Genesis 30:41

Summary

The verse describes a recurring practice: whenever the mekusharot animals of the flock came into heat, Jacob placed marked branches in front of the flock at the drinking troughs, positioning them so the animals would mate within sight of the branches.

Key words

• yaChem ("being in heat", H3179) — piel infinitive construct after be-khol ("in all"), forming the temporal clause "in every heating of the flock."
• mekusharot ("vigorous", H7194) — pual (passive-intensive) participle, feminine plural, describing a specific subgroup of the tzon ("flock", H6629) as marked or bound in some particular condition.
• sam ("he put out", H7760) — qal sequential perfect, the main narrative verb that advances the action after the temporal clause.
• einei ("eyes of", H5869) — feminine dual construct, literally "the two eyes of," used idiomatically to mean "in full view of" the flock.
• yachmennah ("to mate her", H3179 + suffix) — piel infinitive with a 3rd feminine singular pronominal suffix, expressing purpose ("so that she would breed") and referring back to the flock as a collective feminine entity.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative formula vehayah ("and it happened," H1961) followed by a temporal clause built on the infinitive yaChem: "in all the heating of the flock, the mekusharot." This clause sets the recurring condition under which the main action occurs. The main clause then follows with the sequential perfect sam, "Jacob put," whose object is ha-maklot ("the branches," H4731) marked with the direct-object particle 'et. The phrase le-einei ha-tzon ("to the eyes of the flock") uses the dual construct of "eyes" idiomatically to indicate visual proximity — the branches were placed where the flock could see them, at the rohatim ("drinking troughs," H7298). The final infinitive clause, le-yachmennah bamaklot, closes the verse by restating the purpose: mating "by the branches," with the pronominal suffix -nah referring to the flock as a feminine collective.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew mekusharot (pual participle, "vigorous" or "bound") is not rendered directly in the Septuagint, which instead generalizes the clause as "the sheep conceiving in the womb," omitting any distinct term for this subgroup. The Vulgate renders the same clause as quando primo tempore ascendebantur oves ("when at the first time the ewes were mounted"), interpreting the timing differently rather than describing a distinguishing trait of certain animals. The Vulgate also adds arietum et ovium ("of rams and of ewes"), specifying two sexes where the Hebrew text has only the collective noun tzon ("flock").