Genesis 25:20

Summary

The verse states Isaac's age—forty years—at the time he took Rebekah as wife. It identifies Rebekah through two genealogical links: daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram, and sister of Laban the Aramean.

Key words

• ben ("a son of", H1121L) — construct form used idiomatically with a number to express age ("a son of forty years" = forty years old).
• be-qachto (kach.T + o, H3947I + H9043) — infinitive construct with pronominal suffix and prefixed preposition be ("when"), literally "in his taking," producing a temporal clause ("when he took").
• bat ("[the] daughter of", H1323G) — construct noun linking Rebekah to her father Bethuel.
• achot ("[the] sister of", H0269) — construct noun linking Rebekah to her brother Laban, repeating the gentilic ha-'Arammi ("the Aramean", H0761J) after each male relative's name.
• lo le-'ishah ("for himself, to a wife", H9033 + H0802H) — double phrase marking purpose/result: "for himself, as a wife," a common Hebrew idiom for marriage.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative verb va-yhi ("and he was", H1961), a standard formula introducing a temporal notice. The age expression ben-'arba'im shanah uses the construct ben ("son of") with the number 'arba'im ("forty", H0705) and shanah ("year", H8141) — a fixed Hebrew idiom where "son of X years" means "X years old," not a literal genealogical statement.

The temporal clause be-qachto 'et-Rivqah ("when he took Rebekah") uses an infinitive construct with a pronominal suffix, a construction that packs subject and verb into a single word governed by the preposition be. This is a common way in Biblical Hebrew to express "when [subject] did [verb]" without a separate finite clause.

Rebekah's identity is then built through two parallel construct chains: bat-Bethu'el ha-'Arammi ("daughter of Bethuel the Aramean") and achot Lavan ha-'Arammi ("sister of Laban the Aramean"), each ending in the gentilic 'Arammi ("Aramean", H0761J), repeated rather than stated once. The location mi-Paddan 'Aram ("from Paddan Aram") specifies the geographic origin only within the first genealogical clause. The closing phrase lo le-'ishah ("for himself, as a wife") uses two prepositional elements — lo ("to/for him") and le-'ishah ("to a wife") — to mark the purpose of the taking as marriage.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mi-Paddan 'Aram ("from Paddan Aram", geographic proper name) as ἐκ τῆς Μεσοποταμίας ("from Mesopotamia"), a broader regional term rather than the specific place name found in the Hebrew. The Vulgate follows this with "de Mesopotamia," matching the LXX's regional designation rather than the Hebrew's specific toponym Paddan 'Aram. The Vulgate also omits repeating "Syri" (Aramean) before "sororem Laban," unlike the Hebrew, which repeats ha-'Arammi for both Bethuel and Laban.