Genesis 30:1

Summary

Rachel, seeing that she had not borne children to Jacob, becomes jealous of her sister and demands that Jacob give her children, declaring that otherwise she is as good as dead. The verse combines a perception clause, an emotional reaction, and direct speech expressing urgency.

Key words

• Te.re' ("she saw", H7200G) — qal narrative verb form beginning the sequence; the vav-consecutive links this perception directly to what follows as cause.
• yal.Dah ("she had borne children", H3205) — qal perfect, marking a completed (or in this case, uncompleted/negated) state prior to the main narrative moment; combined with lo' ("not", H3808) it expresses her childless condition.
• te.ka.Ne' ("she was jealous", H7065) — piel narrative form; the piel stem intensifies the verb, indicating a strong emotional reaction rather than a mild one.
• ha.va-h ("give!", H3051 + H9012) — qal imperative with paragogic he, an emphatic command form, giving Rachel's demand added forcefulness.
• me.Tah ("[am] about to die", H4191) — qal participle, feminine singular, describing an ongoing or imminent state rather than a simple future ("I will die"), suggesting she frames her condition as already leading toward death.

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative chain typical of Biblical Hebrew: va-Te.re' ("and she saw") sets up a causal clause introduced by ki ("that", H3588A), which explains what Rachel perceived — namely that she lo' yal.dah le-Ya'aqov ("had not borne children to Jacob"). The perfect verb yal.Dah denotes a completed or standing state at the time of her observation, not a single past event. This perception clause triggers the next narrative verb, va-te.ka.Ne', in the piel stem, which intensifies the basic sense of jealousy or envy compared to a simple qal form.

The direct speech that follows is built on two imperative-like constructions. Ha.va-h li banim uses the emphatic paragogic he ending on the imperative ha.va, strengthening the force of the command "give." The conditional clause ve-'im 'ayin ("and if not", H0518I + H0369) sets up a stark alternative, answered by the participial clause me.tah 'anokhi ("[I am] dying, I"). The use of the participle rather than a finite future verb frames Rachel's condition as an ongoing state moving toward death, not merely a hypothetical future event — a nuance not fully preserved when translated with a simple future tense such as "I will die."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the final clause as τελευτήσω ἐγώ ("I will die/end"), using a future indicative verb, where the Hebrew me.Tah is a participle suggesting a present, ongoing state ("[I am] dying"). The Vulgate's moriar ("I shall die") similarly uses a future form. Both versions thus shift the Hebrew's participial nuance of an unfolding condition into a straightforward future prediction.