Genesis 11:21
וַיְחִי רְעוּ אַחֲרֵי הוֹלִידוֹ אֶת־שְׂרוּג שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים וּמָאתַיִם שָׁנָה וַיּוֹלֶד בָּנִים וּבָנֽוֹת׃ ס
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיְחִ֣י רְע֗וּ אַחֲרֵי֙ הוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־שְׂר֔וּג שֶׁ֥בַע שָׁנִ֖ים וּמָאתַ֣יִם שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת׃ ס
καὶ ἔζησεν Ῥαγαύ μετὰ τὸ γεννῆσαι αὐτὸν τὸν Σεροὺχ διακόσια ἑπτὰ ἔτη, καὶ ἐγέννησεν υἱοὺς καὶ θυγατέρας, καὶ
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Vixit quoque Reu, postquam genuit Sarug, ducentis septem annis: et genuit filios et filias.
Después del nacimiento de Serug, Reu vivió doscientos siete años más, y tuvo otros hijos e hijas.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y vivió Reu, después que engendró á Serug, doscientos y siete años, y engendró hijos é hijas.
And after he had become the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse records that Reu lived 207 years after fathering Serug, and during that time he had other sons and daughters. It follows the standard genealogical formula pattern found throughout Genesis 11.
Key words
- va-y.Chi ("and he lived", H2421) — qal narrative verb, opening the formula with the sequential "and it happened that he lived."
- 'a.cha.Rei ("after", H0310A) — construct form introducing the temporal clause that follows, linking the fathering of Serug to the years that come after.
- ho.li.D-o ("his fathering", H3205 + H9043) — hiphil infinitive with pronominal suffix "his," literally "in his causing-to-be-born," i.e., "after his fathering [Serug]."
- she.va' sha.Nim u-ma.Ta.yim sha.Nah ("seven years and two hundred year[s]", H7651/H8141/H3967/H8141) — the number is built by stating the smaller unit (seven) before the larger (two hundred), a common Hebrew numeral order.
- va-i.Yo.led ("and he fathered", H3205) — hiphil narrative verb, parallel to the opening verb, marking the second main action of the verse (having more children).
What the text says
The verse follows the same two-clause structure used throughout the Genesis 11 genealogy: a statement of total years lived after a specific event, followed by a general statement that additional sons and daughters were born. The first clause uses va-y.Chi ("and he lived", H2421) governed by the temporal phrase 'a.cha.Rei ho.li.D-o 'et-se.Rug ("after his fathering Serug"), where the hiphil infinitive ho.li.D ("fathered", H3205) with the object marker 'et (H0853) and the suffix -o ("his", H9043) specifies both the causative sense (Reu is not merely "having" a son but "causing him to be born/named") and whose action it is.
The numeral sequence she.va' sha.Nim u-ma.Ta.yim sha.Nah places the unit "seven" (H7651) before the larger unit "two hundred" (H3967), with sha.Nim (plural, H8141) attached to the smaller number and sha.Nah (singular, H8141) attached to the larger — a grammatical pattern in Hebrew where the noun's number can shift depending on which numeral it modifies directly.
The second clause repeats the hiphil verb form as va-i.Yo.led ("and he fathered", H3205), this time without a specific named object, followed simply by ba.Nim ("sons", H1121A) and va.Not ("daughters", H1323G), both plural nouns indicating unspecified additional offspring.
Differences between versions
The LXX and Vulgate reverse the Hebrew's numeral order, stating "two hundred seven" (διακόσια ἑπτὰ / ducentis septem) rather than the Hebrew's "seven...and two hundred" sequence — a difference in numeral presentation, not in total value.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.