Genesis 11:17
וַֽיְחִי־עֵבֶר אַחֲרֵי הוֹלִידוֹ אֶת־פֶּלֶג שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה וְאַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד בָּנִים וּבָנֽוֹת׃ ס
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַֽיְחִי־עֵ֗בֶר אַחֲרֵי֙ הוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־פֶּ֔לֶג שְׁלֹשִׁ֣ים שָׁנָ֔ה וְאַרְבַּ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת׃ ס
καὶ ἔζησεν Ἔβερ μετὰ τὸ γεννῆσαι αὐτὸν τὸν Φόλεκ ἣ τριακόσια ἑβδομήκοντα, καὶ ἐγέννησεν υἱοὺς καὶ θυγατέρας, καὶ ἀπέθανεν.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Et vixit Heber postquam genuit Phaleg, quadringentis triginta annis: et genuit filios et filias.
Después del nacimiento de Péleg, Héber vivió cuatrocientos treinta años más, y tuvo otros hijos e hijas.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y vivió Heber, después que engendró á Peleg, cuatrocientos y treinta años, y engendró hijos é hijas.
And after he had become the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Genesis 11:17 states that Eber lived 430 years after fathering Peleg, and that during this period he fathered additional sons and daughters. The verse follows the genealogical formula pattern common in Genesis 11, recording lifespan after the birth of a specific descendant.
Key words
- va-y'chi ("and he lived", H2421) — qal narrative form with vav-consecutive, establishing the main verb of the verse in past sequential narration.
- acharei ("after", H0310A) — construct form functioning as a temporal preposition, linking the following infinitive to the moment it refers to.
- holido ("his fathering", H3205) — hiphil infinitive with pronominal suffix -o ("his"), the causative stem indicating Eber caused Peleg's birth; the suffix specifies "his" fathering as the temporal anchor point.
- sh'loshim shanah... ve-arba me'ot shanah ("thirty years... and four hundred years", H7970/H8141/H0702/H3967) — the numerical construction split across two clauses (30 + 400), both governing the noun shanah ("year", H8141) in the singular despite the plural numeral, a standard Hebrew counting pattern.
- va-yyoled ("and he fathered", H3205) — hiphil narrative form with vav-consecutive, marking the second main verb, again causative, describing the birth of the unnamed sons and daughters.
What the text says
The verse divides into two grammatical units connected by narrative vav-consecutive forms: va-y'chi ("and he lived") and va-yyoled ("and he fathered"). The first clause establishes Eber's remaining lifespan using a temporal clause built on the infinitive holido ("his fathering," H3205), with the preposition acharei ("after," H0310A) marking the reference point — the birth of Peleg. The number of years, 430, is expressed in two parts: sh'loshim shanah ("thirty years") and ve-arba me'ot shanah ("and four hundred years"), each phrase repeating the noun shanah ("year," H8141) rather than using a single combined numeral construction.
The second clause, va-yyoled banim u-vanot ("and he fathered sons and daughters"), uses the same hiphil root y-l-d (H3205) as holido, but now in narrative form rather than infinitive, indicating a distinct action following the stated 430-year period. The nouns banim ("sons," H1121A) and banot ("daughters," H1323G) appear without numerals, unlike the earlier specific naming of Peleg, suggesting the text does not enumerate or name these additional offspring.
Differences between versions
The LXX (Ἔβερ ... τριακόσια ἑβδομήκοντα, "370") gives a total that differs from the Hebrew's 430 years (sh'loshim + arba me'ot, "thirty" + "four hundred"). The LXX also adds καὶ ἀπέθανεν ("and he died"), a closing notice absent in the Hebrew text as presented here. The Vulgate (quadringentis triginta annis, "430 years") matches the Hebrew numerical total and, like the Hebrew, does not include a death notice in this verse.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.