Genesis 22:23

Summary

The verse states that Bethuel fathered Rebekah, and closes a genealogical list by noting that Milcah bore eight sons to Nahor, Abraham's brother. It functions as a summary statement tying Rebekah's lineage back to the eight sons enumerated in the preceding verses.

Key words

• yalad ("he fathered", H3205) — qal perfect, third person masculine singular, describing Bethuel's completed act of fathering Rebekah.
• yeldah ("she bore", H3205) — same root as above but qal perfect feminine singular, showing the verb inflected for Milcah as the female subject; the repetition of the same root for both male and female parents is grammatically normal in Hebrew, where yalad covers both "to father" and "to bear."
• 'eleh ("these", H0428) — demonstrative particle referring back to the eight sons just listed, functioning as a summary marker that closes the genealogical unit.
• 'achi ("[the] brother of", H0251G) — construct form of "brother," linking Nahor directly to Abraham and clarifying the family relationship at the end of the verse.
• 'et- (H0853) — the direct object marker preceding Rivqah ("Rebekah", H7259), marking her as the object of Bethuel's fathering.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence divides into two clauses joined by the conjunction u ("and", H9002). The first clause, "u-Vetu'El yalad 'et-Rivqah," places the subject Bethuel before the verb yalad, a common word order for introducing a new piece of information — here, identifying Rebekah's father specifically, distinct from the general list of Nahor's eight sons. The second clause reverses the subject-verb order relative to the first ("shemonah 'eleh yaldah Milkah"), placing the numeral shemonah ("eight", H8083) and the demonstrative 'eleh at the front, which gives this clause the function of a recapitulating summary: "these eight, Milcah bore." The verb yaldah is feminine, agreeing with Milcah as the childbearing mother, while yalad in the first clause is masculine, agreeing with Bethuel as the father — both forms sharing the same root H3205 but distinguishing paternal and maternal roles morphologically. The final phrase, le-Nachor 'achi 'Avraham, uses the construct noun 'achi ("brother of") to specify Nahor's relation to Abraham, closing the verse by anchoring the entire genealogy to the Abraham-Nahor sibling relationship.

Differences between versions

The LXX and Vulgate render yalad ("he fathered") as egennēsen / nata est, both compatible with the Hebrew sense of fathering/birth, though the Vulgate phrases it passively ("from whom Rebecca was born") rather than actively as in the Hebrew ("Bethuel fathered Rebekah"). The Hebrew demonstrative 'eleh ("these") is rendered by the LXX with houtoi huioi ("these sons"), adding the word "sons" not explicit in the Hebrew text at that point, though "sons" was specified earlier in the passage's word list.