Genesis 14:4

שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה עָבְדוּ אֶת־כְּדָרְלָעֹמֶר וּשְׁלֹשׁ־עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה מָרָֽדוּ׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

שְׁתֵּ֤ים עֶשְׂרֵה֙ שָׁנָ֔ה עָבְד֖וּ אֶת־כְּדָרְלָעֹ֑מֶר וּשְׁלֹשׁ־עֶשְׂרֵ֥ה שָׁנָ֖ה מָרָֽדוּ׃

Greek (Septuagint)

δώδεκα ἔτη ἐδούλευον τῷ τῷ δὲ τρισκαιδεκάτῳ ἔτει ἀπέστησαν.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Duodecim enim annis servierunt Chodorlahomor, et tertiodecimo anno recesserunt ab eo.

Spanish

Durante doce años habían estado bajo el dominio de Quedorlaomer, pero en el año trece se rebelaron.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Doce años habían servido á Chêdorlaomer, y al décimotercio año se rebelaron.

English

For twelve years they had been subject to Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

✦ What the text says

Summary

Genesis 14:4 states that a group of kings served Kedorlaomer for twelve years, then rebelled against him in the thirteenth year. The verse uses two parallel time-expressions followed by perfect-tense verbs describing completed action.

Key words

she.Teim ("two", H8147) — feminine dual form, here functioning as "twelve" when combined with 'es.Reh ("ten", H6240); the construct form of 'es.Reh links the two numbers together.
'a.ve.Du ("they had served", H5647) — Qal perfect, third person plural; the perfect aspect marks the service as a completed action prior to the narrative's main point.
'et (H0853) — the direct object marker, untranslated, signaling that Kedorlaomer is the object being served.
ma.Ra.du ("they rebelled", H4775) — Qal perfect, third person plural, parallel in form to 'a.ve.Du, marking the rebellion as likewise a completed action.
sha.Nah ("year", H8141) — feminine singular noun, repeated after each number, standard for expressing duration in Biblical Hebrew.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on a chiastic time-verb structure: [duration] + [verb] + [duration] + [verb]. The first clause, she.Teim 'es.Reh sha.Nah 'a.ve.Du 'et-Kedorlaomer ("twelve years they served Kedorlaomer"), places the time expression before the verb, a common pattern for marking duration in narrative Hebrew. The second clause, u-she.losh-'es.Reh sha.Nah ma.Ra.du ("and the thirteenth year they rebelled"), mirrors this structure exactly, with the conjunction u ("and") joining the two clauses as a contrastive sequence — service followed by rebellion.

Both verbs, 'a.ve.Du and ma.Ra.du, are Qal perfect third-person plural forms, giving the sentence a balanced rhythm and treating both actions as complete, bounded periods rather than ongoing states. The direct object marker 'et before Kedorlaomer clarifies that he is the object of the service in the first clause, while no equivalent object marker appears in the second clause since "they rebelled" does not require a direct object in Hebrew syntax — the target of rebellion is understood from context.

Differences between versions

The LXX reads δώδεκα ἔτη ἐδούλευον τῷ ("twelve years they served him"), using a dative pronoun rather than repeating Kedorlaomer's name in this clause, where the Hebrew explicitly names him via 'et-Kedorlaomer. The Vulgate adds the connective "enim" ("for"), which has no direct counterpart in the Hebrew text, framing the verse as an explanatory clause within its context.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.