Genesis 11:20

Summary

The verse states that Reu (Re'u, H7466) lived thirty-two years and then fathered Serug (Serug, H8286). It follows the standard genealogical formula of Genesis 11, recording age at fatherhood and the name of the son produced.

Key words

• va-yechi ("and he lived", H2421) — qal verb with narrative vav, placing the statement of Reu's lifespan as the next event in the genealogical sequence.
• she.Ta.yim ("two", H8147) — feminine dual cardinal number, combined with the following word to express "thirty-two."
• she.lo.Shim ("thirty", H7970) — masculine plural cardinal number; paired with she.Ta.yim via the conjunction u ("and", H9002) to form the compound number 32.
• va-yYoled ("and he fathered", H3205) — hiphil (causative) verb with narrative vav, indicating Reu caused Serug to be born, i.e., became his father.
• 'et (H0853) — direct object marker preceding Serug, signaling that Serug is the grammatical object of the fathering action, with no independent lexical meaning of its own.

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel clauses joined by the narrative vav (H9001), a construction typical of Genesis 11's genealogical chain: first a statement of the ancestor's age using the verb yechi ("he lived", H2421), then a statement of procreation using the hiphil verb yoled ("he fathered", H3205). The hiphil stem of yoled is causative in form, though in genealogical usage it functions simply to mean "fathered" or "became the father of," a nuance not visually distinct in translations that render it as a simple past-tense verb.

The age itself, "two and thirty" (she.Ta.yim... u-she.lo.Shim, H8147 + H7970), follows the Hebrew numerical convention of stating the smaller unit (feminine dual "two") before the larger one ("thirty"), joined by the conjunction u (H9002), followed by the noun shanah ("year[s]", H8141) in the singular despite the plural value—a common feature of Hebrew numerical syntax where the counted noun can remain singular after certain number constructions. The direct object marker 'et (H0853) before Serug has no semantic content but formally marks Serug as the recipient of the fathering action, distinguishing subject (Reu) from object (Serug) in a sentence where word order alone might not fully clarify roles.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint (LXXSWETE) gives Reu's age as "ἑκατὸν τριάκοντα δύο ἔτη" (132 years), where the Hebrew and the Vulgate both read "thirty-two" (she.Ta.yim... u-she.lo.Shim, H8147+H7970; Vulgate "triginta duobus annis"). This is a numerical divergence between the Greek text and the Hebrew/Latin textual tradition as presented here.