Genesis 25:24

Summary

The verse marks the completion of the days of pregnancy for the woman (Rebekah, per context) and introduces, with an emphatic particle, the discovery that she was carrying twins in her womb.

Key words

• yimle'u ("they were completed", H4390) — qal verb, plural, narrative form; indicates the fulfillment/completion of a period.
• yamei ("days of", H3117G) — masculine plural noun in construct state, linking to the following suffix "her" to mean "her days."
• laledet ("to give birth", H3205) — qal infinitive with prefixed preposition la ("to"), expressing purpose or goal ("in order to give birth" / "for giving birth").
• hinneh ("there!", H2009) — interjection that introduces a discovery or surprising fact within the narrative.
• vitnah ("womb of her", H0990H) — feminine singular noun in construct state with pronominal suffix, meaning "her womb."

What the text says

The verse is built from two clauses joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002). The first clause, opened by the narrative va ("and", H9001), uses yimle'u ("they were completed", H4390) in the plural to agree with its subject yamei ("days of", H3117G), a construct-state noun meaning "days of [her]." The suffix ha ("her", H9024) attaches to yamei, producing "her days," and the clause is completed by the infinitive laledet ("to give birth", H3205), which expresses the purpose toward which the days were moving — completion for the event of childbirth.

The second clause pivots on hinneh ("there!", H2009), a device that in Biblical Hebrew narrative marks a shift in perspective, presenting information as freshly noticed or revealed rather than simply stated. This is followed by tomim ("twins", H8380), a plural noun without a verb — the clause is verbless (a nominal clause), which in Hebrew narrative conveys a static, descriptive observation rather than an action. The final phrase, be-vitnah ("in her womb", H0990H with preposition H9003), uses a construct noun with suffix ha ("her") to specify location. The construct chains (yamei-ha, vitna-ha) are a structural feature not always visible in translation, where "her days" and "her womb" appear as simple possessive phrases.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew hinneh ("there!", H2009) is rendered in the LXX as τῇδε ("thus/behold"), preserving the notice-marking function, while the Vulgate uses ecce ("behold"), similarly retaining the interjective force. The BSB translation "there were indeed" and SBLIBRE "resultó que" both interpret hinneh as signaling an unexpected finding, consistent with the Hebrew particle's discourse function, though neither reproduces it as a standalone exclamation as the Hebrew and Vulgate do.