At Genesis 21’s end, Abimelech seeks a covenant of loyalty with Abraham:
Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son; but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.’ (Genesis 21:23)
וְעַתָּה הִשָּׁבְעָה לִּי בֵאלֹהִים הֵנָּה: אִם תִּשְׁקֹר לִי וּלְנִינִי וּלְנֶכְדִּי. כַּחֶסֶד אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתִי עִמְּךָ תַּעֲשֶׂה עִמָּדִי, וְעִם הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר גַּרְתָּה בָּהּ. (בראשית כ"א, כג)
Why does Abimelech mention his nin and nekhed – in modern Hebrew, great-grandson and grandson – but not his son? Do these words differ in meaning from today’s usage?
The words nin (נין) and nekhed (נכד) are rare in Scripture, occurring just three times, always together and in that order. Besides Abimelech’s words, they appear in Isaiah: “and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and offshoot and offspring” (Isaiah 14:22), and Job: “He shall have neither son nor son’s son among his people” (Job 18:19).
Onkelos understood them as two different generations, translating “דְּלָא תְּשַׁקַּר בִּי וּבִבְרִי וּבְבַר בְּרִי”: that you will not deal falsely with me, my son, or my son’s son. On this approach, also adopted by Ibn Ezra and Radak, biblical nin means son, while nekhed means grandson, as in modern Hebrew. JPS follows this generational interpretation in Genesis 21:23.
The Septuagint, however – written in the third century BCE, when biblical Hebrew had not wholly lost its ancient understanding, and one of the earliest witnesses to biblical interpretation – suggests these words name descendants generally, as synonyms, rather than specific generations. It renders Abimelech’s request: “that you will not wrong me, nor my seed, nor my name.”
On this reading, Abimelech sought continuing loyalty to himself, his descendants, and his memory through generations, rather than an undertaking toward specified generations.
