Genesis 30:18

Summary

Leah declares that 'Elohim ("God", H0430) has given her sekhari ("my reward/wage", H7939), explaining this as compensation for having given her maidservant to her husband. Based on this statement, she names the child Yissaskhar ("Issachar", H3485).

Key words

• natan ("he has given", H5414G) — qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular; a completed action attributed to 'Elohim, describing what has already happened rather than a wish or request.
• sekhari ("my reward", H7939) — masculine singular noun in construct form with the 1st-person suffix -i ("my", H9020), so literally "reward of me." The construct chain ties the noun tightly to the possessor.
• natati ("I gave", H5414G) — qal perfect, 1st person singular, the same verbal root as natan in the clause above but now with Leah as subject, creating a verbal echo between what God gave and what Leah gave.
• shifchati ("my maidservant", H8198) — feminine singular construct noun plus suffix "my," referring to the maidservant Leah had given to her husband.
• tiqra' ("she called", H7121H) — qal narrative (vayyiqtol) form, 3rd feminine singular, marking the sequential act of naming that closes the verse.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on va-Tomer ("and she said", H0559), continuing the story sequence. Leah's speech contains two clauses joined by the relative particle 'asher ("that", H0834A): the first states that 'Elohim has given (natan) her sekhari, "my reward"; the second, introduced by 'asher, explains the circumstance — "that I gave (natati) my maidservant (shifchati) to my husband ('ishi)." Both natan and natati come from the same root (H5414G), so the Hebrew text creates a lexical parallel between the giving Leah performed (handing over her maidservant) and the giving she says 'Elohim performed in return (a "reward" or "wage," from the same semantic field as sekhari, H7939, which relates to hire/payment).

The final clause uses the narrative form tikra' ("she called," H7121H) to record the naming act, with shemo ("his name," H8034) in construct plus the suffix "his," followed by the name Yissaskhar (H3485G). The name is presented in the text as connected to the preceding statement about sekhar ("reward/wage"), though the Hebrew of the naming clause itself contains no explicit etymological gloss — it simply reports the naming following the speech.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the maidservant/wage relationship with an added final clause, ὅ ἐστιν Μισθός ("which means 'Wage'"), explicitly explaining the name Ἰσσαχάρ — a gloss not present in the Hebrew text itself. The Vulgate (Dedit Deus mercedem mihi) and Hebrew both omit this explanatory tag, presenting the name without directly stating its meaning within the verse.