Genesis 11:24

Summary

The verse states that Nahor lived twenty-nine years and then fathered Terah. It follows the standard genealogical formula used throughout Genesis 11: an age notice followed by the birth of a named descendant.

Key words

• vayechi ("and he lived", H2421) — qal verb with narrative vav, opening the clause and marking sequential narration ("and then he lived").
• tesha' ("nine", H8672) — cardinal number, combined with the next word to form "twenty-nine."
• 'esrim ("twenty", H6242) — cardinal number, masculine plural, paired with tesha' via the conjunction ve ("and") to produce the compound number 29.
• shanah ("year", H8141) — feminine singular noun, here functioning as the unit counted by the preceding numerals despite their plural form.
• vayoled ("and he fathered", H3205) — hiphil verb with narrative vav, causative in form ("caused to be born"), continuing the narrative sequence begun by vayechi.

What the text says

The verse has two verbal clauses joined by narrative vav, both attached to Nahor as subject. The first clause, vayechi Nachor tesha' ve'esrim shanah ("and Nahor lived nine and twenty years"), gives his age using the Hebrew numbering convention of stating the smaller unit (nine) before the larger (twenty), joined by ve. The noun shanah ("year") remains grammatically singular even though the number is plural, a common feature of Hebrew numeral constructions with this noun.

The second clause, vayoled et-Tarach ("and he fathered Terah"), uses the hiphil stem of the verb yalad ("to bear/beget", H3205), which in the causative sense means "to cause [a child] to be born," i.e., "to father." The direct object marker 'et (H853) precedes the name Tarach ("Terah", H8646G), marking it as the object of the verb without adding independent meaning. The chain of narrative vav forms (vayechi... vayoled) ties the age statement and the birth notice into one continuous sequence, typical of the genealogical formula repeated across Genesis 11.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text and the Vulgate agree on the number twenty-nine (tesha' ve'esrim / "viginti novem"). The Septuagint (LXXSWETE), however, gives the number as ἑβδομήκοντα ἐννέα ("seventy-nine"), a numerical divergence from both the Hebrew and the Vulgate. The modern translations shown (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) follow the Hebrew/Vulgate figure of twenty-nine years.