Genesis 11:32

Summary

The verse states the total lifespan of Terah — two hundred and five years — and reports his death at Haran. It closes the genealogical notice about Terah before the narrative shifts to Abram.

Key words

• va-yihyu ("and they were", H1961) — narrative vav + qal verb, plural, opening the clause with "and the days of Terah were..."
• yemei ("days of", H3117G) — construct plural noun, linking "days" directly to Terah, the standard Biblical Hebrew idiom for stating a lifespan.
• chamesh shanim ("five years", H2568 + H8141) — cardinal number plus plural noun, the first component of the age.
• u-matayim shanah ("and two hundred year[s]", H3967 + H8141) — feminine dual number ("two hundred") followed by a singular noun shanah, a grammatical pattern in Hebrew where the counted noun stays singular after certain numbers.
• va-yamot ("and he died", H4191) — narrative vav + qal verb, marking the second main action of the verse, sequential to the first.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel narrative clauses joined by the vav-consecutive construction typical of Biblical Hebrew storytelling: "and it was" (va-yihyu) followed later by "and he died" (va-yamot). The first clause states the lifespan using the construct phrase yemei-Terach ("the days of Terah"), literally "the days of Terah were five years and two hundred years." The numbers are given in reverse order from typical English style — units before hundreds ("five years and two hundred years") — which is a common sequencing pattern in Biblical Hebrew numerical expressions. The noun shanah ("year") appears twice: once as plural (shanim) with "five," and once as singular attached to "two hundred," reflecting Hebrew's numeral-noun agreement rules rather than any difference in meaning.

The second clause, va-yamot Terach be-Charan ("and Terah died in Haran"), uses the preposition be ("in", H9003) to locate the death at Haran, the same place mentioned earlier in the chapter as where the family had settled. Both clauses use the narrative (vav-consecutive) verb form, which chains events in sequence: first the lifespan is stated, then the death is reported, mirroring the typical structure of genealogical death notices in Genesis.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew states the two components of the age in the order "five years and two hundred years," while the Greek (LXX) and Latin (Vulgate) render the total as "two hundred five years" (διακόσια πέντε ἔτη; ducentorum quinque annorum), reversing the sequence to hundreds-then-units. Additionally, the LXX inserts "in Haran" (ἐν Χαρρὰν) immediately after "the days of Thara," a phrase not present in that position in the Hebrew, which places "in Haran" only in the second clause describing his death.