Exodus 1:4

Summary

This verse continues the list of Jacob's sons who came to Egypt, naming the last four in the enumeration: dan ("Dan", H1835G), naftali ("Naphtali", H5321G), gad ("Gad", H1410G), and 'asher ("Asher", H0836). The verse consists entirely of proper names joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002).

Key words

• dan ("Dan", H1835G) — proper name, listed first with no preceding conjunction, functioning as the opening item of this segment of the list.
• ve.naftali ("and Naphtali", H5321G) — proper name prefixed with ve ("and", H9002), pairing it with dan as the first pair in the list.
• gad ("Gad", H1410G) — proper name, again appearing without a preceding conjunction, opening the second pair.
• ve.'asher ("and Asher", H0836) — proper name prefixed with ve ("and", H9002), closing the second pair and the verse.

What the text says

The Hebrew text of this verse is structured as two pairs of names, each pair internally joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002): dan ve.naftali ("Dan and Naphtali") and gad ve.'asher ("Gad and Asher"). Notably, there is no conjunction connecting the first pair to the second — the text moves from naftali directly to gad without any linking particle. This creates a rhythmic structure of two coordinated pairs set side by side, rather than a single continuous chain of "and...and...and" connections that might be expected in a simple list.

This pairing pattern is consistent with the broader listing technique seen in Exodus 1:1-4, where the sons of Jacob are grouped rather than presented as one undifferentiated sequence. The absence of a conjunction between "Naphtali" and "Gad" is a grammatical feature visible only in the Hebrew; translations that render the whole verse as a flowing list (e.g., "Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher") preserve this structure through punctuation (a comma) rather than through conjunction, since English and Spanish versions cannot fully replicate the asyndeton (lack of conjunction) at that juncture using function words alone.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Δὰν καὶ Νεφθαλεί, Γὰδ καὶ Ἀσήρ) and the Vulgate (Dan et Nephthali, Gad et Aser) both preserve the same two-pair structure as the Hebrew, using their respective conjunctions (καὶ, "and"; et, "and") only within each pair and a comma between the pairs, matching the Hebrew's asyndeton at that point. The Spanish (RV1909, SBLIBRE) and English (BSB) translations likewise retain this pattern, showing agreement across all versions in preserving the paired structure of the names.