First Thought

אָנֹכִ֗י אֵרֵ֤ד עִמְּךָ֙ מִצְרַ֔יְמָה וְאָנֹכִ֖י אַֽעַלְךָ֣ גַם־עָלֹ֑ה

"I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again (Genesis 46:4)

Our Hebrew Quest Study Passage for this Lesson is the Priestly Blessing from Numbers 6, which begins, “the LORD bless you and keep you…”. The LORD kept his promises to keep Israel when the nation was in Egypt. This Lesson’s grammar subject is the Infinitive Absolute. In Hebrew, the Infinitive Absolute is often used to emphasize another verb. When this happens, the verb being emphasized will be repeated, but in the Infinitive Absolute form.

In, אַעַלְךָ גַם־עָלֹה, the literal translation might be, “I will bring you up again bringing up.” The meaning of the phrase is, “I will SURELY bring you up again,” as if to say, “Don’t worry! I am definitely bringing up out of Egypt. In fact, there is zero chance I will not bring you up!”

This is an excellent picture of what the LORD means when He says He will “keep” us!

Figure 21.1: Ketef Hinnom with archeologist Gabriel Barkay. In 1979, Barkay’s team found two tiny silver scrolls, inscribed with portions of the Priestly Blessing from Numbers 6 and apparently once used as amulets, in this burial chamber in Jerusalem. They contain what may be the oldest surviving texts from the Hebrew Bible, dating from the First Temple period, making the find one of the most significant Biblical discoveries ever made. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands