Genesis 29:14

Summary

Laban declares that Jacob is his "bone and flesh," acknowledging their kinship, and the text then notes that Jacob remained with him for the duration of a month.

Key words

• 'akh ("surely", H0389) — an adverb of emphasis or restriction, here intensifying Laban's declaration of kinship.
• 'atzmi ("bone of me", H6106G) — feminine singular noun in construct form with the 1st person suffix i ("my", H9020), literally "bone of me."
• besari ("flesh of me", H1320) — masculine singular noun in construct form, parallel to 'atzmi, joined by the conjunction u ("and", H9002).
• 'atah ("you", H0859A) — independent personal pronoun placed at the end of the clause, functioning as the predicate identifying Jacob.
• va-yeshev ("and he remained", H3427) — qal verb with narrative vav, continuing the storyline after Laban's speech.
• chodesh yamim ("a month of days", H2320G + H3117G) — construct chain literally "month of days," expressing a span of time.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parts joined by narrative vav-chains typical of Biblical Hebrew storytelling. The first part is Laban's direct speech, introduced by va-yomer ("and he said", H0559). The core of his statement is the construct pair 'atzmi u-besari ("bone of me and flesh of me"), a fixed idiomatic phrase for kinship, followed by the independent pronoun 'atah ("you") placed last for emphasis — a common Hebrew word order where the predicate pronoun follows the noun phrase it identifies. The adverb 'akh ("surely", H0389) at the start of the clause strengthens the assertion, giving it a tone of confirmation rather than mere observation.

The second part resumes the narrative with va-yeshev ("and he remained", H3427), a qal verb in the narrative form indicating sequential action after the speech. The time expression chodesh yamim ("a month of days") uses a construct noun chain literally combining "month" and "days" to denote a full month's duration — a Hebrew idiom for expressing a complete unit of time.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the construct phrase 'atzmi u-besari as ek tōn osteōn mou kai ek tēs sarkos mou ("from the bones of me and from the flesh of me"), using prepositional phrases with ek ("from") rather than the Hebrew's direct construct nouns, and pluralizes "bones" (osteōn) where the Hebrew 'atzmi ("bone of me") is singular.

The Vulgate compresses Laban's speech into "Os meum es, et caro mea" ("You are my bone and my flesh"), matching the Hebrew's singular "bone" but omitting the adverb corresponding to 'akh ("surely").

For the closing time clause, the Vulgate reads "postquam impleti sunt dies mensis unius" ("after the days of one month were completed"), a passive construction describing the completion of days, differing from the Hebrew's active va-yeshev... chodesh yamim ("and he remained... a month of days"), which simply states the duration of Jacob's stay without framing it as "completed."