וְעִנּ֣וּ (wə·‘in·nū) in Genesis 15:13: Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Conjunctive perfect - third person common plural
וְעִנּ֣וּ (wə·‘in·nū) in Genesis 15:13
Source Word
At Genesis 15:13, the Genesis 15:13 source token וְעִנּ֣וּ is H6031, Conj-w | V-Piel-ConjPerf-3cp. The H6031 Genesis 15:13 BSB+ word table row therefore anchors this guide.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
English uses a passive expression to keep the descendants prominent, while the Hebrew verb is an active plural prediction of what others will do to them. God tells Abram in advance that the promised family will endure foreign oppression, yet that suffering will not cancel His covenant purpose or final judgment of the oppressing nation.
How To Communicate It
Recover the active agency hidden by English mistreated: a plural oppressing group acts against Abram's descendants, and God promises to judge that nation.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Do not make the Piel stem itself prove a precise severity scale, and do not use divine foreknowledge to excuse the people who inflict the harm.
- The immediate clause leaves the oppressing group unnamed; the following verse calls it the nation the descendants serve.
- Read and mistreated within Genesis 15:13 as the H6031 occurrence; broader theology requires the passage.
What Does The Label Mean?
Hebrew-verb
Verb
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Conjunctive perfect - third person common plural
Piel
ConjPerf
Third
Common
Plural
Not applicable
Waw conjunction
None
Within the prophetic disclosure, the conjunctive perfect participates in the announced sequence rather than simply reporting a completed past event.
The Piel stem presents active mistreatment, the conjunctive perfect coordinates it within the prediction, and the plural inflection agrees with the unnamed oppressors.
What The Form Does In This Verse
Abram's descendants as the object of the hostile treatment that follows their enslavement in a foreign land
The Lord's certain disclosure of a long period of alien residence, service, affliction, judgment, and departure
The waw joins an intensified Piel action to the preceding service clause, and the third common plural verb leaves the foreign oppressors as the acting group.
The plural ending belongs to those who mistreat the descendants, not to the descendants as agents, and the verb form alone does not measure every kind or degree of affliction.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: God tells Abram in advance that the promised family will endure foreign oppression, yet that suffering will not cancel His covenant purpose or final judgment of the oppressing nation.
The Piel stem presents active mistreatment, the conjunctive perfect coordinates it within the prediction, and the plural inflection agrees with the unnamed oppressors.. The waw joins an intensified Piel action to the preceding service clause, and the third common plural verb leaves the foreign oppressors as the acting group.. Attached to Abram's descendants as the object of the hostile treatment that follows their enslavement in a foreign land. Governed by the Lord's certain disclosure of a long period of alien residence, service, affliction, judgment, and departure. The plural ending belongs to those who mistreat the descendants, not to the descendants as agents, and the verb form alone does not measure every kind or degree of affliction.
Who performs the action behind the English passive mistreated? The plural foreign oppressors act against Abram's descendants, even though English foregrounds the descendants as those who suffer.
Direct: English uses a passive expression to keep the descendants prominent, while the Hebrew verb is an active plural prediction of what others will do to them.
The immediate clause leaves the oppressing group unnamed; the following verse calls it the nation the descendants serve. A predictive perfect sequence does not turn the future suffering into an already completed event from Abram's viewpoint.
English passive means Hebrew passive: The Hebrew Piel verb is active and plural; English rearranges the clause around those who are mistreated. foretold oppression is approved oppression: God's disclosure includes judgment against the oppressing nation and therefore does not absolve its wrongdoing. morphology replaces literary context: The H6031 form clarifies the and mistreated relation in Genesis 15:13; the surrounding passage establishes its scope.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
At Genesis 15:13, the Genesis 15:13 source token וְעִנּ֣וּ is H6031, Conj-w | V-Piel-ConjPerf-3cp. The H6031 Genesis 15:13 BSB+ word table row therefore anchors this guide.
עָנָה is the lemma behind and mistreated here. Within Genesis 15:13, H6031 retains this exact lexical identity.
The Piel stem presents active mistreatment, the conjunctive perfect coordinates it within the prediction, and the plural inflection agrees with the unnamed oppressors.
God tells Abram in advance that the promised family will endure foreign oppression, yet that suffering will not cancel His covenant purpose or final judgment of the oppressing nation.
The covenant scene holds affliction, divine foreknowledge, judgment, and eventual deliverance together without treating oppression as morally neutral.
Recover the active agency hidden by English mistreated: a plural oppressing group acts against Abram's descendants, and God promises to judge that nation.
Do not make the Piel stem itself prove a precise severity scale, and do not use divine foreknowledge to excuse the people who inflict the harm.