Genesis 10:19

Summary

Genesis 10:19 defines the territorial extent of the Canaanite people (ha-Kena'ani, H3669A) by naming its boundary points: it stretches from Sidon in the north, through Gerar and Gaza, to a cluster of cities (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim) and finally to Lasha. The verse functions as a geographic closing note to the Canaanite genealogical/territorial list in Genesis 10.

Key words

• ge.Vul ("border of", H1366H) — masculine singular noun in the construct state, meaning it must be followed by another noun ("border of the Canaanite"); it frames the whole verse as a description of territorial limits rather than a narrative event.
• ha-Kena'ani ("the Canaanite", H3669A) — a gentilic noun (referring to a people-group, not a single person), marked definite by the article ha (H9009), functioning as the subject whose land is being delimited.
• bo.'a.Khah ("your going / in your going", H0935I + H9041) — a qal infinitive with a 2nd person masculine singular pronominal suffix ("you"). This construction, repeated twice in the verse, is an idiomatic way of marking direction ("as one goes toward..."), addressing an implied traveler rather than describing a specific event.
• ge.Ra.rah / se.Do.mah — place names ending in the directional he (H9011), a suffix that indicates motion toward a place ("toward Gerar," "toward Sodom") without needing a separate preposition.
• 'ad ("to/as far as", H5704) — a preposition marking the outer limit of the described territory, used twice (before Gaza and before Lasha) to bracket the whole list of boundary points.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative verb va-y'hi ("and it was", H1961+H9001), a common formula that introduces a stative situation rather than a sequential action — here it sets up the existence of a boundary (gevul, H1366H) rather than an event happening in time. The construct chain gevul ha-Kena'ani ("border of the Canaanite") establishes the subject: the territorial extent of a named people-group, using the definite gentilic noun.

The bulk of the verse is built on two parallel uses of the infinitive bo'akhah ("in your going", H0935I with suffix H9041), each followed by a place name bearing the directional he suffix (H9011): "in your going toward Gerar" and "in your going toward Sodom." This grammatical pattern — infinitive + suffix + directional-he place name — is idiomatic for expressing a travel route or geographic vector, addressed to an unspecified "you," and is difficult to render literally in translation; most versions instead render it simply as "toward" or "as far as." The preposition 'ad ("to", H5704) appears twice, marking two endpoints (Gaza, then Lasha) that close off two separate stretches of the boundary description, with the five cities (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim) joined between them by simple conjunctions (va, ve, u, all H9002).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the two Hebrew infinitive-plus-suffix constructions (bo'akhah) with the Greek phrase ἕως ἐλθεῖν ("until going/coming"), converting the idiomatic directional expression into an explicit "until" clause. The Vulgate uses venientibus ("for those coming") for the first instance and donec ingrediaris ("until you enter") for the second, showing two different Latin strategies for the same repeated Hebrew form. Modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) simplify both occurrences to "toward" or "in the direction of," which smooths the Hebrew's twofold infinitive structure into a single continuous geographic description.