What is the literal translation of Genesis 15:6 (b)?

Question

And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. [Genesis 15:6 KJV]

וְהֶאֱמִן, בַּיהוָה; וַיַּחְשְׁבֶהָ לּוֹ, צְדָקָה. Genesis 15:6

The middle Hebrew word of the text appears three times in scripture, the other two being when Jacob thought Tamar was an harlot and when Eli thought Hannah was drunk.

(See the two references on Biblehub Concordance. )

On those two occasions, an estimation or an evaluation was made, in regard to appearance and on both those occasions the spectators were wrong.

But God looketh not on the outward appearance but on the heart and when God looked at the faith of Abraham, God saw something.

What he saw was - righteousness.

The Hebrew noun lacks case, only being characterised by number and grammatical gender. So there is no genitive or dative to be imagined in regard to the word 'righteousness'.

Therefore would it be correct to translate Genesis 15:6 (b) in its most basic literal form as :

... and he estimated to him - righteousness.

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Edit in Response to the Accepted Answer :

The word 'reckon' as with 'account' has currency in mind so I prefer to avoid that. I take the point in regard to 'estimate'. 'Impute' I really do not like as it sounds as though something is being arbitrarily supposed. So I am staying with 'evaluate' which is the word I use for logizomai in the New Testament Koine Greek. God saw within Abraham's faith that Abraham believed that what God had promised, God would faithfully do. In other words, Abraham saw righteousness in God. And God saw his own Rightness in Abraham's faith. Thus God evaluated that to Abraham. It would be unjust not to do so.

Answer 1

Four hundred and thirty years before the Law was given, God saw the faith of Abram, for Abram demonstrated faith in God's promise to him. In his heart, Abram believed God, but not as an intellectual assent to a form of words. To Abram, it was as good as done, for God would do what He had promised, and God knew that Abram had that degree of living faith in Him within his heart.

That was what God saw, and that was what God evaluated, or reckoned, or weighed up. After that evaluation, God knew that such faith in His promise demonstrated belief in the righteousness of God. So, when God looked at Abram, he 'saw' His own righteousness. After all, as the scripture says, "There is no-one righteous, no not one." (Romans 3:10)

So, this deals with what was counted, and what this righteousness was. But the question asks what the most literal translation of Genesis 15:6 (b) should be. It should be a translation that correctly puts those points together.

That may be found in Young's Literal Translation which reads:

"...and he reckoneth it to him - righteousness." Gen 15:6 YLT

That accords almost exactly with the suggestion in the question, "...and he estimated to him - righteousness."

Perhaps reckoning (as in counting, to see what something adds up to) is better than 'estimating'. After all, getting an estimate from a tradesman is not the same as getting a precise quote. Scripture does not seem to say anywhere that God makes estimations about matters, or individuals, but that he weighs up with total accuracy, seeing everything, and so comes to a one-hundred-percentage correct evaluation.

Evaluation was done by God, who evaluated righteousness. He could then justly reckon to Abram, due to Abram's faith in God - righteousness. The YLT is good because it avoids the trap many people have fallen into, that of supposing God looks down on people of faith, and sees their righteousness. He sees faith that is based on God's righteousness, which is then evaluated unto the person displaying such faith.

My answer, therefore, is that the best, most literal translation of Genesis 15:6 (b) is that of the YLT, "...and he reckoneth it to him - righteousness."

Answer 2

I like Anne's answer. I'll offer something additional by way of support.

I think the LXX offers help here. The LXX translators knew Hebrew and knew Greek. So, those translators, by way of the LXX, provide an additional perspective. The LXX has:

καὶ ἐπίστευσεν Αβραμ τῷ θεῷ καὶ ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην

The preposition εἰς supports the semantics of the dash in "... - righteousness" in the sense that εἰς serves as a pointer. It's like an arrow. Just like the dash, points to the answer of the question, "where is this evaluation going to end up?"

Sometimes people don't grasp that punctuation is part of the translation; but, it carries meaning, too. So, it can be used, and should be used, to convey the original meaning. The source languages didn't (for the most part) have punctuation, but the destination language (English) uses a lot of it. So, I don't think it's a stretch at all to consider the dash as a translation of εἰς. I have to admit I'm somewhat happy about the fact that a literal translation thought to use a dash. It's a kind sort of happy. :-)

In other words, I think the LXX translators agree with you. How else could you word the Hebrew meaning into Greek. It's not like they had an emdash they could use.