Exodus 6:20

Summary

This verse reports the marriage of Amram to Jochebed, identified as his father's sister, and the birth of their sons Aaron and Moses. It closes with Amram's total lifespan, given as one hundred thirty-seven years.

Key words

• dodaTo ("father's sister", H1733) — feminine singular construct with pronominal suffix "his," specifying the exact degree of kinship between Amram and Jochebed.
• va-yiQach ("and he took", H3947I) — qal verb in narrative form, the standard idiom for "he took [a wife]," opening the sequence of action.
• va-Teled ("and she bore", H3205) — qal narrative verb, third person feminine, marking the second event in the chain (birth following marriage).
• sheNei chaYei ("years of the life of", H8141 + H2416E) — double construct chain ("years of... life of..."), the standard formula introducing a lifespan total.
• me'At shaNah ("hundred... year", H3967 + H8141) — construct number combined with the singular noun "year," part of the compound numeral "seven and thirty and a hundred."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of three narrative clauses linked by the vav-consecutive: Amram "took" (va-yiqqach) Jochebed as wife, she then "bore" (va-teled) Aaron and Moses, and finally the text states the total years of Amram's life. The kinship term dodato ("his father's sister," H1733) is a construct noun with a possessive suffix, giving a precise genealogical description rather than a general term for "relative."

The lifespan formula follows a fixed compositional pattern found elsewhere in the Torah's genealogies: a construct chain shenei chayyei ("years of the life of") followed by the personal name, then the numeral itself, expressed as a sequence of units before larger orders ("seven and thirty and a hundred," i.e., 137), with shanah ("year," H8141) appearing in the singular even though the total is plural, a common feature of Hebrew numeral syntax where the counted noun follows the smallest or the whole construct chain rather than agreeing in plural form throughout.

Differences between versions

The LXX identifies Jochebed differently: instead of "father's sister," it reads "the daughter of the brother of his father" (θυγατέρα τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ), a different degree of kinship than the Hebrew dodato ("his father's sister," H1733). The LXX also adds a clause not present in the Hebrew word list given, naming "Miriam their sister" (καὶ Μαριὰμ τὴν ἀδελφὴν αὐτῶν) among the children born to Amram and Jochebed. Regarding the lifespan, the LXX gives "one hundred thirty-two years" (ἑκατὸν τριάκοντα δύο), while the Hebrew numeral chain (sheva, "seven," H7651; u-sheloshim, "and thirty," H7970; u-me'at, "and a hundred," H3967) yields one hundred thirty-seven years, matching the Vulgate's "centum triginta septem."