Genesis 30:16

Summary

The verse narrates Jacob's return from the field at evening, Leah's going out to meet him, her declaration that she has "hired" him with her son's mandrakes, and the note that he lay with her that night. The core of the verse is Leah's direct speech justifying her claim on Jacob for that night.

Key words

• sakhor ("certainly ", H7936B) + sekharti ("I have hired", H7936B) — an infinitive absolute paired with the perfect of the same root, a construction that intensifies the verb, roughly "I have surely hired."
• liqrat ("meet", H7122G) — infinitive construct with the preposition li ("to", H9005) and the suffix o ("him", H9033), forming "to meet him," expressing purpose of Leah's action.
• duda'ei ("[the] mandrakes of", H1736) — masculine plural noun in construct state, linking directly to beni ("my son", H1121A + H9020), "mandrakes of my son."
• tavo ("you will come", H0935G) — qal imperfect, second person masculine, expressing an action pending or expected ("you will come" / "you are to come").
• vayishkav ("he lay", H7901I) — qal narrative (wayyiqtol) form, third person masculine, continuing the narrative chain and marking the concluding action of the episode.

What the text says

The verse is built from a chain of narrative (wayyiqtol) verbs — vayyavo ("he came", H0935G), vatetze ("she went out", H3318G), vatomer ("she said", H0559), vayishkav ("he lay", H7901I) — each introduced by the narrative va (H9001), which strings the events sequentially: Jacob arrives, Leah goes out, she speaks, he lies with her. Within this frame, Leah's speech breaks the narrative rhythm with an imperfect (tavo, "you will come," H0935G) followed by a causal clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588A), where the doubled construction sakhor sekharti (infinitive absolute + perfect, H7936B) emphasizes the certainty or completeness of the "hiring" — a grammatical intensification not fully reproducible by a single English or Spanish verb. The construct chain duda'ei beni ("mandrakes of my son", H1736 + H1121A) ties the payment specifically to Reuben, marked as "my son" from Leah's viewpoint.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds σήμερον ("today") to Leah's statement — "Πρὸς ἐμὲ εἰσελεύσῃ σήμερον" — a temporal marker absent from the Hebrew elai tavo ("into me you will come"). The Vulgate's intrabis stays closer to the Hebrew imperfect without adding "today." Modern renderings diverge further: BSB gives "You must come with me," turning the imperfect into an obligation, while SBLIBRE renders "Hoy tienes que dormir conmigo" ("Today you must sleep with me"), both adding "today" (following the LXX pattern) and specifying "sleep" where the Hebrew literally has "come" (tavo, H0935G). The LXX's μεμίσθωμαι γάρ σε ("for I have hired you") uses a single perfect passive verb, not reproducing the doubled infinitive-absolute-plus-perfect emphasis of the Hebrew sakhor sekharti.