Go, Go

Walsh notes the unusual repetition of the imperative lek (“go”) in Genesis 12:1: ” lek-leka from your father’s house.”  He observes that the only other use of this particular form in the OT comes in Genesis 22:2, where Abraham is told, ” lek-leka to the land of Moriah” to sacrifice Isaac.  Yahweh’s call to Abram to leave his father’s house is thus paralleled to the command to sacrifice his son.  Abram tears himself away twice, in opposite directions: He leaves his father and the past to journey to the land, only to be told that he needs to cut off his future as well.

In a plural form, the same repetition occurs in Joshua 22:4 ( leku-lakem ) when Joshua instructs the Reubenites and Gadites to return to their transJordanian lands that the Lord has given to them.  Twice the lover in the Song of Songs uses the same double command when he calls his beloved to join him in the place where spring has burst out (SoS 2:10, 13).