Genesis 30:14

Summary

The verse narrates that Reuben, during the wheat harvest, found mandrakes in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel then asks Leah to give her some of the mandrakes that belong to Leah's son.

Key words

• va-yeShreak — actually let me list properly:
• ke.tzir ("harvest of", H7105A) — masculine singular construct noun, linking to chitim to form "harvest of wheat," marking the time frame of the episode.
• du.da.'im ("mandrakes", H1736) — masculine plural noun, the object Reuben discovers in the field.
• va.ya.ve' ("he brought", H0935P) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb, indicating Reuben caused the mandrakes to be brought, i.e., carried them to Leah.
• te.ni ("give", H5414G) — qal imperative feminine singular, Rachel's direct command-request to Leah.
• be.nekh ("your son", H1121A + H9022) — construct noun with 2nd person feminine singular suffix, identifying Reuben as Leah's son in Rachel's speech, emphasizing the family relation.

What the text says

The verse is built entirely on the narrative vav-consecutive chain typical of Biblical Hebrew storytelling: va-yelekh ("and he went"), va-yimtsa' ("and he found"), va-yave' ("and he brought"), va-tomer ("and she said"). Each verb is qal except va-yave', which is hiphil — the causative stem signals that Reuben is the agent causing the mandrakes to move from the field to his mother, rather than simply "going" with them.

The phrase bi-mei ketzir-chitim ("in the days of harvest of wheat") uses a double construct chain (yemei construct + ketzir construct + chitim), a common Hebrew way of expressing a specific season without a single word for it. The direct object marker 'otam ("them", H0853 + H9038) marks du.da.'im as the definite object of va-yave', though the marker itself carries no independent meaning in translation.

Rachel's speech to Leah uses the imperative teni ("give") softened by the particle na' ("please", H4994), a common Hebrew marker of polite request. The phrase mi-du.da.'ei ben.ekh ("from the mandrakes of your son") uses the construct form du.da.'ei rather than the absolute du.da.'im used earlier for Reuben's discovery, syntactically tying the mandrakes specifically to "your son" — i.e., Leah's son — in Rachel's framing of the request.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders du.da.'im ("mandrakes", H1736) as μῆλα μανδραγόρου ("apples of mandrake"), adding the word "apples" not present in the Hebrew noun itself, though later in the verse it uses simply μανδραγορῶν ("of mandrakes") without "apples." The Vulgate uses mandragoras consistently, matching the Hebrew noun more directly. The Vulgate also adds the phrase "partem de" ("a part of") in Rachel's request, an addition not present in the Hebrew mi-du.da.'ei ("from the mandrakes of"), which simply uses the partitive preposition min without an explicit noun for "portion."