Genesis 25:16

אֵלֶּה הֵם בְּנֵי יִשְׁמָעֵאל וְאֵלֶּה שְׁמֹתָם בְּחַצְרֵיהֶם וּבְטִֽירֹתָם שְׁנֵים־עָשָׂר נְשִׂיאִם לְאֻמֹּתָֽם׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

אֵ֣לֶּה הֵ֞ם בְּנֵ֤י יִשְׁמָעֵאל֙ וְאֵ֣לֶּה שְׁמֹתָ֔ם בְּחַצְרֵיהֶ֖ם וּבְטִֽירֹתָ֑ם שְׁנֵים־עָשָׂ֥ר נְשִׂיאִ֖ם לְאֻמֹּתָֽם׃

Greek (Septuagint)

οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσμαήλ, καὶ ταῦτα τὰ ὀνόματα αὐτῶν ἐν ταῖς σκηναῖς αὐτῶν καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἐπαύλεσιν αὐτῶν· δώδεκα ἄρχοντες κατὰ ἔθνος αὐτῶν.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Isti sunt filii Ismaëlis: et hæc nomina per castella et oppida eorum, duodecim principes tribuum suarum.

Spanish

Éstos fueron los hijos de Ismael, y éstos son los nombres de sus poblados y campamentos. Fueron los doce jefes de sus respectivas tribus.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Estos son los hijos de Ismael, y estos sus nombres, por sus villas y por sus campamentos; doce príncipes por sus familias.

English

These were the sons of Ishmael, and these were their names by their villages and encampments — twelve princes of their tribes.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse closes the genealogical list of Ishmael's descendants by identifying them as his sons, naming their settlements (villages and encampments), and stating that they numbered twelve chieftains, each corresponding to a tribe.

Key words

bene ("sons of", H1121A) — masculine plural construct noun, linking the list of names directly to Ishmael as their father.
chatzrei ("villages", H2691B) — masculine plural construct noun, paired with a following term to indicate two types of settlements.
tirotam ("their encampments", H2918) — feminine plural construct noun with 3rd person plural suffix, referring to fortified or tent-based dwellings.
nesi'im ("princes/chieftains", H5387A) — masculine plural noun, the title given to the twelve leaders.
'ummotam ("their tribes", H0523) — feminine plural construct noun with suffix, designating the tribal groupings each leader represents.

What the text says

The verse opens with a double demonstrative structure: 'elleh hem ("these [are] they", H0428 + H1992) identifies the preceding list as bene Yishma'el ("sons of Ishmael", H1121A + H3458G). A second 'elleh ("these", H0428) introduces a parallel clause about shemotam ("their names", H8034 + suffix H9028), locating these names be-chatzrei-hem u-ve-tirotam ("by their villages and by their encampments") — two construct-plus-suffix nouns joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), suggesting two distinct settlement types rather than a single category.

The final clause states the number and title of the leaders: sheneim-'asar nesi'im ("twelve princes", H8147 + H6240 + H5387A) is a cardinal number phrase (literally "two-ten," the standard Hebrew construction for twelve) modifying the plural noun nesi'im ("princes"). This phrase is followed by le-'ummotam ("to/for their tribes", H9005 + H0523 + suffix), using the preposition le to indicate that each prince stands in relation to — presumably as head of — a tribe. The construct chain 'ummotam with the suffix ties each tribal designation back to the sons of Ishmael named earlier in the passage.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chatzrei ("villages") and tirotam ("encampments") as skēnais ("tents") and epaulesin ("encampments/folds"), shifting the first term from a settlement/village concept toward a tent-dwelling image. The Vulgate collapses both Hebrew terms into castella et oppida ("forts and towns"), a pairing that emphasizes fortified and urban structures rather than the Hebrew's village/encampment distinction. For le-'ummotam ("to their tribes"), the LXX uses kata ethnos ("according to nation"), while the Vulgate has tribuum suarum ("of their tribes"), both consistent with the Hebrew sense but using different governing constructions (LXX "according to," Vulgate genitive "of").

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