Genesis 30:19

Summary

Genesis 30:19 reports that Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. The verse consists of two consecutive narrative verbs describing conception and birth, followed by a numerical qualifier identifying this as her sixth son.

Key words

• Tahar ("she conceived", H2029) — qal narrative verb (vav-consecutive), third person feminine singular, continuing the sequence of prior narrative actions.
• 'Od ("again", H5750) — here functioning adverbially to mark repetition of the action of conceiving, positioned directly after the verb.
• Teled ("she bore", H3205) — second qal narrative verb, third person feminine singular, forming a verb pair with Tahar ("she conceived", H2029): conception followed by birth.
• ben- ("a son", H1121A) — masculine singular noun, the object born, immediately modified by the following ordinal.
• shi.Shi ("sixth", H8345) — masculine singular ordinal number, attached to ben- ("a son", H1121A) to specify birth order.

What the text says

The verse is built on two narrative verb forms joined by the vav-consecutive construction (marked twice as va-, H9001): Tahar ("she conceived", H2029) and Teled ("she bore", H3205). This pairing is a recurring pattern in the Genesis birth narratives, where conception and birth are reported as sequential, discrete narrative events rather than a single combined action. The subject, le.'Ah ("Leah", H3812), is stated once, positioned between the two verbs, which is typical Hebrew word order placing the subject after the first verb in a narrative chain.

The word 'Od ("again", H5750), grammatically a cardinal number but functioning adverbially here, marks this as a repeated instance of conception, linking the verse to the preceding births attributed to Leah in the surrounding narrative. The phrase ben- shi.Shi ("a son" + "sixth", H1121A + H8345) places the ordinal number directly after the noun it modifies, a standard Hebrew construction for specifying sequence. The final element, le.ya.'a.Ko ("to Jacob", H9005 + H3290), uses the preposition le- ("to", H9005) to indicate the son's paternal attribution, closing the verse by naming the father.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text lacks an explicit personal pronoun or possessive marker attached to ben- ("a son", H1121A) beyond the prepositional phrase le-ya.'a.Ko ("to Jacob"). The Vulgate (VULCLEM) renders the birth with peperit sextum filium ("she bore a sixth son"), omitting an equivalent to 'Od ("again", H5750) as a separate word, instead opening the sentence with Rursum ("again") attached to the conception clause, matching the Hebrew's placement of the repetition marker with the first verb rather than the second.