Genesis 2:24

Summary

The verse states the consequence ("therefore") of the preceding narrative: a man leaves his father and his mother, cleaves to his wife, and the two become one flesh. It functions as a summarizing statement, using verb forms that shift from an imperfect to sequential perfects to a final resultative clause.

Key words

• ya.'a.zov ("he leaves", H5800A) — qal imperfect, expressing an ongoing or general action, not a single past event; often rendered as a gnomic/habitual present in translations.
• da.Vak ("he cleaves", H1692) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), continuing the action sequence begun by the imperfect verb; expresses attachment or clinging.
• ha.Yu ("they become", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, third-person plural, marking the resulting state after the prior actions.
• va.Sar 'e.Chad ("flesh" H1320 + "one" H0259) — a construct-like phrase (noun + numeral) describing the resulting unity; 'e.Chad is grammatically feminine singular, agreeing with the numeral's standard form rather than with va.Sar, which is masculine.
• 'et-... 'et- (H0853, direct object markers) — mark "father" ('a.Vi, H0001G) and "mother" ('i.M, H0517) as the direct objects of ya.'a.zov, both nouns appearing in construct form with the pronominal suffix -o ("his").

What the text says

The sentence opens with the causal expression 'al-ken ("therefore", H5921A + H3651C), linking this statement to what precedes it in the narrative. The main clause uses ya.'a.zov in the imperfect, followed by the subject 'Ish ("a man", H0376G), producing a verb-first construction typical of Biblical Hebrew clauses that describe general or characteristic actions rather than a one-time event.

The next two verbs, da.Vak ("he cleaves") and ha.Yu ("they become"), are sequential perfects (vav-consecutive), a grammatical form that continues a narrative or logical sequence begun by the initial verb. This creates a three-part chain: leaving, cleaving, becoming — each action following from the last, syntactically bound by the narrative vav (H9001).

The final clause, hayu levasar 'echad ("they became to one flesh"), uses the preposition le- (H9005) before va.Sar ("flesh", H1320), a construction meaning "into" or "as" one flesh, describing the resulting condition rather than a location or possession.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders hayu ("they became") with ἔσονται οἱ δύο ("the two will be"), explicitly adding the numeral "two" (οἱ δύο), which is not present as a separate word in the Hebrew text. The Vulgate similarly adds duo ("two") in erunt duo in carne una, matching the LXX's addition rather than the Hebrew, which states only ha.Yu ("they become") without an explicit "two."