו הריהו מטיח כלפי בוראו "חללה לך מעשת כדבר הזה להמית צדיק עם רשע"... (י״ח, 25). Out of complete confidence in his own moral judgment he flings at his Creator, "That be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked"… (18:25). —
Biblical Abraham: The Blessing of Contradictions. Read the full sheet at
theothermatthewmiller.com/uriel-simon/vayera.