Genesis 3:7

Summary

Genesis 3:7 narrates four sequential actions joined by narrative vav forms: the eyes of both persons are opened, they perceive their nakedness, and they respond by sewing fig leaves and making coverings for themselves.

Key words

• tippaqachnah ("they were opened", H6491) — niphal (passive/reflexive) verb, third person feminine plural, agreeing with 'einei ("eyes"). The niphal stem indicates the eyes undergo the action rather than performing it.
• va-yede'u ("and they knew", H3045) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine plural, continuing the narrative chain after the vav.
• 'eirummim ("naked", H5903) — masculine plural adjective, predicate describing the subject hem ("they", H1992) in the clause introduced by ki ("that", H3588A).
• va-yitpheru ("and they sewed together", H8609) — qal narrative verb, third masculine plural, marking the next event in sequence.
• chagorot ("loin coverings", H2290B) — feminine plural noun, the object produced by va-ya'asu ("and they made", H6213H), governed by the preposition la-hem ("for themselves", H9005+H9038).

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of four narrative (wayyiqtol) verb forms, each introduced by the vav marked H9001, which in Biblical Hebrew narrative sequence signals successive events: "and-opened," "and-knew," "and-sewed," "and-made." This chaining structure produces a rapid sequence without explicit connectors like "then" or "so" in the underlying grammar — those words appear only in translations that render the narrative flow into target-language conjunctions.

The first verb, tippaqachnah (H6491), is in the niphal stem, marking the eyes as the grammatical subject undergoing the opening rather than an agent opening them. The dual/plural agreement pattern is worth noting: 'einei (H5869A) is dual construct ("eyes of"), followed by shenei-hem (H8147+H9028), also dual construct, meaning "the two of them" — the phrase literally reads "the eyes of the two of them."

The subordinate clause introduced by ki (H3588A) contains no verb "to be" in Hebrew; the predicate 'eirummim ("naked," H5903, masculine plural adjective) stands directly with the pronoun hem ("they," H1992), a standard nominal-clause construction. The final two verbs, va-yitpheru (H8609) and va-ya'asu (H6213H), share the same grammatical form (qal narrative, third masculine plural) and describe the manufacture of chagorot (H2290B) from 'aleh te'enah ("leafage of a fig tree," H5929 construct + H8384).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chagorot (H2290B, "loin coverings") as περιζώματα, and the Vulgate as perizomata — both borrowing or transliterating the Greek term rather than using a native Latin/Greek word for "covering." The Vulgate restructures the syntax with cumque cognovissent ("and when they had recognized"), introducing a temporal subordination not marked by a distinct grammatical form in the Hebrew narrative chain, where va-yede'u (H3045) simply continues the sequence of wayyiqtol verbs.