Genesis 10:7

Summary

The verse lists the descendants of Cush within the Table of Nations: five sons of Cush directly (Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabteca), followed by a second-generation notice naming two sons of Raamah (Sheba and Dedan).

Key words

• bene (ve.Nei, "sons of", H1121A) — masculine plural construct noun, appearing twice; it establishes a genealogical relationship ("sons of X") rather than a simple list, marking two levels of descent (Cush's sons, then Raamah's sons).
• Khush ("Cush", H3568G) — proper name functioning as the head of the genealogical unit; all following names are grammatically dependent on this construct chain.
• Ra'mah ("Raamah", H7484G) — appears twice, first as one of Cush's five sons (item 10), then as the head of a second construct phrase (bene Ra'mah, item 14-15), showing he has his own listed offspring.
• va- / ve- (H9002, conjunction "and") — repeated seven times, chaining the names together in a paratactic list typical of Hebrew genealogical registers, without hierarchical markers beyond the construct nouns.
• Sheva ("Sheba", H7614G) — one of Raamah's two sons; distinct in the Hebrew text from Sheva the son of Cush's brother Joktan mentioned later in the chapter (not part of this verse but relevant to the name's recurrence in the Table of Nations).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built entirely from construct chains and coordinated proper nouns, with no verbs. The phrase u-vene Khush ("and the sons of Cush") opens a list of five names joined by the conjunction ve- ("and"): Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabteca. The construct noun bene ("sons of", H1121A) signals that everything following belongs to a single genealogical unit under Cush. A second construct phrase, u-vene Ra'mah ("and the sons of Raamah"), then narrows focus to one of those five sons, listing his own two offspring, Sheba and Dedan. This structure — a broader list followed by an expansion of one member — is typical of the genealogical style in Genesis 10, where the text moves from a general grouping to more specific detail on select branches without any narrative or verbal action.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint (LXX) renders Havilah (H2341H) as Εὑιλά and Sabtah (H5454) as Σαβαθά, transliterations close to the Hebrew consonants but with Greek vowel adaptation. The Vulgate similarly transliterates as Hevila and Sabatha. For Raamah (H7484G), the LXX gives Ῥεγχμά, inserting a nasal consonant not present in the Hebrew Ra'mah, while the Vulgate uses Regma, showing the same divergence. These are transliteration variants; the genealogical structure (sons of Cush, then sons of Raamah) is preserved identically across the Hebrew, LXX, and Vulgate.