Genesis 30:13

Summary

Leah declares her happiness after the birth of a son, linking her exclamation to how other women will regard her, and names the child Asher, a name built on the root for "happiness" or "being called happy."

Key words

• 'oshri ("my happiness", H0837) — a construct-form noun with the pronominal suffix -i ("my", H9020), literally "in my happiness," expressing Leah's own state.
• ki ("for/that", H3588A) — a subordinating particle introducing the reason or basis for her exclamation.
• 'ishsheruni ("they will call happy me", H0833) — piel perfect verb, intensive stem, with the object suffix -ni ("me", H9030); the piel form intensifies the action of "declaring happy," and the perfect aspect marks it as a completed or certain action from Leah's perspective.
• banot ("daughters", H1323G) — feminine plural noun, the subject of the verb 'ishsheruni, meaning the women/daughters who will call her happy.
• tiqra' ("she called", H7121H) — qal narrative verb, continuing the storyline with "and then she called," parallel to va-Tomer ("and she said") that opens the verse.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parts joined by the narrative vav pattern typical of Hebrew storytelling: first Leah's speech (va-Tomer ... "and she said"), then the naming action (va-tiqra' ... "and she called"). Her speech itself has an internal structure: a short exclamation, be-'oshri ("in my happiness"), followed by a ki-clause giving the grounds for that exclamation — ki 'ishsheruni banot ("for/that the daughters will call me happy").

The verb 'ishsheruni is in the piel stem, which in this root conveys an intensive or declarative sense — not simply "to be happy" but "to declare/pronounce happy." Its perfect aspect, combined with the ki clause, ties Leah's present exclamation to an action framed as certain or already effective in her understanding, even though the calling by others is described as following from her own state of happiness. The proper name 'Asher (H0836) that closes the verse shares its consonantal root with 'oshri and 'ishsheruni, so the naming act explicitly encodes the content of Leah's preceding statement into the child's name.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders banot ("daughters", H1323G) as πᾶσαι αἱ γυναῖκες ("all the women"), a broader or clarifying rendering rather than a literal "daughters." The Vulgate similarly uses mulieres ("women") for the same word. The Hebrew text does not use the word "women" (a term with its own distinct Hebrew equivalent) but banot, "daughters," which the Greek and Latin both interpret as referring to women generally.