Genesis 25:3
וְיָקְשָׁן יָלַד אֶת־שְׁבָא וְאֶת־דְּדָן וּבְנֵי דְדָן הָיוּ אַשּׁוּרִם וּלְטוּשִׁים וּלְאֻמִּֽים׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְיָקְשָׁ֣ן יָלַ֔ד אֶת־שְׁבָ֖א וְאֶת־דְּדָ֑ן וּבְנֵ֣י דְדָ֔ן הָי֛וּ אַשּׁוּרִ֥ם וּלְטוּשִׁ֖ים וּלְאֻמִּֽים׃
Ἰεξάν δὲ ἐγέννησεν τὸν Σαβᾶν καὶ τὸν Θαιμὰν καὶ τὸν Δαιδάν· υἱοὶ δὲ Δαιδὰν ἐγένοντο Ῥαγουὴλ καὶ Ναβδεὴλ καὶ Ἀσουρὶμ καὶ Λατουσιεὶμ καὶ Λοωμείμ·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Jecsan quoque genuit Saba et Dadan. Filii Dadan fuerunt Assurim, et Latusim, et Loomin.
Jocsán fue el padre de Seba y de Dedán. Los descendientes de Dedán fueron los asureos, los letuseos y los leumeos.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y Joksan engendró á Seba, y á Dedán: é hijos de Dedán fueron Assurim, y Letusim, y Leummim.
Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushites, and the Leummites.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse continues the genealogy descending from Abraham through Keturah, stating that Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan, and that the descendants of Dedan were three groups: the Asshurites, Letushites, and Leummites.
Key words
- ya.Lad ("he fathered", H3205) — qal perfect, third person masculine singular, marking a completed act of begetting; establishes the direct father-son link between Jokshan and his two named sons.
- she.Va' ("Sheba", H7614I) — proper name of a person, marked with the direct object marker 'et (H0853), showing he is the direct object of the fathering verb.
- de.Dan ("Dedan", H1719C) — proper name appearing twice in the verse, first as object of ya.Lad, then as the construct-chain referent for "sons of Dedan."
- ve.Nei ("sons of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct form of "son," grammatically binding to the following name Dedan to form the phrase "sons of Dedan," shifting the verse from direct fatherhood to a listing of descendants.
- ha.Yu ("they were", H1961) — qal perfect, third person plural, functioning as a linking/equative verb that identifies the sons of Dedan with the three named groups.
What the text says
The verse divides into two grammatical units joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002). The first unit uses the transitive verb ya.Lad ("he fathered", H3205) with Jokshan as subject and two objects marked by the untranslated direct object marker 'et (H0853): she.Va' ("Sheba", H7614I) and de.Dan ("Dedan", H1719C). This construction directly parallels the pattern of verse 2, continuing the genealogical listing without narrative elaboration.
The second unit shifts syntax: instead of a fathering verb, it uses the construct phrase ve.Nei de.Dan ("sons of Dedan") as subject, followed by the verb ha.Yu ("they were", H1961). This equative construction does not state that Dedan "fathered" these three groups in the same verbal sense as before: it identifies who the "sons of Dedan" were by naming three gentilic or group terms — 'a.shu.Rim ("Asshurites", H0805A), le.tu.Shim ("Letushites", H3912), and le.'u.Mim ("Leummites", H3817). The plural gentilic form of "Asshurites" (ending in -im) marks it grammatically as a people-group designation rather than a single personal name, distinguishing this final clause from the personal-name pattern of the earlier part of the verse.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew lists two sons of Jokshan (Sheba and Dedan), but the LXX (Swete) adds a third name, Θαιμάν (Thaiman), not present in the Hebrew text or in the Vulgate, which follows the Hebrew's two names (Saba and Dadan). For the "sons of Dedan," the LXX further expands the list with two additional names, Ῥαγουὴλ (Ragouel) and Ναβδεὴλ (Nabdeel), before giving equivalents to the three Hebrew group names (Ἀσουρίμ, Λατουσιείμ, Λοωμείμ). The Vulgate's list of three names (Assurim, Latusim, Loomin) corresponds closely to the Hebrew's 'a.shu.Rim, le.tu.Shim, and le.'u.Mim.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.